From UU Animal Ministry and Community for Earth (CFE)
Written by The Social Justice Editorial Team
Over fifty years ago, a young female orca, member of the Southern Resident Orcas was violently stolen from her birthplace in the Salish Sea and sold to an entertainment venue in Miami, Florida. They named her Tokitae, a Chinook word, but gave her the stage name of Lolita. Socially isolated, she has been forced to perform stunts in one of the world’s smallest orca enclosures there under unrelenting sun for more than 50 years. The Lummi Nation is on a quest to bring this revered creature of nature back to her home in the Pacific Northwest. Lummi elders describe the heart-breaking wailing of the killer whales as Tokitae and many young orcas were stolen from their families in August 1970, the peak of a decade-long plunder. The Lummi renamed her in a ceremony five years ago, to “Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut”. She is the only remaining captive member of the Southern resident killer whales who is still alive. For the Lummis, the orcas are members of their tribe, “our people under the water,” and they have been waging a long campaign to reunite Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut with her family in the Salish Sea. Learn more about this cause and determined efforts with this beautiful and wrenching video.
First Unitarian Portland will endorse supporting the Lummi elders in their efforts to bring Tokitae home, along with other UU groups led by Deb Cruz, President of JUUstice Washington, who has organized a petition to present to the Governors of Washington and Oregon and to the Premier of British Columbia in June during Orca Action Month, requesting them to sign a proclamation supporting the Lummi initiative to return Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut to her home.