Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribal members bless totem pole
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ARLEE — Carver and Lummi tribal member Jewell James and the House of Tears Carvers from Washington state passed through the Flathead Indian Reservation in route to an exhibit in Washington D.C. that will feature their healing totem pole and two carved benches. They are making several stops along their journey to receive prayers and well wishes from different tribes across the United States.
The totem pole will be part of an exhibit at the National Library of Medicine, which is part of the National Institute of Health, in Bethesda, M.D. The exhibit examines concepts of health and medicine among contemporary American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians.
“We ask the creator that your journey will be a pleasant one, that you will reach your destination with a good heart, that you will accomplish what you are doing here,” Nkwusm teacher Patrick Pierre said during the blessing held at the powwow grounds. Teachers and students from Nkwusm were also in attendance and spoke and sang for the visitors.
Pierre blessed the totem pole each time in the four directions and at the end of his blessing two eagles gathered above the totem pole, which laid on the back of a flatbed trailer.
“We are blessed,” Pierre said as the crowd watched the two eagles circle above.
James was also traveling with members of a camera crew team from the National Library of Medicine, who are filming the journey.
The exhibition topics include Native views and definitions of health and illness, role of traditional healing in Native American culture today, relationship of traditional healing and Western medicine in Native communities.
“At one time we were all connected to the Earth,” James said. “We knew about medicines in the forest, swamp, along the trail and those medicines were not discovered by the individual but by the tribal collective.”
Twenty-seven members of the Lummi tribe were involved in the carving of the totem pole. James said young children and people as old as 82 years helped carve and paint the totem. James and the other carvers have also created totem poles that were resurrected at the three sites affected on 9/11. Also on exhibit with the totem pole will be a ten-foot model of a voyaging canoe that has historical and healing importance with Native Hawaiians.
The group is stopping next in Cody, Wyoming and in reservations in South Dakota and North Dakota.
“The poles aren’t sacred, what’s sacred are the people gathering,” James said.
