All sacred sites

In July 2021, the House of Tears Carvers of the Lummi Nation transported a 25-foot totem pole from Washington State to Washington DC, stopping at sacred and historic places under threat from dams, climate change, and resource extraction. As the pole traveled, it drew lines of connection — honoring, uniting and empowering communities working to protect sacred places. It carried the spirit of the lands it visited and the power and prayers of communities along the way — ultimately delivering these prayers, power and demands to the Biden-Harris Administration and Congress in Washington DC, and culminating in an exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

More information: http://redroadtodc.org

This video features conflicting perspectives on the Dakota Access Pipelineā€™s impact to cultural and sacred sites from the State of North Dakotaā€™s Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO), andĀ theĀ Standing Rock Sioux Tribeā€™s Historic Preservation Officer (THPO). Their conflictā€“relevant to the Tribeā€™s ongoing lawsuit challenging the pipelineā€“illuminates some of the deeper tensions at play in struggles to protect sacred places: a clash of irreconcilable ways of understanding and relating to the land, and what happens when the Stateā€™s perspective has been codified into federal law and the input of Tribal Nations as sovereigns is disregarded.