By: Joshua Ceballos/News Director
The Lummi Nation Totem Pole Journey will be bringing a hand-carved orca totem pole to the University to bring people together and protest the Miami Seaquarium.
On Saturday, May 26 at 6 p.m., members of the Lummi Nation Native American tribe will be gathering outside the Graham Center Ballrooms at the Modesto Maidique Campus to showcase one of their carved totem poles and to talk about an issue that has brought them from Seattle to Miami.
Jewell James, a master carver of the Lummi Nation, is personally coming to Miami, and he explained to Student Media the details of their mission here.
James is the last of the original House of Tears Carvers, a group of Lummi activists that carve totem poles to represent and bring attention to certain issues such as oil pipeline construction in the Pacific Northwest, and animal endangerment.
The goal of James and his fellow Lummi tribe members traveling here from Washington is to bring awareness to the killer whale named Tokitae, or as South Floridians might know her, Lolita the orca.
“We’re really focusing on asking the Seaquarium to release Tokitae,” said James. “This whale was caught when she was four years old, and she’s been locked up for 48 years.”
Tokitae was a member of a large pod of orcas in the Salish Sea, a body of water near British Columbia and Washington state, according to James. She was taken from her mother and grandmother, both of whom are still alive, and was brought to live at the Miami Seaquarium, where she was given the name “Lolita.”
The Lummi have been fighting to take Tokitae back to her native land for decades, but James said that battles for their own people have kept them from getting very far.
The education level, mortality rate, and life expectancy for the Lummi were very poor at the time of Tokitae’s capture according to James, and his people have had to struggle to survive. Now however, his team is taking the time to advocate on behalf of Tokitae using their hand-carved totem pole and word of mouth.
“The Constitution gives us the right to speak and assemble, and some people like taking to the streets and marching; that’s great and all, but we use the totem pole to gather people around and get the facts out.” said James.
James and the rest of the Totem Pole Journey group will be demonstrating not only at the University, but also at the Miami Circle, a Native American landmark, at 10 a.m. on Saturday, as well as at Virginia Key Beach Park on Sunday, May 27 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m..
Matt Fuller, a member of the Lummi Nation Totem Pole Journey, told Student Media that students can get involved in their cause by writing letters and making phone calls to the Miami Seaquarium and their parent company advocating on behalf of Tokitae the whale.
Featured image by Paul Anderson/Totem Pole Journey
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