Sacred Totem Pole arrives in Pittsburgh

[Miguel Sague Jr]

On September 22 2022 Pittsburgh's BREATHE PROJECT hosted two events of the week-long CLEAN ENERGY JUSTICE CONVERGENCE. The events on that Thursday featured two important encounters with efforts by a Washington state-based Indigenous community environmental movement called the HOUSE OF TEARS CARVERS. This group of artisans create ancestors carvings in the tradition of the Pacific North West Coast Native American Lummi tribal culture of Washington State. These carvings are designed to focus attention on the crisis caused in the world by irresponsible fossil fuel extraction and management by the major energy companies.

The HOUSE OF TEARS CARVERS group arrived in Pittsburgh on Wednesday September 21 and were escorted by activists associated with the Breathe Project in a caravan that led the totem pole to Schenley Plaza in the neighborhood of Oakland.

On the following Thursday morning September 22 2022 members of the HOUSE OF TEARS CARVERS and accompanying supporters from various Native Nations made a presentation and offered a blessing that included the ancestors pole. It was my honor to attend that event in representation of the local Native community, the COUNCIL OF THREE RIVERS AMERICAN INDIAN CENTER and my own tribal national organization the UNITED CONFEDERATION OF TAINO PEOPLE.

That same evening the BREATHE PROJECT of Pittsburgh hosted a round table discussion at Phipps Conservatory and invited members of the Indigenous group who brought the pole to Pittsburgh to participate as speakers and share their experiences in the struggle against fossil fuel extractive business concerns.

The event at Phipps also included another blessing  with the ancestors totem pole.

On the following day, Friday Sept 23 on their way out of the city the HOUSE OF TEARS CARVERS contingent drove up to the Singing Winds Site of our COUNCIL OF THREE RIVERS AMERICAN INDIAN CENTER in Dorseyville, Pennsylvania, just north of Pittsburgh.

The Indian center hosted the travelers with a brunch meal inside the main building.

After the meal, and just before leaving the Pittsburgh area, the elders of the contingent led a special prayer which included the spirit totem pole along with members of the traveling group and members of the Indian Center.

As I stood there at the end of that group of people in front of our main Indian Center building I realized just how linked we all are from coast to coast and around the world in this great prayer to save our world within the context of traditional Indigenous values.