A new totem pole is making a journey through Washington and Oregon. The Way of the Masks campaign started in Bellingham and will complete a total of eight stops before it concludes this Saturday at the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe near Port Angeles.
Carvers from the Lummi Nation completed their first totem pole journey in 2001, with a gift of compassion and hope to the victims of the 9/11 attacks in New York City. Since 2013, these now nearly annual events have brought a newly carved pole and its stories to different communities, often highlighting environmental issues.
This year’s journey centers on a concept, Xaalh — roughly translated from Salish as the sacred balance of life. Lummi elders say it requires people to honor and respect nature and the world around them.
Concerns about the Trump administration’s proposal to rescind the Roadless Rule are taking center stage. The Clinton-era measure has protected undeveloped areas in national forests for nearly 25 years. Scrapping it would affect about 2 million acres in Washington state. Proponents of the change say the rule is stifling economic growth in rural areas and increasing the risk of wildfires on nearly 59 million acres across the country.
The comment period on the proposal ends Friday evening, and the final hours coincide with the second-to-last stop of the Way of the Masks campaign in Seattle. The organizers have partnered with the Sierra Club, the Center for Responsible Forestry and several other groups for the event, aiming to mobilize as many people as possible to demand the rule be left in place.
“Time is working against us,” said Jewell James, the head carver with the Lummi Indian Nation’s House of Tears carvers.
In a letter to the Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service last week, Democratic lawmakers, led by Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, asked to extend the public comment deadline by more than three weeks, and provide more time for proper consultation with tribes. For now, the original deadline remains.
James said many pristine forests in Washington and Oregon — and the streams that run through them — are now threatened by the possibility of roads and logging. The campaign is making appeals to people at every stop on their journey, reminding them they need to stand up for what they value.
“Exercise your first rights, gather, petition your grievances, speak out, talk to your congressman, let them know your opinion,” James said.
At each stop, the journey’s organizers display their carvings and ask the local community for their blessings. The air often fills with ceremonial smoke from sweet grass as people lay hands on the pole and convey best wishes. This time, in addition to a totem pole on their trailer, the campaign started with seven large cedar masks, presented as gifts to each of their hosts.
James, who carved the masks, said they symbolize the traditional ecological knowledge that has enabled tribes to survive here for thousands of years. These practices include prescribed burning to manage forests and harvesting only as much as needed so there is enough for at least seven following generations.
Jewell wants people to reconnect with those values, especially as climate change accelerates.
“To get people actively involved in protecting their rivers, protecting the salmon and protecting the forest that surrounds them,” he said.
The environmental groups supporting the journey say it’s a misconception that roadless areas bring higher risk of fires.
Lia Brewster, a campaign organizer with the Sierra Club, said data shows more than 90% of new wildfires start within half a mile of a road because of people driving cars and trucks.
“This is things like dragging chains, hot catalytic converters on grass. That's a huge portion of how these fires start,” Brewster said. “And one of the best things we can do to prevent more starts is to retain these old growth forests with these more fire resilient trees, and to care for them and keep them free of roads.”
The journey ends Saturday afternoon at the Lower Elwha Heritage Center in Port Angeles, where participants will celebrate more than a decade of successful river restoration after the dam removals were completed in 2014. The Elwha tribe will receive the pole as a gift. It depicts a Lummi legend called Bear Becomes Person and is meant to send a message about the duty of humans to protect salmon.
People can submit comments on the proposed rescission of the Roadless Rule until Friday evening at 9 p.m. PDT.
