Totem pole’s inspiring journey to D.C. includes Bay Area stops
It’s a totem pole that tells stories of past and current struggles — and carries a message of hope for the future.
The House of Tears Carvers from the Lummi Nation, located in Washington’s northernmost coast, are traveling through California with their “Red Road to DC” totem pole on their cross-country trip.
They are bound for the nation’s capital, where the totem pole will make stops at the White House and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.
Public blessing ceremonies were held Thursday in San Leandro and Saturday in Gilroy, and members of the public are invited to attend today’s blessing in Santa Cruz’s Tyrrell Park behind the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History.
That blessing, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., will be held on the land of the Awaswasspeaking Uypi Tribe, organizers say.
The totem pole was created, the tribe members say, to help inspire the United States to protect sites sacred to Native Americans.
The tribe members say it’s been carved with depictions of many issues and stories of significance to Indigenous communities, such as missing and murdered Indigenous women, the protection of rivers and salmon runs, and family separation at the U.S.Mexico border.
Carved from a 400-yearold red cedar tree, the totem pole weighs nearly 5,000 pounds and is more than 24 feet in length.
Members of the public are invited to “lay hands on the totem pole and imbue it with their grief, their prayers, and their hopes,” master carver Se Sealth (Jewell Praying Wolf James) of the Lummi Nation said in a statement.
After Sunday’s stop in Santa Cruz, the group and the totem pole will head south to Chumash territory in Santa Barbara for a blessing ceremony on Tuesday.