Tribal Journey Diaries - Part 6: Out of The Shell

July 22 – Lummi to Samish

After leaving the gracious hospitality and sacred lands of the Lummi Nation we embark onto the next destination - Samish Nation. As we pull across the Salish Sea we become more engaged with one another and even more so with ourselves. Mother Nature has provided an abundance of blessings that cascade throughout each and every one of us.

We took to the Samish floor through the age old past time of dancing for the return of your lost property. One of our shy young men lost a dry bag and it was turned in, so he had to dance to earn it back. At first he was kind of walking around and insecure about dancing, but our other KL kids came as encouragement to the floor and lifted him off his feet and he danced hard. It brought tears to people’s eyes bearing witness to this young man coming out of his shell for the very first time.

His smile lifted us all up higher as he went on to his next amazing accomplishment: singing his first solo to the Oomala! The power of our culture grants us everything we need to become who we are, and tonight we witnessed that power at work through this young man.

Each and every one of us is tested in our own way, and the best of what we have is tapped into and we shine light upon the world. The Samish nights are that much brighter because of our Kw’umut Lelum youth.