|
Members of the Lummi Nation from Washington state arrived in D.C. yesterday after hauling a 25-foot hand-carved totem pole more than 20,000 miles across the country, stopping at sites that are sacred to Native Americans along the way. The Native American leaders and members of the Lummi Nation who organized the totem pole's journey named it the “Red Road to DC.”
A small crowd of tribal leaders and the pole's carvers were joined by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland at a ceremony on the National Mall on Thursday to bless the pole. Speaking from her unique lived experience as the first Native American Cabinet member, Secretary Haaland acknowledged that many of the nation's policies were originally intended to exclude Native Americans. “We’re working hard to undo so many consequences of those actions,” Secretary Haaland said, adding that the country is in a “new era” of “truth, healing and growth.”
Douglas James, a member of the Lummi Nation and an organizer behind the effort said many of the thousands of people they encountered at stops across the country became emotional as they touched the pole, “They’d burst into tears because they could feel the energy." James says the intention is to give the totem pole to the Biden administration as a message to Washington about the urgency of protecting lands that are sacred to tribal nations: “We want to come together with one heart and one mind to save these sites.”
The journey from Washington state to the nation's capitol included stops at places of importance to Native Americans including Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, and Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. The additional commonality among each location is that all are threatened by oil and gas or infrastructure development, like pipelines, or otherwise lack sufficient protections for sacred sites.
Report: Alternatives to Lake Powell water pipeline
Utah water officials are pushing a controversial $1.8 billion water pipeline from Lake Powell to support continued growth in the southwest corner of the state. The conservation organization Western Resource Advocates in partnership with American Rivers released a new data-driven report that analyzes alternatives to the Lake Powell pipeline. Matt Rice, director of American Rivers’ Colorado River Basin program said, “The Lake Powell pipeline is an unacceptable step backwards. Massive and expensive water projects that service a tiny fraction of people in Utah don’t make sense. We’re called now to be honest with ourselves about the realities of water availability in the face of climate change.”
|
As we transition toward a clean energy economy, the Interior Department is committed to creating economic opportunities in conservation and public land management for all communities.”
