Nisqually Indian Tribe

We have named our furniture business Nisqually TreeArt to honor the Nisqually Indian since “our” land was Nisqually Indian land first. Our logo, the great blue heron is representative of our home, the Nisqually River Watershed, for at the river delta the great blue heron can be seen, statuesquely poised in the water, awaiting its prey to swim near. Also, our land is in a trust, protecting it from ever being sold, and requires an ultimate trustee, when and should my heir’s line come to an end. We have designated the Nisqually Indian Tribe for that role, both because this land was their ancestral land and because they have proven tenacity to exist and, probably will, beyond Euro American dominance ship.

Secondly I would like to weave in here a message from the Native American Community regarding ecoforestry, and our response to that message. When President Clinton came to the PNW after he was elected, to honor his campaign promise to end the timber vs. environmental war, the ecoforestry community was denied a seat at the table. Big timber and the environmental community were invited, but not the middle-ground solution, ecoforestry. So like unrecognized people at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the ecoforestry community held its own “alternative forest summit” and took the results to the Whitehouse afterwards, sitting down with some cabinet members.

Representing the Native Americans at our alternative summit was Hawk Rosales, among others, of the Intertribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council. His message to the ecoforestry community was to look to the Indian People as the experts on ecological restoration and management because they successfully carried out stewardship for ten thousand years. He urged anyone going to manage land to get in touch with their surrounding tribes and learn how they took care of that land.

So we took that message to heart and in a few years we had re-united the local Native American Tribe, the Nisqually’s to our Tree Shepherd Woods. The gist of Hawk’s message, actually, went beyond simply learning how they took care of the land, but said the missing piece of western European thought - Ecological Science is, recognizing the spirit of the land. Joe Kalama, member of Nisqually Tribal lineage, ordained minister of the Red Road Ministry and member of the Native American council of the Archdiocese of Greater Seattle, walked the land with us, in the Fall of 1998.

This ancient reunion began upon the edge of the forest, with Joe performing a ceremony. His wife gave everyone a pinch of tobacco to give to the forest, as a sacred offering. Joe asked the forest’s permission to enter. He gave thanks to the forest and suggested while in it that we might do some gathering to meet our needs. He asked that we be guided to do that in the right way. This he translated after he’d said it all in the language of the Nisquallies, first. We then all gave the offering of tobacco. While in the forest our guests shared many things about Native American plant uses.

Cecelia Carpenter, Nisqually member and tribal historian, told us our land was a favorite passing through place where Indian trails abounded. It was an important part of the Nisqually gathering area. TreeArt’s woods were also a favorite camping spot the Nisquallies used when traveling from one Nisqually village to another. Before confinement to the reservation along a small portion of the Nisqually River, the Nisquallies had villages spanning from the Pierce County side of the Nisqually River out to the ends of the peninsulas of Thurston County, and south through the towns of Tumwater, Tenino and to Cowlitz – Chehalis Country. This was known as Nisqually Country.

The Nisqually tradition to give ceremonies in thankfulness when they needed and removed resources was to acknowledge the Creator’s generosity and to ensure the resource’s seasonal return. Joe Kalama told us it was the energy and the trees themselves that he was addressing as he did the ceremony. It was wonderful following through on Hawk Rosale’s advice to be instructed and enlightened to live in harmony with the land spirits dwelling in the natural world which are there to guide us when we are confused about how to proceed. This is the piece we are missing by not having 10,000 years behind us, of successful use of our natural resources; the thoughtfulness of regarding plants and animals as true spirits, when we manage them.

Native Americans world-view truly categorizes humans as a part of Nature, whereas Western European dominant culture separates humans from Nature and when we try to protect it, the only thing we can think of is separating ourselves from it even further, by not touching it at all. Whereas Native Americans attributed no shame to using natural resources, because they had no concept of abusing them. Their language did not even include a word for wilderness. During the visit I truly believe I felt the land shudder with a hardly perceptible sigh of relief, for being reconnected with members of its Native American family. And I’ve come to feel a special energy off the things we make with our trees, from that enhancement.