25-foot Lummi Totem Pole Arrives In D.C. After A Journey Across U.S.

"Many who touched the pole during its journey 'burst into tears because they could feel the energy’"

"Douglas James stood Thursday on the Mall in front of the 25-foot totem pole he and a team had spent three months hand-carving and painting from a 400-year-old red cedar tree.

James, a member of the Lummi Nation in Washington state, and a group of supporters and volunteers from his tribe hauled the pole on a flatbed truck more than 20,000 miles along the West Coast and across the Midwest before arriving in the other Washington, where the pole will stay as part of a campaign to protect sacred tribal lands.

“The pole speaks for itself,” James said to the crowd. “It’s been reaching out and touching many hearts.”

The roughly 5,000-pound pole and its crew arrived a day earlier at the National Museum of the American Indian, where a small crowd welcomed the addition. It will stay outside the museum until Saturday, then be moved to Rawlins Park near 20th and E streets in Northwest, where it will stay for a month before a permanent home is found in the D.C. region, organizers said."

Dana Hedgpeth reports for the Washington Post July 29, 2021.

SEE ALSO:

"Haaland, Native American Leaders Press For Indigenous Land Protections" (The Hill)

"Indigenous Groups Urge Biden To Protect Sacred Sites" (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

Source: Washington Post, 07/30/2021