Lummi Totem Pole To Embark on Journey to D.C. and the Smithsonian

A totem pole carved by the Lummi
Country Household of Tears Carvers is established to make its way to Washington D.C. this
summer, offered in August to the Biden Administration prior to having its place
in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. But initial it will
make various stops around Whatcom County and the Pacific Northwest.

Non secular guideline and head carver Jewell Praying Wolf James, whose Lummi identify is Se-Sealth, is very clear-eyed about the importance of the totems he and the carvers build. Though the totem is a three-dimensional, revered merchandise of their efforts, it is the possibility for a generation of connectedness the totem inspires that is the accurate sacredness the carvers attempt to attain.

“The
totem is not what is sacred,” states Jewell. “It’s what it brings with each other that
is sacred.” He has developed an artist’s statement that explains his philosophy and the figures utilised in the totem.

With regards to
the precise carving of the log, Jewell clarifies, “We hollow out the back again
of the tree, its heart, due to the fact that is where by the pressure is in a log, just
like in folks.”

Jewell, his brother Douglas James, their carving crew, and other Lummi and Native American associates, leaders and organizations all through the place have collaborated to organize Red Road to DC, getting their most latest totem—a 24-foot, 8-inch pole carved out of a 400-calendar year-outdated crimson cedar—on an epic journey that will conclude at the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Museum of the American Indian.

The journey will cease at sacred web pages and other places to obtain blessings and connect hearts and spirits along the way. The totem—the brainchild of Lummi leader, Sul ka dub (also referred to as Freddie Lane), as a gift to the Biden administration, and the first ever totem to be offered to an American President—has progressed via open up hearts and intertwined spirits to depict the will need to convey consciousness, defense, and focus to the peril of and the guarantees to Indigenous People in america concerning their sacred lands and the worth these lands have to all Us citizens.

Sul ka dub proposed the plan to present a totem to the Biden administration, resulting in conversations with other tribes and Indigenous American leaders. Judith LeBlanc, member of the Oklahoma Caddo Indian tribe and director of the Indigenous Organizers Alliance (NOA), became a single of the journey’s many supporters. She aided develop a statement of the need to shield Native American Sacred Sites.

A collaborative effort involving the Lummi Nation, the NOA, the Pure History Museum, and many others designed the system to established the totem on its journey to Washington, D.C.

Jewell claims he
created totems to bring consciousness, open hearts and open folks up to the spirit
of connectedness and cooperation for about 43 decades. Jewell, his brother and
their carving crew have extended utilized ability, spirit and creativeness to generate and
donate totems to bring men and women jointly during times of crisis, like the men and women
of New York, Shanksville, PA, and the Pentagon right after the 9/11 attack.

Their totems have
long gone to these kinds of distant places as South Africa and there is a existing dialogue
of a swap of totems with Native Hawaiian tribes. In 2018, they carved a totem
to enable help you save an Orca whale from captivity. All of the totems
are meant to deliver individuals alongside one another and develop a far better comprehending of the
connectedness and tasks we all share with the land and all beings
who inhabit it.

Charis Weathers,
pastor of Bellingham’s Echoes Church and the transitional pastor of the Our Savior’s Lutheran
Church in Arlington, has worked with the Residence of Tears Carvers since 2014. She
traveled to the carvers’ studio to history interviews with the carvers, and welcomed the totem to the
Arlington church.

The agenda of
blessings and gatherings about the Pacific Northwest before this most the latest
totem pole starts its journey is comprehensive. Ferndale Chamber of Commerce Government Director Anya Milton labored
with Chairman of the Lummi Organization Council, Lawrence Solomon, and other equity
and social justice teams, these kinds of as Connect Ferndale, to deliver the totem to the chamber
to nurture community connections.

Bellingham’s cease on the journey will consider area May
24^th at the Port of Bellingham. The
totem pole, in accordance to the Facebook web site detailing the
party, “will
be accessible for county residents to show up at and have an possibility to lay
hands on the totem pole and imbue it with their grief, their prayers and their
hopes. There will be local speakers, musicians, artisans, and a blessing by
interfaith reps.”