Totem Pole Journey

The Lummi Tribe of Northwest Washington has reached out to Islanders asking for our engagement and support in honoring their treaty rights and preserving the final resting place of their ancestors at Xwe’che’eXen, known as Cherry Point.

You are invited to a gathering to learn from Lummi leaders about this place and to hear their request that we stand with them in protecting it.

• When: Saturday, August 31, 2013 at 5:00 pm
• Where: Emmanuel Episcopal Parish Hall
  242 Main Street
  Eastsound, Orcas Island

Admission is free. Donations to the Kwel hoy’ totem pole journey will be gratefully appreciated. www.totempolejourney.com

Co-sponsored by Friends of the San Juans and the Orcas NO COALition

On August 31, two nationally prominent Lummi leaders, Jeremiah Julius and Jewell James, will visit Eastsound on Orcas Island to discuss this decision and plans for a totem pole journey aimed at unifying Native American tribes in opposition to the planned coal terminals.

In late July the Lummi Nation governing Council declared its “unconditional and unequivocal opposition to the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal” now being planned for Cherry Point on the Whatcom County shoreline facing the San Juan Islands.

The proposed terminal would be located just a few miles northwest of Lummi Nation lands and directly amidst the site of the ancient village and burial grounds they call Xwe’chi’eXen, which is listed in the Washington state register of historic places.

Fugitive coal dust from storage piles and ship loading would pollute the waters around Cherry Point, an important herring spawning grounds and rich crab fishery. High winds could also carry this dust downwind to the Lummi lands.

The Lummi and affiliated tribes originally fished throughout the San Juan Islands and surrounding Salish Sea. In fact, they had fishing villages on Madrona Point, which was returned to Lummi ownership in 1990.

After thoroughly studying the terminal proposal, Lummi leaders concluded that they could not countenance the major adverse impacts it would inflict upon their Schelangen, or “way of life,” which stresses the connectedness of all things and planning for the future of the next seven generations.

Julius and James will explain the cultural, historical and philosophical bases for the Lummi opposition, grounded in the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott, which gave Puget Sound tribes clear rights to continue fishing in their “usual and accustomed grounds and stations.” These rights were upheld by the US Supreme Court in 1979.

James will also discuss the Kwel hoy’ (“We draw the line”) totem pole he is now carving in preparation for a 1500-mile journey through tribes, towns and cities along rail lines from Wyoming’s Powder River Basin to Xwe’chi’eXen.

Jeremiah (“Jay”) Julius is Secretary of the Lummi Nation governing Council, a fisherman, crabber, successful businessman, and father of four. He is descended from tribesmen who have fished the waters off Xwe’chi’eXen for centuries. He was recently featured in a KCTS documentary and a related PBS News Hour piece about the proposed Northwest coal terminals. Councilman Julius will discuss the need to protect the sacred lands and waters of Xwe’chi’eXen and the San Juan Islands, the aboriginal territory of the Lummi Indians.

Jewell James is Director of the Lummi Nation’s Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office, a former Lummi Councilman and Director of the Lummi Fisheries Department, and a master carver. The subject of several acclaimed documentaries, he carved and delivered totem poles to each of the 9-11 sites to help the American Nation heal these wounds. James will talk about the vision and purpose of the Kwel hoy’ totem pole he is carving.

More Information
The PBS News Hour program featuring Jeremiah Julius

More about Jewell James as artist, ecologist, and Indian leader can be found here, and here.

– More about the Treaty Protection program of the Lummi Tribe

– To contact Senator Maria Cantwell’s staff in support of Lummi treaty fishing rights use this email address: [email protected]
– More about the Totem Pole Journey

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