[ Man singing in Coast Salish language ] [ Bird calling ] [ Leaves rustling gently ] [ Man continues singing ] -The Xwilngexw... ...we were created to take care of this land.

[ Trucks rumbling ] It was stolen from us.

But we're holding on to our culture for dear life.

[ Man continues singing ] A lot's happened in my life.

I got the last -- We got the last -- There's few of us that got the last of that treatment.

♪♪ I got tied to a chair 'cause I was singing siawen songs in the first grade.

Put me out in the hall and tied me to the chair... 'cause I practiced culture in school.

That was worse than getting beat up... people going by laughing at me and gawking at me.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Have a good day, guys.

-Thank you.

You too.

-Bye!

-My name is Jason Allen LaClair.

My family given name is Sienum.

I'm a Coast Salish artist, and I also participate in what's called Art in the Classroom with Allied Arts.

♪♪ When I was a kid, there wasn't very many indigenous students at school, and a lot of the other kids got away with a lot.

You know, some of our teachers were racist.

Our bus driver was definitely racist.

♪♪ Ultimately, I got kicked out of public schools for good for sticking up for my people.

♪♪ [ Indistinct conversation in distance] I asked my mom when I was a little kid, "Why doesn't Grandma hug us?"

And she goes, "Well, your grandma had to endure a lot."

♪♪ She was pulled from her family and put into a boarding school.

♪♪ She saw little kids get beat up, get their hair cut off for just being who they are.

[ Scissors snip ] Xwilngexw people.

♪♪ To go from then to now and see the environment our kids are walking into... I feel really good about it.

Our kids get to live in a time where we're starting to learn each other.

♪♪ ♪♪ I used to drive by Samuel's quite a bit, and I'd notice this pole laying there.

-I was making it for my wife.

We were going to put it up here... but she died, and I didn't touch it for like three years.

-One day Samuel had his son call me, and he's like, "Hey, my dad wants to know if you'll finish that pole for him."

In our culture as Lummi people, if an elder asks us to do something, you give it your best shot.

You don't say no to an elder.

♪♪ ♪♪ The first time I've, like, seen it up close was at the Hotel Leo.

It was blocked out and I could tell how he wanted it to look, but it was still really rugged.

And I was like, "How the 'F' am I gonna do this?"

♪♪ -It's not going to make it?

♪♪ [ Man singing, drumming ] -Our people were special people.

♪♪ They'd carve an animal, and they’d say special words and that thing would come alive.

♪♪ But all of that is gone now.

We're just a shadow right now of who they are.

We're just a shadow.

We only know that much.

♪♪ -When are you going to start?

-Right away.

-Okay.

-Well, first off, I just want to talk to your dad.

-Okay.

-Just out of respect.

You know what I mean?

-Yeah.

-I want to know... Just give me a plan of attack... -Okay.

-...and what he envisioned, you know?

-Okay.

-And get it as close as possible.

-Yeah.

-It's going to be badass, dude.

It's already badass.

-Yeah.

[ Indistinct conversations ] -We're blessed, huh?

-Yeah.

-We're blessed to be where we're from, man.

♪♪ ♪♪ Really thankful that you called on my name to take these last few steps with -- with your work.

So I wanted to ask, do you want me to design it as close to your style as I can?

-I want you to put your feelings in that, like what you do to those paintings on the wall.

-Okay.

-Kind of pretty it up.

-Yeah.

-Put a little bit of both of us in it.

-Okay.

♪♪ -Every one of those animals, every one of those has a meaning for us.

Every one of those has a power.

Each one of them taught me something different.

♪♪ Eagle was the one -- my main teacher.

Tell you what it did for me, that eagle would come pick me up every night... -Mm-hmm?

-...and I'd run.

I'd run.

Seemed like I was over on that side of the bay, and I'd come to this cliff and I'd jump.

He'd take me around the bay like that there, around the bay, and then we'd fly up the river.

He was showing me what our world was.

"This is what we built for your people.

This is what we created for you, and we got to take care of it."

♪♪ We were created for this land.

The Xwilngexw -- original people.

-Yeah.

♪♪ ♪♪ So, in the beginning was ultimate fear... but then also determination of like, "Okay, I'm going to see this through.

What does that look like?"

That awesome feeling that was starting to come about once I started getting comfortable with the hand tools and stuff, I was like, "Oh, I got this all day."

♪♪ ♪♪ Within my own self, the dark serpent reflects the other side of me that I battle every day -- the one that wants to react out in anger.

♪♪ I struggled throughout my whole life.

My life wasn't bad, but the intergenerational trauma is still there.

♪♪ I didn't really start going hard on art until I was about 14 years old.

♪♪ It was super relaxing, like taking on the challenge of taking a plain piece of paper and turning it into something.

♪♪ I would just get in the zone and forget about everything.

♪♪ I never did any hard drugs until I was 18.

[ Thunder booms ] I got into a bad car accident, me and my ex-girlfriend.

We were drinking all night.

When I saw that telephone pole, I thought I was dead.

♪♪ I remember being in so much pain.

I was, like, literally crying and one of my friends was like, "Hey, go grab his prescription meds."

And then that was like the start of my down spiral in life, you know?

♪♪ Struggled with addiction for like 16 years.

Throughout that, art has always been a huge part of me.

Living in a world of just chaos... ...I'll start designing.

I did that to just be in that place of comfort.

I felt like it was my spirit talking to me, letting me know that no matter what we're going through in life, as long as we take a little bit of time out for ourselves, we're going to be okay.

♪♪ My family tried intervening a bunch of times, and I really didn't care.

I think the longest I lasted was like four or five months, and then I'd end up right back at it.

♪♪ This is the very beginning.

-Right here.

-Yeah.

So this is our first summer together.

-It's when you bailed me out.

-Yeah.

A lot of fights happened inside of that house.

Seemed like every day was... -Yeah.

-...a battle.

♪♪ -I didn't think our relationship was going to last.

But I knew that I loved you, and I didn't... I wanted a different life.

-You went back to prison in October of 2018.

-Yep.

-And then five months later, my dad died.

And when I saw my dad laying there like that, I saw myself laying there.

-Yeah.

-I was like, "Damn."

♪♪ The bear is a fierce warrior.

Even being injured, he'll still go into a fight ferociously.

♪♪ What that means is, when life throws challenges at me, I still have to keep walking through it no matter what.

♪♪ [ Tires crunching ] You know, I remember our elders saying that when you go through things in life, you go into Mother Nature by yourself, and that's where all the answers are.

♪♪ So when I go out clam digging, the very first thing I do when I get on the beach is I offer up a prayer of thanks.

Mother Earth gave my ancestors a beautiful world to live in.

♪♪ And we would all have our place in the village and know who we are to the bone -- your hunters, your gatherers, your clam diggers.

♪♪ ♪♪ How do we deal with our people who are using drugs and caught in that lifestyle?

You go back to what you know and who we are as Salish people.

[ Cheering in distance ] ♪♪ A lot of our people today don't get to fully be who they were set on Earth to be... and side effects of that is a lot of guilt and shame.

But there's a lot of people getting involved in culture, whether it be canoe journeys or war canoe races or stick games, and it's helping our people.

♪♪ Thankful to the elders that protected our way of life and took our ways underground so we still have it now.

It's pretty -- pretty awesome.

♪♪ ♪♪ The orca represents bringing our people home who've moved away or become lost.

To be reconnected and finding my place in the community is a really big deal, and so to me, that's what the whale represents, is community.

♪♪ -[ Indistinct ] -Oh, my goodness.

Yeah.

[ Laughter ] -Surprise!

-Hello.

Long time no see, sis.

I dug, like, 400 pounds of clams in two days.

-That's a lot, yeah.

-That's crazy.

[ Laughs ] -The reason why we're gathering here today is to celebrate Jason having five years in recovery.

There are so many times that I cried and I begged him... to get clean and get off the drugs.

I told him, I'd go, "Jason, I can't lose you.

I won't -- I wouldn't survive losing you.

I can't lose you."

♪♪ Jason made his pledge to his father as he was taking his last few breaths that he would stop... ...and we're all so grateful to be here to celebrate having Jason back as the true person that -- that he was meant to be.

♪♪ [ Cheering ] ♪♪ -Whenever I think of a wolf, I think family, because they all move together in a pack.

Just the unity and the way they protect each other.

The wolf reminds us how to be in life, to not stray away from our families... because we all need each other.

♪♪ -♪ It's early one morning ♪ ♪ Whoa, knock on my door ♪ ♪♪ -There's tons and tons of people from Bellingham who are constantly walking through the Hotel Leo, who have an opportunity to get to know Lummi better.

I'm Jason.

-I'm Doug.

-Nice to meet you, Doug.

-I’m with her.

-That's great.

How else do we better get to know each other than sharing our culture?

Alright.

-It's getting there, isn't it?

-Totally is.

-So I had to take my sawzall... A lot of that history of trying to silence the past still exists, and, um, for real progress to be made, people got to step into a vulnerable place and let those old values go and look forward.

♪♪ [ Children speaking indistinctly ] Teaching kids is how we ensure that everything is going to live on.

So we wanted to explain to them the history of carving in the Coast Salish territory and learn about who we are and where we come from.

Good morning, kids.

Good to see you all again.

A few weeks back, I was asked by one of my elders from the Lummi Nation if I would finish his story pole for him.

Each and every one of these animals on here, they all tie into how we are in life.

The cool thing about teaching children is their parents also get to come in, learn and ask questions, and see how, you know, being involved in the process affects their children in a good way.

♪♪ How many kids do we have here?

-75.

-All at once?

And I got three groups like that?

-Another group tomorrow and another group Wednesday.

-Really?

-Yeah.

What were you thinking?

-I thought I was doing three hours of this.

-No.

-Oh, thank goodness.

-No, we're almost done.

-Right on.

-It's only an hour a day, an hour each time.

-That's -- That's gangster.

[ Both laugh ] Holy cow, dude.

-Yeah, we're all in fifth grade.

-I remember all you guys.

Yep.

-Fourth grade!

-The kids are very drawn to Jason and very excited to meet him and learn from him.

-Fourth grade?

Was it last year or the year before?

-I remember Jason saying, like, "I'm not sure about teaching elementary school kids."

-And then you'll trace around it and draw... -Right away, you could tell that Jason just has this natural gift for working with kids.

-Is there a reason why you chose him?

-So for learning about these different beings, would they be able to choose one?

-Yeah, so maybe we make stencils without the designs in them.

-Yeah.

Our education system was built on really racist and narrow ideas.

It really needs a large overhaul, and in order for that to happen, it would require leaders to really start unpacking the values that our system is upholding and work to change those values.

-You know, wording, truth and reconciliation, you know, of course... facts are facts, and the things that happened to my ancestors in boarding schools and residential schools wasn't pretty.

So I think that explaining to the students about truth and reconciliation and what that means, like, you know, acknowledging the truth that, yes, it happened and not tucking it under the rug... -Mm-hmm.

-...and reconciliation moving forward.

-Mm.

-So basically part of the lesson too is going to be, you know, there's a meaning of each being, right?

What being do you relate to the most and why?

-We learn from our differences and our different life experiences and perspectives that we bring, and so the more diverse those perspectives are, it makes our curriculum stronger.

-See you again.

-Great to see you.

-Yep.

-Thanks, Jason.

-Yeah.

Of course.

♪♪ -Alright.

Good morning.

I see a lot of familiar faces.

Can I get a show of hands who were in my third grade classes two years ago?

We're in a time of sharing culture, and it's not just about me sharing my culture with you.

It's about all of us sharing our ways of life with each other.

What I'm going to be talking to you students today about is the history of carving and Lummi.

So the thing about Lummi... When you're around students, it brings you back to when you were their age and how simple things were.

It just so happens that... I've found my calling.

You know what I mean?

[ Indistinct conversations ] What made you want to choose the eagle?

-I feel like some of it matches me, and other parts of it are like what I want to be like.

-Are you a good leader now?

-Kind of.

I just feel like... it's kind of like what I want to be like.

-It's like touching to the spirit, huh?

It talks to something that exists even before our time, you know?

And in our culture, and you probably remember me saying this to you, the eagle is a messenger of the Creator.

He's the one who carries our prayers to God, our -- you know, to our higher power.

-Mm-hmm.

-So if we're ever feeling heavy in our heart... you know, we see an eagle fly by, we go, "Oh, here's an opportunity to send that prayer to the spirit world," you know?

The person who carved this pole, he said out of all the beings, the eagle was his main teacher in life.

♪♪ -You always make sure you put the eagle on the top.

♪♪ I used to get dreams of the eagle.

Same dream every time.

He took me around by Point Francis, and then he'd fly me up the river.

Every trip I'd learn something about life.

The last time he took me up, he says, "When you learn how to land, I've taught you enough."

That's what he told me.

And it was few years back I learned to land.

♪♪ No, I never hardly talk about what he did for me... but that's why I am the way I am.

♪♪ -While I was working on the pole, you know, I remember you telling me to talk to it before I would get started.

So that's what every day started like.

You know, I'd go there and sit down beside it and pray and talk to it.

And, um, it really helped out a lot.

-Thank you for doing it for me.

I could have never done it at that time.

-Yeah, I was glad I could help.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-That's a good thing.

-Very honored.

-We're working on teaching the people who we are.

We're different.

Yeah, we're different.

-Yeah.

-We were created here to take care of this land.

And we're lost, looking for something, and that's the way our kids are growing up.

They don't know who they are.

A lot of them are looking for something and they don't know what they're looking for, and then they turn to this and this.

-Yeah.

-It's the old ways and moral values that are going to save our people.

I prayed for ways to bring it out to people... ...and only way I could do it is putting it in here, carving.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪