Potential end to roadless rule for pristine forests sparks Bellingham rally
A coalition of Northwest tribes and environmental organizations will be in Bellingham this weekend to kick off a two-week series of protest rallies against a Trump administration plan to build roads through untouched parts of national forests.
They are opposing the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s proposal in June to rescind the 2001 “roadless rule” that prevents new access to wildlands for logging and drilling for oil or natural gas. Online public comment will be accepted through Sept. 19.
A rally from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday at Maritime Heritage Park will feature speakers and Indigenous art, including a totem pole and ceremonial masks made by master carver Jewell James from Lummi Nation’s renowned House of Tears Carvers.
“The ancient forests provide our people with sәla-exʷ: (the strength that comes from the old ones). They are integral to our ancestral cultural ways of knowing nature and our spiritual beliefs and practices,” James said in a statement announcing the series of rallies from Bellingham to Northern California.
Speakers will include Indigenous leaders from the Se’Si’Le environmental advocacy organization, the House of Tears Carvers, RE Sources, the Sierra Club and elected officials including Bellingham City Council member Michael Lilliquist and Whatcom County Council member Barry Buchanan.
The two-week campaign is called Xaalh and the Way of the Masks Totem Pole Journey. “Xaalh” is an Indigenous term meaning “sacred balance,” Kurt Russo of Se’Si’Le told The Herald in a phone call from the organization’s Bellingham office.
Russo said that the Northwest’s original inhabitants used masks as way of connecting spiritually with their ancestors.
“In Lummi belief, and in all Northwest Straights beliefs, the masks have a close relationship to the forest. It’s a way of knowing nature from an Indigenous point of view,” he said. “There’s a tiny percentage (of old-growth forest) left and they’re going to protect it. They’re literally irreplaceable.”
