Saying they’re family, Lummi Nation gives these endangered orcas a new, ancestral name
The Lummi Nation has given the southern resident killer whales an ancestral, Lummi name.
“Traditional names connect family members to one another, to ancestors, to culture and to spirit,” the Lummi tribe said in a news release on Tuesday, Aug. 27.
The endangered orcas were named Sk’aliCh’elh in a ceremony last Thursday, Aug. 22, on Orcas Island.
Sk’aliCh’elh is the ancestral name for Penn Cove area, the tribe said in a news release, and the name affirmed the J, K and L orca pods as members of the Lummi family.
The Penn Cove area also was the home of the orca that the Lummi tribe is trying to free from the Miami Seaquarium.
The Seaquarium has refused to release the orca it calls Lolita, which has lived at the theme park for nearly 50 years, according to a Miami Herald article.
The Lummis called the whale Tokitae before renaming it Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut earlier this summer.
The tribe’s fight to free the orca — Lummi members have said doing so was a sacred obligation — has been a public one and has included carving and traveling with a totem pole across the country to bring attention to its effort.
Most recently, Lummi Nation threatened to sue the Seaquarium to release the orca under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, according to a Seattle Times story.
This story was originally published September 1, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
