Walk to Protect & Restore the Salish Sea 2019 Climate Emergency

Our Walk to Protect & Restore the Salish Sea 2019 will start Sept 20th, 9am at Tacoma LNG and end at the Olympia State Capital (Sta,chas village site of Nisqually people) where we will hold our Climate Emergency Gathering at Olympia State Capital on Sept. 24th 9am Please attend & share the event: https://www.facebook.com/events/481538435964742/

Please click “Going” for this “Walk to Protect & Restore the Salish Sea 2019” event only if you will be walking as we must keep a good measure of attendees in order to prepare proper amounts of food for all walkers.

In the era of a Global Climate Emergency we walk and rally for our SCHAYNEXW (Salmon People), our QELTHLOLMECHEN (Southern resident orca people), our sacred promises to the circle of life and for our Washington State representatives to declare a Climate Emergency and act upon that declaration by drafting emergency legislation terminating all fossil fuel expansion projects in the State of Washington. We walk to honor our Tribal Treaty rights as Climate Disruption illegally kills our wild salmon in the shallowing and warming rivers. We walk to breach the 4 dams on the Lower Snake River. We walk to elimainate all the open pen fish farms in Namgis and Musgamagw territories in BC. that decimate our Salish Sea wild salmon.

“I believe in the sun and the stars, the water, the tides, the floods, the owls, the hawks flying, the river running, the wind talking. They’re measurements. They tell us how healthy things are. How healthy we are. Because we and they are the same”
-Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually Tribal Leader

The people of our Salish Sea are rising like the tide to protect what we love and cherish as sacred, to stand together like the trees and lift each other up and the “each other” includes our grandchildren’s grandchildren, the orca and salmon people, the tree and bird people and all the other animal people of our Salish Sea. To stand in solidarity with Salish Sea tribes to ensure their treaty rights are honored and respected and for other nations to have their unceded territories and natural laws honored and respected.

This is why we will walk for 4 days along our Salish Sea in solidarity with the many Nations of our Salish Sea bio-region that are asking all of us to lift them up at this time, to begin our plans of restoration for our beloved Salish Sea bio-region. There is only one Salish Sea and it can be legally designated a Whale Sanctuary once we bring Tokitae (aka Lolita) home to her mother who still swims in our Southern Salish Sea and are both L-pod orcas. We walk to be free of Justin Trudeau/ Alberta’s plan to bring nearly 1 million barrels of oil per day to the shores of our Salish Sea. To stand in solidarity and to ensure that the Puyallup Nation and Tacoma residents do not have the threat of an 8 million gallon Liquefied (un)-Natural (fracked) Gas (LNG) facility with a 3.5 mile blast zone located a half mile from their homes. So that our Salish Sea can be a place for all life to thrive once again and be free from the threats of Climate Change.

WHAT TO BRING:
Reusable plate or bowl & fork or spoon (for breakfasts & dinners, provided at host locations) Label them yours!
Water bottle / coffee cup.
Cloth napkins & a little towel for drying your dishes.
Lunch for Fri. & Sat. / & Snacks for all days: energy bars, fruit & nuts, trail mix etc. (Fri & Sat. lunches will NOT be provided)
Sunscreen
Sun hat
Medications, Band-Aids / personal 1st aid items (for potential blisters and hot spots along the walk)
Small backpack / bag to carry your personal items as you walk
A cooler to share to put lunches in. They will be transported in the “break” support van.
WHAT TO BRING – OVERNIGHT GUESTS:
Indoor space at each of the locations along with way is available for overnight stays. In addition to the list of items above, walkers who will be staying overnight, please bring:
Sleeping bag
Sleep pad
Pillow
Oral & other hygiene supplies
Wash cloth & bio-degradable soap, towel.

YOUR HEAVY BACKPACKS & BEDDING WILL BE TRANSPORTED FOR YOU!

FOOD: The following meals will be provided (Breakfasts & Dinners ONLY, Lunches will not be provided). If the menu does not meet your dietary needs, please bring food items with you. We will NOT have refrigeration or use of a kitchen along the way. Please bring all your own snacks for during the walk:

RESTROOMS: There will be bathroom stops along the way at various locations, we will also have a curtained truck with a restroom facility in the bed.

WATER: Pure Artesian Spring water will be offered from large 5 gallon containers to fill walker’s water bottles at various rest stops along the way.

BREAKS: Support van will be offering a break from walking to Elders, Jr. Elders and tired children.

MEDICATIONS: If you take any prescription medication, or believe you will need any other medication along the way (aspirin, Tylenol, etc.), please bring it with you in your personal belongings.
1st AID: We will have basic 1st aid supplies on hand at the Longhouse and Church locations (Band-Aids, etc.) if you require more than basic aid, you will be referred to your doctor or local hospital.

OTHER:
Though this is primarily a walk we are welcoming to all forms of human driven transportation including but not limited to: bikes, skate boards, scooters, inline skates, canoes and kayaks.

Walk to Protect & Restore the Salish Sea 2019 Climate Emergency tee-shirts will be handed out potlatch style at the Sta,chas State Capital Gathering to walkers who finished the journey.

We look forward to walking, drumming, singing, laughing, eating and bringing our Salish Sea back to life with you! And protecting all life within our Salish Sea bio-region from the threats of fossil fuel industries. To build a bridge to that good future for everyone’s grandchildren.

As we are walking we will undoubtedly come across banks that are funding Tar Sands oil projects and Liquefied Natural Gas projects in our Salish Sea, we will be stopping at a number of these banks to allow patrons of these banks to divest by closing their accounts as we sing a prayer song for the work of Divestment.

Please consider a donation to raise funds for meals and silkscreen shirts for our Walk to Protect & Restore the Salish Sea 2019, please share: https://www.gofundme.com/f/meals-shirts-supplies-for-walk-protect-salish-sea?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet

Partner organizations and individuals are welcome to join us at rally points or at any point along our walk. We plan on posting updates to this page as to our locations along the walk so people can find us and join in at different times. Walk to Protect & Restore the Salish Sea has supporting “recognition” from: Mazaska Talks, Puyallup Water Warriors NoLNG253, Sunrise Movement Tacoma, Salish Sea Bioregional Marine Sanctuary, Protectors of the Salish Sea and more to announce soon.

ABOUT OUR WALK:
Walk to Protect our Salish Sea is an indigenous lead volunteer driven organization that believes in the ability of all people to come together to create positive change in our world. We were given instructions by our elders to stand together like the trees and lift each other up and take care of all life around us. So our human family is coming together today to lift this world up and in so doing we will lift up our own human families as well as the Tree, Plant and Animal families.

-Walk to Protect & Restore the Salish Sea 2019 Climate Emergency

OUR VISION:
Terminate all fossil fuel expansion projects and deescalate usage in our bioregion. To bringing our Salish Sea back to a place of vibrancy and life by turning it into a whale sanctuary. Tokitae (aka Lolita) will be the catalyst for the turning of tides for our home, once she is returned to her and our home of the Salish Sea, the whole world will be watching and all the people of our bio-region can become aware of the conditions and threats to our waters and this will give the people power and a voice, then through the initiative ballot system of Washington State and British Columbia we will have the solidarity to write the laws that will care for all life here once again, reminiscent to the original sanctuary that our First Peoples protected since time immemorial. Numerous Indigenous Nations within the Salish Sea Bioregion coming together in solidarity, signing a First Peoples Tokitae resolution creating sanctuary for all life here. We will also have the people’s Tokitae resolution that gives all residents of our Salish Sea a voice at the table where everyone can vow to stand in solidarity with the Coast Salish Nations and other Indigenous Nations that are demanding the return of their ancestral being Tokitae. Resolution signing will occur Sept. 24th at the Climate Emergency Gathering at Sta,chas village site (Olympia State Capital).
TOKITAE’S STORY:
Tokitae is L-pod from right here in our Southern Salish Sea, she is considered the loneliest orca on the planet since her pen mate died in the 1980s she has not seen another orca for 32 years. She is the last of 45 orcas kidnapped from their mothers and their families and sold into entertainment slavery around the world. All of the other 44 orcas died very young from depression, atrophied muscles and loneliness because in nature they never leave their complex family structures of 3 to 4 generations. Tokitae has been a slave to entertainment for 49 years, she has been doing tricks for food twice a day 365 days a year for 49 years without even one day off. Left to their own devises these people would work this whale until she is dead. But we will bring her home to her mother who still swims in our Salish Sea! She is still in very good health and she is holding on for one reason we believe…. To turn our Salish Sea back into a Sanctuary for all life once again. Inside of a Salish Sea whale sanctuary there can be no 1 million barrels of Justin Trudeau’s Tar Sands oil entering our sacred waters and there can be no mega LNG facilities in our Salish Sea. But there can be a future for our grandchildren’s grandchildren and all life around us.

Hiswke siem ne schaylecha (Thank you honorable friends) for working together for a livable future.