SKAGIT COUNTY, Wash. – The totem pole carved from a 400-year-old tree by Lummi Nation artisans made its 29th stop on its west coast tour.
The Skagit Valley Herald reports the 24-foot totem pole was displayed Monday on the shores of the Swinomish Channel with a backdrop of the three Swinomish Cedar Hat Pavilions.
The totem pole carved will journey to Washington, D.C., evoking an urgent call to protect sacred lands and waters of Indigenous people.
The expedition will make stops at Nez Perce traditional lands; Bears Ears National Monument in Utah; the Grand Canyon; Chaco Canyon, New Mexico; the Black Hills of South Dakota; and the Missouri River, at the crossing of the Dakota Access Pipeline, where thousands protested its construction near Native lands.
This fall, the pole will be featured at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.