(USA) Lummi and Allies Unite Against Coal Exports

Lum­mi trib­al lead­ers burned a mock cheque from coal com­pa­nies dur­ing a protest at Cher­ry Point, Wa., Oct 2012 (Pho­to by: Alan Bern­er / The Seat­tle Times)

Lum­mi trib­al lead­ers burned a mock cheque from coal com­pa­nies dur­ing a protest at Cher­ry Point, Wa., Oct 2012 (Pho­to by: Alan Bern­er / The Seat­tle Times)

LUMMI INDIAN RESERVATION, BELLINGHAM, Wash.—A fleet of boats pilot­ed by Native and non-Native fish­ers gath­ered today in the waters off Xwe’chi’eXen (Cher­ry Point, Wash.) to stand with the Lum­mi Nation in oppo­si­tion to the pro­posed Gate­way Pacif­ic coal ter­mi­nal at Xwe’chi’eXen.

“We have to say ‘no’ to the coal ter­mi­nal project,” said Cliff Cul­tee, Chair­man of the Lum­mi Nation. “It is our Xw’ xalh Xech­ng­ing (sacred duty) to pre­serve and pro­tect all of Xwe’chi’eXen.”

A cer­e­mo­ny of thank­ful­ness, remem­brance and uni­ty was held on the beach dur­ing the event. Lum­mi Indi­ans main­tain the largest Native fish­ing fleet in the Unit­ed States, and Lum­mi fish­ers have worked in the Cher­ry Point fish­ery for thou­sands of years.

If con­struct­ed, the ter­mi­nal would be the largest coal ter­mi­nal on the West Coast of North Amer­i­ca. It would sig­nif­i­cant­ly degrade an already frag­ile and vul­ner­a­ble crab, her­ring and salmon fish­ery, deal­ing a dev­as­tat­ing blow to the econ­o­my of the fish­er com­mu­ni­ty.

“This is not about jobs ver­sus the envi­ron­ment,” said Jew­ell James of the Lum­mi Nation’s Sov­er­eign­ty and Treaty Pro­tec­tion Office. “It is about what type of jobs are best for the peo­ple and the envi­ron­ment.”

Anoth­er gath­er­ing of Lum­mi Indi­ans and non-Indi­an res­i­dents from the local and region­al com­mu­ni­ty was held at Xwe’chi’eXen on Sept. 21 to call for the pro­tec­tion and preser­va­tion of Xwe’chi’eXen, which is the loca­tion of a 3,500 year old vil­lage site, and a land­scape that is eli­gi­ble for reg­istry on the Nation­al Reg­is­ter of His­toric Places.

A Lum­mi Nation Busi­ness Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion declared Lum­mi “will con­tin­ue to safe­guard our ances­tral and his­tor­i­cal areas” and the abil­i­ty of its mem­bers to “exer­cise treaty, inher­ent and inher­it­ed rights.”

The Lum­mi Nation is par­tic­i­pat­ing in a broad inter­trib­al coali­tion to defeat the project and to ensure that the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al lega­cy of Xwe’chi’eXen is pro­tect­ed in per­pe­tu­ity.

This arti­cle orig­i­nal­ly appeared on Ter­ri Hansen’s web­site, Moth­er Earth Jour­nal