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Coal fields to coast, a totem pole rallies tribes against exports

Washington state's Lummi Tribe trucked a 22-foot tall totem pole across the West, following the coal trains in a bid to unit tribes against fossil fuel development and export.

CHERRY POINT, Wash. – A century from now, a totem pole raised Sunday along the Pacific Northwest's Salish Sea will tell one of two stories:

Either it will tell how plans to turn those waters into export highways for coal and tar sands oil were defeated by tribes and their allies.
They'd be building right on top of an area full of graves.
- Jewell James,
Totem pole carver

Or it will tell how those exports commenced despite feared impacts ranging from degraded salmon habitat to long-term climate damage.

The battles of that war are being fought today at places like Cherry Point, or Xwe'chi'eXen in the language of the Lummi Nation. Located about 100 miles north of Seattle near the Canadian border, the rocky beach is just outside the reservation but still sacred ground for the Lummi.

"They'd be building right on top of an area full of graves" that go back thousands of years, chief pole carver Jewell James said.

But Cherry Point is also in a bay with deep waters ideal for huge cargo ships. A major oil refinery and two other industrial ports already sit on either side of Cherry Point. Export backers say building North America's largest coal port here would be a natural extension for an already industrialized coast.

To challenge that view, the Lummi tribesmen, women and children who carved the 22-foot-tall cedar totem pole took it on a 1,200-mile, two week journey from the coal fields in Montana and Wyoming through Washington and the Lummi Nation and finally to North Vancouver in Canada. At Friday's stop in Cherry Point, a "Draw the Line" banner made clear fossil fuel exports aren't seen as a natural extension.

"We're being terminated, we're being exterminated," James told 500 or so supporters gathered Friday along the beach. Industry, he said, has a history of encroachment in areas once the domain of the Lummis.
Respecting values

SSA Marine, the company behind the Gateway Pacific Terminal at Cherry Point, said it is committed to both respecting the tribe's concerns and meeting its needs.

"We respect those values and will work with Lummi to realize them," SSA Marine senior vice president Bob Watters said in a statement. "Our approach will be first to avoid impacts, then to minimize unavoidable impacts, and finally, to mitigate and positively address what remaining impacts there may be in a mutually satisfactory way."

Canada is where the pole will watch sentinel – a gift from the Lummi to the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, waging a similar fight against shipping tar sands oil to a port on the Salish Sea, the waterway along Washington and British Columbia coasts.

The journey was the carvers' way of showing that the issue extends beyond the Lummi Nation. It includes not just immediate concerns – like a coal train derailing en route to the port, or a cargo ship spilling coal in salmon or oyster areas – but longer-term issues like climate change.
'Duty to our children'

"When that coal burns in China," James told supporters, "it falls in our oceans causing acidification" – the process by which high amounts of carbon dioxide acidifies seawater, weakening coral and shellfish like oysters. Carbon emissions also heat the atmosphere.

 "We have a duty to our children to stop global warming," added James, who carved the pole along with other "House of Tears" carvers. "What are we going to leave for them?"

The totem journey is also about protecting "our inherited rights … not just here but across the nation," said Lummi Vice-Chairwoman Candice Wilson during a ceremony Friday at the nearby Northwest Indian College. "We cannot leave behind something that is not beneficial for our future."

As the battle plays out over the coming months, the tribe and its allies have a few things in their favor. The site is just 20 miles from Bellingham, a college town even more liberal than Seattle. And if local officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approve the project, the Lummi could file a legal challenge that their fishing rights are being violated.

That card drew the biggest applause at Friday's rally. "We have treaty rights and you're not going through our territory," bellowed James.
Coal money

The Lummi do have the support of other tribes, but James fears that over time coal money could weaken that bond, especially within the Lummi Nation itself.

The once impoverished tribe is now putting together an economy based on casino revenues and a marketing campaign for "Lummi Island salmon". But James feels the tribal government isn't strong enough to stay united on this.

One tribal councilmember, a former longshoreman, is talking up the economic benefits. While the numbers are in dispute, SSA Marine estimates its Gateway Pacific Terminal would create 1,250 long-term jobs and $11 million a year in tax revenue.

And then there's the tribe's historic preservation officer who, in James' eyes, botched a bid to block the port on grounds that the site is sacred.
Standing sentinel

Meanwhile, out on the Salish Sea, this totem – like all totems – tells a story. This one's goes like this: Salmon, the Lummi sustenance for generations, form the base of the pole. Above them are two men surrounding a child – role models, said James, who are showing the youth that it's time to "Warrior Up!" and take a stand.

But even James is not sure what final story the totem pole will tell 100 years from now. "Hopefully," he said, "they'll be talking about the victory and not the loss."

Miguel Llanos is a freelance reporter based in the Pacific Northwest.

Photo of ranchers, Amish and Native Americans at a We Draw the Line rally courtesy the Lummi Tribe. More photos and information about the totem pole's journey can be found on the Tribe's Facebook page.

Source: wwwp.dailyclimate.org