Staff Report –
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As record-breaking heat waves and floods ravage the continent, members of the Lummi Nation are transporting a 25-foot, hand-carved and painted totem pole from Washington State to Washington D.C., visiting many sacred and historic places along the way under threat from climate change, dams and resource extraction.
They are calling this the Red Road to DC, a touring series of ceremonies, public events, media projects and advocacy campaigns co-produced by The Natural History Museum, Native Organizers Alliance, Se’Si’Le and the House of Tears Carvers — culminating won July 29 in a rally on the National Mall and an exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.
From the Salish Sea to the Snake River, Chaco Canyon to the Black Hills, Anishnaabe lands in Minnesota to Standing Rock in South Dakota, the totem pole carries the spirit of the lands it visits, and the power and prayers of those who encounter it. The journey draws lines of connection — honoring and uniting the Native Nations and communities leading struggles to protect sacred places — and it also draws a line against an understanding of development that is pushing the world toward human extinction.
On July 29, the group we will deliver the pole, along with the prayers, power and demands it carries, to the Biden-Harris Administration.
The Natural History Museum’s Director Beka Economopoulos suggested the totem pole offers a vision for a “monument to the protection of sacred places and a way of relating to the land.”
It stands as a symbol of the promises made to the first peoples of these lands and waters, and the collective ancestral obligation to care for the natural world for the generations to come.
In acknowledgement of past and present injustices inflicted on Native Peoples and lands without consent, and in the context of the climate and extinction crises, the Red Road to DC invites all of Americans and people around the world to take a stand with those who are leading movements to protect sacred places.
“Our collective future depends on it,” they say.
They encourage people to participate online, in person or by amplifying the message on social media.
Please visit the journey web site to follow along, sign the petition to protect sacred places or make a donation and sign up for updates.
Watch the video here.
