#squaxin

[superinjun]

Camas Flower Drum

Joe Wahalatsu? Seymour, Jr (Squaxin/Acoma Pueblo)

deer hide, maple frame, acrylic paint. 17.38” x 17.38” x 3”

[formlines]

Salish Sun Drum 

Joe Seymour Jr.

[corxandforx]

Squaxin at Sundown

[pnw-forest-side]

Nice Big Leaf Maple on the north side of the park.

Squaxin Park, WA.

[frommylimitedtravels]

Here’s to another year spent wandering in the woods..

[lowquality-buffet]

No one at the picnic shelter, which isn't a surprise given the temperature. Made for a nice visit though.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

'I need an outlet': Grieving relatives talk to lost loved ones on phone in the forest

By Matt Mcknight

13 June 2023

OLYMPIA, Washington, June 12 (Reuters) - In the middle of a serene forest four miles from Washington state's capital, Olympia, sits a vintage rotary phone.

It is not connected to a telephone line and looks out of place.

But it has become a literal lifeline for people to speak words out loud to lost loved ones; words they never got the chance to say while they were still alive.

Corey Dembeck, 41, created and installed the original wind phone in the Pacific Northwest's Squaxin Park in late 2020, after learning about the death of their family friend's four-year-old daughter.

It was inspired by the original wind phone set up in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, ten years earlier.

"One morning, I woke up and went downstairs, and my wife looked shocked. She was like 'Joelle died,'" says Dembeck.

He has since moved away from Olympia but keeps in touch with the Sylvester family, whose young daughter Joelle Rose died suddenly after becoming sick with strep throat that triggered sepsis in her body.

"It messed me up, so I was like, right then and there, I'm going to build one of these things for them."

Dembeck, a U.S. Army veteran who worked as a photojournalist from 2000-2005, brought the phone, supplies and tools into the city-owned park and attached it to an old-growth cedar tree in a quiet area off a trail.

Dembeck, standing beside the phone almost three years later, says his reasoning behind sneaking it into the park was that it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission, especially because it was going to be something that was hard to explain.

After people learned of the phone and started visiting it in droves, the city decided to make it an official installation, removing it from the tree and working with Dembeck to create a signage board and plaque memorializing Joelle.

The plaque reads:

"This phone is for everyone who has ever lost a loved one. The phone is an outlet for those who have messages they wish to share with their friends and family. It is a phone for memories and saying the goodbyes you never got to say."

'I NEED AN OUTLET'

During a recent afternoon, Joelle's family paid a visit to the phone to celebrate her life.

Erin Sylvester, Joelle's mother, said they sometimes have pizza parties and invite friends to join them.

"I need the phone. I need an outlet. Because it's dedicated to my daughter, I feel like it's different than for someone else to come and use it," says Sylvester, 34, her eyes welling up with tears.

"Not being able to hear her voice on the other side of that phone can be very gut-wrenching. So, I usually come when none of my other coping mechanisms are working and I'm looking for a last-ditch effort."

Joelle's brothers, Jayden, 12, and Jonah, 8, and her sister, Joy, 5, take turns speaking into the handset, telling her how much they love and miss her, and place new photos on the post and keepsakes that she loved on top of the phone.

During their visit, a speckled brown and white barred owl lands on a branch of the cedar tree, just above the phone. The family is mesmerized.

Erin says owls were Joelle's "baby theme" when she was born. The same type of owl visited them recently in a similar way but at a different location.

"It's got to be a sign. There's no other way I can think about it ... that's not a fluke," says Joelle's father, Andre Sylvester, 37, wiping tears from his eyes.

Moments later, he picks up the phone to speak to his late daughter.

"I miss you. Thanks for showing up today. I miss you a lot."

Sylvester says, looking up at the branch where the owl perched moments before.

"I wish we could go take a walk around the block while I smoke my cigar and you tell everybody hi, and you pet every dog. I miss that."

Since the installation of Olympia's telephone, word of it has inspired other Americans to create ones across the country.

Dembeck has spoken by email and phone with many others who have installed a phone in honor of their loved ones.

He estimates there are now 50 across the United States.

Dembeck says everyone who tells him about using their phone also told him a tragic backstory.

"The fact that something simple like this immensely helped them, it's been really humbling," he says, adding he feels it's the greatest thing he has ever done.

[harshr]

Cold morning at Squaxin Park.

[fatehbaz]

Biologists are rethinking their notions about Washington’s cougars after observing the cats swimming long distances and island hopping around Puget Sound. “We’re reimagining them as animals that take to water readily,” said Mark Elbroch, a Sequim-based biologist with the big cat conservation group Panthera. “We are reimagining the potential connectivity of the Olympic Peninsula to the rest of Washington state.” Panthera and local partners, including the Lower Elwha S’Klallam Tribe, have been studying cougars on the Olympic Peninsula. In 2020, a young male with a tracking collar was observed swimming just over a kilometer from mainland Mason County to Squaxin Island in Puget Sound. Researchers began looking at other instances of cougar sightings on local islands and a study published in November found the cats would potentially swim up to 2 kilometers, meaning they could possibly access over half of the islands in Puget Sound and find other avenues off the peninsula. It’s an important revelation, Elbroch said, as the cougars of the Olympic Peninsula are genetically isolated [...]. Urban areas, especially the Interstate 5 corridor, create a significant barrier to the rest of the state for the cats. [...] But the fact that cougars can island hop around Puget Sound opens a new range of habitats for the animals, Elbroch said. [...]

---

Headline, image, caption, and text as published by: Peter Segall. “Swimming cougars cast new light on cat movement.” Peninsula Daily News. 3 March 2023.

[superinjun]

Our Culture Is Woven Into the Land

Joe Wahalatsu? Seymour Jr. (Squaxin/Acoma Pueblo)

woven paper, synthetic sinew, framing. 32.35” x 37.75”

[formlines]

Sbəq̓ʷaʔ 

Joe Seymour Jr.

[mountrainiernps]

Native American Heritage Month

Did you know that Mount Rainier is the traditional land of the Cowlitz, Muckleshoot, Nisqually, Puyallup, Squaxin Island, and Yakama tribes? Traditional practices are intrinsic with the land and continue to this day. We honor the tribes’ past and present relationships with the mountain and its resources. Learn more about the tribes:

- Cowlitz Indian Tribe

- Muckleshoot Indian Tribe

- Nisqually Indian Tribe

- Puyallup Tribe of Indians

- Squaxin Island Tribe

- Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation

NPS photo of Mount Rainier. ~kl

[pnw-forest-side]

Left the city for a bit.

[frommylimitedtravels]

When you get the place to yourself..

Squaxin Park, WA.

[lowquality-buffet]

This ain't no picnic

Somewhere in Western Washington 1/24

[butchtranny]

Having a nice little joint on a walk thru the woods in the dark.

The thing about the sadposting is eventually the feeling washes over me. It don't matter to me the people out there who can't see me as a person, I got people in my life who do. If I had y'all with me right now I'd pass this around and roll a few more for the rotation. We could talk and laugh and commiserate and the dykery itself would be healing. As it stands I'm passing y'all this joint virtually. It's GDP from the Squaxin Tribal Compact, sun grown, and (near as I can remember) organic. Rolled it myself. Let me know how it's hitting.