7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 2016
Tribe trucks totem pole 4,800 Seaside: North
Holladay Drive
miles in fossil fuels protest
project began
in mid-January
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
PORTLAND — A Paciic
Northwest tribe is traveling
nearly 5,000 miles across Can-
ada and the United States with a
22-foot-tall totem pole on a lat-
bed truck in a symbolic journey
meant to galvanize opposition to
fossil fuel infrastructure projects
they believe will imperil native
lands.
This is the fourth year the
Lummi Nation in northwest
Washington has embarked on
a “totem journey” to try to cre-
ate a uniied front among tribes
across North America that are
individually ighting plans for
coal terminals and crude oil
pipelines in their backyards.
The highly visible tours,
which include tribal bless-
ing ceremonies at each stop, it
into a trend of Native American
tribes bringing their environ-
mental activism to the masses
as they see irsthand the effects
of climate change, said Robin
Saha, a University of Montana
associate professor who special-
izes in tribal issues and environ-
mental justice.
“I wouldn’t go as far as to
say there’s an anti-develop-
ment movement, but tribes are
feeling the effects of climate
change quite dramatically and
are responding in a lot of differ-
ent ways,” Saha said. “Some of
them feel as if they’re not going
to survive.”
In North Dakota, for exam-
ple, people from across the
country and members of 60
tribes have gained interna-
tional attention after gathering
in opposition to the four-state
Dakota Access oil pipeline. The
totem pole heads to that site,
near the Standing Rock Sioux’s
reservation, next week.
Continued from Page 1A
AP Photo/Manuel Valdes
Linda Soriano of the Lummi Nation performs a smudge ceremony at Saint Mark’s Epis-
copal Cathedral in Seattle, fanning smoke from burning sage with eagle feathers onto a
totem pole, Thursday. The 22-foot-tall Lummi Nation totem pole is traveling nearly 5,000
miles across the U.S. and Canada to galvanize opposition to the development of fossil
fuel infrastructure, particularly around seaports in Oregon and Washington.
Robert Mittendorf/
The Bellingham Herald
Robert Mittendorf/The Bellingham Herald
Matthew Pearson, left, of Bellingham, Wash., views a trav-
eling totem pole with his son Graham, in Bellingham. A
Pacific Northwest tribe has begun a nearly 5,000 mile
road trip with a 22-foot-tall totem pole in tow. The Lummi
Nation embarked on its fourth “totem journey” since 2012
to galvanize opposition to coal and crude oil projects it
says could imperil native lands.
An eye on a traveling totem
pole on display in Belling-
ham, Wash., is shown at an
event Tuesday that is part
of efforts by the Lummi Na-
tion, an Indian tribe based
in northwest Washington
state, to protest plans for
fossil fuel infrastructure
projects they believe will
imperil native lands. The
Pacific Northwest tribe has
begun a nearly 5,000 mile
road trip with a 22-foot-tall
totem pole in tow.
Export terminals
Tribes in the Paciic North-
west have engaged in public
protests and taken legal action as
West Coast ports have emerged
as strategic locations for crude
oil and coal companies to reach
customers in energy-hungry
Asia. Seven crude oil or coal
export terminals are proposed
for conversion, expansion or
construction on the Oregon and
Washington coast. Some have
already led to increased freight
train trafic along the scenic
Columbia River Gorge, where
local tribes ish salmon.
A coalition of tribes turned
out in June after an oil train
derailed in Mosier. The oil from
the derailment mostly burned
off in a huge ire, but a small
amount entered the Columbia
River where the tribes have fed-
erally guaranteed ishing rights.
“We’re all trying to unite
our voices to make sure we’re
all speaking out,” said Jewell
James, a Lummi tribal member
and head carver at the House of
Tears Carvers.
In recent years, cheap natural
gas has prompted many domes-
tic utilities to abandon coal, driv-
ing down production at major
mines in the Powder River Basin
of Montana and Wyoming, the
nation’s largest coal produc-
ing region. Asian coal markets
have become a potential lifeline
for the mining industry — and
Paciic Northwest ports are seen
as the anchor.
The Lummi Nation launched
a savvy public relations cam-
paign last year against what
would have been the nation’s
largest coal export terminal pro-
posed for Cherry Point, Wash-
ington, at the heart of their
ancestral homeland.
In May, the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers denied a needed
permit for the Gateway Paciic
terminal after inding it would
damage tribal ishing rights.
Zimmer-Stucky, senior orga-
nizer with the Columbia Riv-
erkeeper. There are concerns
that wake from the ships could
strand juvenile salmon and
impact tribal ishing, she said.
Bill Chapman, president
and CEO of Millennium Bulk
Terminals in Longview, said in
an emailed response to ques-
tions that a draft environmen-
tal review by Washington state
and county oficials found
there would be no impacts to
tribal ishing. Trains already
run through the area on estab-
lished tracks and have caused no
issues, he added.
The terminal on the site of
an old aluminum smelter plant
would create hundreds of much-
needed family wage jobs and
is supported by labor unions,
Chapman said.
“We’re building on a loca-
tion where industry has existed
for over 70 years,” he wrote.
“Our export terminal is sited
on a stretch of the Columbia
River dotted with manufactur-
ing plants and docks.”
A third large coal terminal
in Oregon was dealt a blow this
month when a judge upheld the
state’s right to deny the project
based on a similar threat to tribal
ishing rights.
If proponents decide to
appeal, the case will go to trial
in November.
The totuem
This year’s brightly painted
totem weighs 3,000 pounds and
is carved of western red cedar.
An eagle with a 12-foot wing-
span sits on top, and the pole
itself features a wolf and bear
— symbols of leadership, cun-
ning and courage — as well as
white buffalo and tribal igures,
said James, who has been carv-
ing totem poles for 44 years.
To the sounds of drums
and a prayer song, the 22-foot-
tall totem pole was blessed
in a smudge ceremony at the
entrance of Saint Mark’s Epis-
copal Cathedral in Seattle
Thursday. Lummi Nation mem-
ber Linda Soriano fanned smoke
from burning sage, covering
the pole in a haze as sun rays
beamed down. She then fanned
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Charter Cable
trucks could
be found
along Holl-
aday Drive
Thursday.
R.J. Marx
The Daily
Astorian
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The trek
This year’s 19-day totem trek
started Tuesday in Vancouver,
British Columbia, and makes a
stop Friday in Longview, Wash-
ington, where a similar ship-
ping terminal would export 44
million tons of coal annually to
Asian markets. With the Gate-
way Paciic project on ice, the
Longview project would now be
the nation’s largest coal export
terminal.
It would mean 16 coal trains
a day, mostly from mines in
Montana and Wyoming, and
an additional 1,600 round-trip
vessel calls a year in the lower
Columbia River, said Jasmine
the smoke through the crowd
gathered outside the church.
“Mother Earth is hurting,”
said Lummi Nation member
Randy Peters Sr. as he began
his prayer song, “Mother Earth
has been hurting from all of the
abuse that has been going on.
The unsafe practices of the coal,
and the mining and the transpor-
tation of energy.”
Tribes in Oregon, Montana,
Idaho, North Dakota, South
Dakota and Canada will host
the Lummi until their end point
in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where
tribes are ighting oil pipelines
bound for the East Coast.
“You can’t put a price on the
sacred. Our land and our water
are sacred,” said Reuben George,
manager of the Tsleil-Waututh
Nation Sacred Trust Initiative in
Vancouver, British Columbia,
where his tribe is opposed to a
major oil pipeline. “This totem
pole represents our laws, our cul-
ture and our spirituality.”
We’re ready to inish this
thing off. We’ve called head-
quarters every day, twice a
day, told them you’ve got to
get more people out here.”
Until Charter’s equipment
is down, the city is unable
to start sidewalks and land-
scapes, Seaside City Engineer
Geoff Liljenwall said. “It’s an
inconvenience to the tourists,
it’s an inconvenience to the
residents.”
“They had their iber optic
trucks out there today,” he
said this morning. “They’ve
had people out there each day
during the work week, but I
really can’t tell you if there’s
an uptick of activity.”
The $3.4 million North
Holladay Drive project began
in mid-January, and impacted
homeowners, businesses, bus
routes, pedestrians, vehicles
and utilities.
Workmen replaced existing
sewer, water and force mains
before reconnecting water and
sewer services. Plans called
for the installation of under-
ground vaults and conduits
for conversion of the existing
overhead utilities — including
electrical, telephone and cable
— to underground utilities.
The cable is the last utility
to be removed before poles are
taken out and landscaping and
sidewalks can be completed.
“They should be done by
now,” Liljenwall said. “By
the end of July, they should
have started and they should
have been done by the third
week in August. We have
great weather right now, but as
everyone knows the weather
could change in September
and October. Asphalt plants
might not be open in October
when we’re done.”
Repeated calls from the
city up the corporate ladder
failed to yield results, Lilj-
enwall said. He said he was
passed from the company
ofice in Astoria to another
branch in Kennewick, Wash-
ington. “I don’t even have a
irm date,” he said. “We’ve
been really having to struggle
to get them to respond.”
After that conversation,
The Daily Astorian reached
out to Charter Cable.
They referred the newspa-
per to a regional communica-
tions ofice in San Diego for
comment.
On Thursday morning, Lil-
jenwall received a call from a
subcontractor with news that
cable trucks were on their way.
“The subcontractor said he’s
‘gonna have three trucks of
these, three trucks of those,’”
Liljenwall said. “He said they
should be done before Labor
Day.”
By midmorning, about a
dozen cable workers could be
seen up and down North Holl-
aday Drive.
“We have been in contact
with the city and recently part-
nered with a third-party con-
tractor in order to expedite this
project,” Charter’s Bret Pic-
ciolo said via email Thurs-
day. “We plan to have all work
completed within the next two
weeks.”
“I guess from all my calls
and the newspaper, they were
out there in force today,” Lilj-
enwall said.
Is he conident Charter can
meet the Labor Day comple-
tion date?
“The proof is in the pud-
ding,” he said. “We don’t
know. I can’t believe anything
until I touch it or see it.”
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