A Totem Pole History: The Work of Lummi Carver Joe Hillaire

Scälla, Of the Killer Whale: A Brief Biography

xxxix Scälla, Of the Killer Whale A Brief Biography Rebecca Chamberlain Long ago, when the world was new, everything and everybody had a spirit. With that spirit they could communicate with each other. Rocks could talk, animals could talk, fish and little crabs could talk. Many Native American songs express this communication between people and nature. As Native people, our value system is based on our relationship to the land. Our environment is part of every aspect of our lives. The land will sing to you, if you listen. It is the source of songs. Many have stopped listening, but the spirits are still there. —Pauline Hillaire, Sharing the Circle Pauline Hillaire and I sit on the beach at Gooseberry Point witnessing a breathtaking sunset as the autumn sun hangs in the sky.1 Two young men paddle out to pull in their purse seine as we look across Hale Passage toward Lummi Island. A seal noses its head out of the water in front of them, and then, bobbing up and down, it swims toward us. Songbirds, ignited by the brilliant afternoon light, sing in a trilling chorus. Flecks of gold and silver dance on the water and 4. Pauline R. Hillaire (b. 1929), Scälla (Lummi), 1992. Photo by Jill Sabella. xl Rebecca Chamberlain illuminate the leaves of a nearby ocean-spray bush. A lone seagull strolls toward us on the beach, while others execute aerobatic flights overhead. As the sun colors the world in vibrant hues, families make their way home for dinner, and fishermen around the bay check gill nets, strung from narrow poles, and bring in their evening catch of silver salmon. The seal that has been eyeing us swims off to join its companions. Pauline says, “Smell the freshness of the air. This is the most magnificent view anyone could imagine.” On this September afternoon I understand how this western shore has inspired four generations of Setting Sun Dancers, who have been active for the past 150 years, beginning with Pauline’s paternal grandfather, Frank Hillaire (Haeteluk), who was born on ancestral homelands across the strait on Orcas Island in approximately 1846 and who started the group when he was in his twenties.2 This beach, stretching for miles around the Lummi Reservation on the Salish Sea in Washington State, is a hub of life, as it has been for generations. Past and present converge as people go about their lives. A realm rich in resources and resonant with the mystery of life and myth, it is a doorway between worlds, framing the transitions between earth, sky, and water. Isolated for years, the Lummi Peninsula is now seen as prime real estate. In places the beachfront has been sold off through allotments and is crowded with the houses of newcomers. To our left is the fishing operation run by the descendants of the first Indian agent. Pauline says with a laugh, “They tried to turn us into farmers, but we turned them into fishermen. Now they are the biggest fishing fleet in the region.” Gooseberry Point is one of Pauline’s spiritual centers. As we talk, I wonder if it is possible to know anyone apart from the forces of family and nature that shape her. This is where Pauline went to meditate as a young woman, listening to the wind and water and drinking in the scenery. It is her place of healing, where she gathered birch bark and other medicinal plants when she recovered from two bouts of pneumonia. Rich in resources, it is where one of the main villages was located. It is the original site of the Stommish grounds, a summer canoe and water festival. Pauline’s family gathered seafood here—crabs, flounder, sole, cod, salmon, skate, Scälla, Of the Killer Whale xli shellfish, and other delicacies that they cooked over bonfires. Each spring the blackfish—little minke or pilot whales—migrate past this point on sunny days in March or April, when Mount Baker—Cuomo Kulshan, the white shining mountain—stands radiant in the east, and skies are clear enough to see all the way down to Mount Rainier. Joe Hillaire, Pauline’s father, carved canoes and totems on this beach. It was here that he cultivated her political awareness, spiritual gifts, and poetic imagination. One afternoon, as they walked along the beach, he stooped to pick up a handful of sand. As the grains...