Earth Ministry/WAIPL is proud to partner with Sacred Sea, a non-profit led by members of Lummi Nation who are committed to protecting the life, sacred sites, and cultures of the Salish Sea. Currently, Sacred Sea is focused on bringing home their Southern Resident Orca relative, Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut.
We encourage you to visit SacredSea.org to learn about this campaign directly from Lummi Nation leaders. Click here to support the plans to create a sanctuary for Sk’aliC’elh-tenaut in her home in the Salish Sea.
Wallie V. Funk Photographs, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Libraries Heritage Resources, Western Washington University
It is a moral issue that the orca Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, also known as Tokitae or by her stage name Lolita, has been held in a tiny concrete tank at Miami Seaquarium for the past fifty-two years. Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut was taken from her home in the Salish Sea along with 45 other Southern Resident orcas in 1970. The young orcas were taken to live in captivity in marine parks around the globe; at 56 years old, Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut is the last surviving orca from this raid. Her mother is still alive and continues to swim the Salish Seas with the remaining 32 L-pod orcas (The Center for Whale Research, July 2021). Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut continues to sing the song unique to her L-pod orca family, she still sings the song her mother taught her when she was young. She knows who she is and where she belongs.
Previously known as Tokitae, the Lummi Nation recently gave her the Lhaq’temish name Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, which means that she is a member of Sk’aliCh’elh, the resident family of Orcas who call the Salish Sea home. The Lhaq’temish term for “Orca” is “qwe’lhol’mechen,” which means “our relatives under the waves.” The qwe’lhol’mechen are family. In 2018 Jay Julius, Chairman of the Lummi Nation, spoke of the obligation to the qwe’lhol’mechen: “Tokitae’s [Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut] story is more than a story of a whale. Her story is the story of the Native peoples of this country who have been subjected to bad policies. Because of the failure of policymakers to protect our wildlife, she was stolen from her family 47 years ago and taken to the Miami Seaquarium. Because she is a relative of the Lummi people, it is our sacred obligation to bring her safely home to the Salish Sea” (2018 Sacred Sea Press Release Kit).
Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut has spent the last 51 years in the smallest orca enclosure in the world, an 80 ft long and 20 ft deep concrete tank. She is 22 ft long, which means her tank isn’t as deep as she is wide. In her native waters, Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut would swim for miles everyday and dive 100-500 feet in search of food; in her tank, she often lies listless at the bottom of the chlorinated, stagnant, lifeless tank. Her tank sits in an open-air stadium, leaving her exposed to the Miami heat and tropical storms without cover.
The Lummi Nation has been working to return Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut to her Salish Sea home for many years. In 2019, Lummi matriarchs Squil-le-he-le (Raynell Morris) and Tah-Mahs (Ellie Kinley) invoked the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) in an effort to return Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut to her family through negotiations with Miami Seaquarium, with intent to sue if they were unwilling to collaborate on a plan for her release. The Earth Law Center is now legal representation for the repatriation effort. The Whale Sanctuary Project is drafting a comprehensive operational plan, grounded in and guided by Lummi ancestral wisdom as well as science, to safely bring Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut home.
Earth Ministry/WAIPL is honored to support and be part of the Sacred Sea campaign organized by Squil-le-he-le (Raynell Morris) and Tah-Mahs (Ellie Kinley) to bring captive Southern Resident orca Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut back home to the Salish Sea from the Miami Seaquarium. We know that as people of faith, we have a moral obligation to recognize and uphold Indigenous rights. Amplifying the call to bring Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut home is one way we can right a wrong.
In the summer of 2021, the USDA inspected the Miami Seaquarium and released a report documenting the disturbing living conditions and treatment of Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut. The report requires the Seaquarium to fix a number of problems by this fall, including feeding her adequate food, protecting her tank from direct sunlight and storms, and ending the strenuous and dangerous tricks required of her. However, Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut needs much more than these simple fixes. She needs to be with her family, to swim in the living waters of the Salish Sea, and to be cared for with love by her relatives above the water. This report, combined with the recent change in purchase of the Miami Seaquarium by the Dolphin Company, means that chances are better than ever that the Lummi Nation will be able to win her release and return home.
The Lummi Nation is preparing a place for Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, ensuring they are ready for her when the time comes for her release. These efforts are organized by Sacred Sea, and they have created a GoFundMe specifically to fundraise for costs related to securing her home site. In Phase 1, they hope to raise $100,000 in online donations. Phase 2 will start in 2022, when they will begin collecting pledges to put the operational plan into action. If and when Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut is released, those pledges will be called in and will pay for all costs from her initial assessment and transport through to the first years of operation of her Xwlemi Tokw, her Lummi home.
Photo by Paul Anderson/Totem Pole Journey
Resources
Sacred Sea website and Sacred Sea Facebook page
Earth Law Center
The Whale Sanctuary Project
One stolen whale, the web of life, and our collective healing, Grist article by Squil-le-he-le Raynell Morris and Tah-Mahs Ellie Kinley
A summary of the campaign to bring Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut home
Totem Pole Journey for the Protection of Sacred Places
Seattle Times article on the USDA report
News
Remembering Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut
Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut May Return to the Salish Sea
The Story of Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut
Events
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