,January 25, 2023 15:00 Pacific Time from the slopes of Mt. Teneriffe, Washington.
The geographic anchor, the stone dropped into the water. The slope of the Cascade Mountains facing X̌ʷəlč (Colonized name: the Salish Sea).
I started to the west, on the trail up q'əlpc' (Colonized name: Mt. Si), and about a mile in, heard a pileated woodpecker calling from somewhere in the canopy of Douglas fir, and western and mountain hemlock. A little later I veered east onto the Talus Loop trail and crossed to the Mt. Teneriffe trail. I started back north, on long switchbacks.
At 15:00 PT I stopped. There was snow on the ground and I heard crackling.
A group of birds called high up in the canopy, certainly some kinglets, probably golden crowned. Near me: sword ferns, some hemlock species, salal, mosses and lichen. I heard flowing nearby, and saw, heard, felt other beings, mammals, amphibians. Not a lot of reptiles, perhaps.
I knew there was an abundance of microorganisms and invertebrates around me and under me, knew that I did not know their names but felt them.
I started recording so I could transcribe what I said. (It felt emergent when I said it, probably because there were no other humans. In the context of this webpage, without the pauses, it seems to change shape. I did, by the way, laugh a bit).
Hello, can you hear me? I asked
Including the elk?
I apologize for trespassing into your winter range.
I said:
I want to express my gratitude to the Coast Salish People, including the sdukʷalbixʷ (Snoqualmie Tribe), for your relationship since time immemorial to this land and these beings.
As a person in a white body, I recognize that I am, and will always be, an occupier when I come into a place like this, until that point in the future, that point in the past, when the network tendrils of white supremacy, colonialism and imperialism no longer claim dominion.
I recognize that my gratitude is a moment of paying attention but is not repair. I reaffirm my intention to work, learn, continue towards that point, moment, space, time, sense that white supremacy and the colonial mindset no longer perpetuate violence upon bodies and the earth.
No one human came down the trail. No one human came up the trail.
I heard a flutter of some bird. I turned to an old stump, decayed snag
stump, once tree, now moss, and lichen, and the emergent hemlock
branch.
I asked, please help me hold all of the names of the species and all of
the artist participants.
I said, I have the paper here.
I showed the paper to the very old being and the beings
living on that being.
I read the names of the species as they are called on the U. S. Federal documents, and the groups of species. And I read the artists' names:
Guam broadbill
Shaylin Salas
Mariana mallard
Sarah Falkner
Dusky seaside sparrow
Sandra Simonds
Santa Barbara song sparrow
Eleni Sikelianos
Sampson's pearlymussel
Eli Nixon
Blue pike
Karin Bolender
All the Species and Subspecies
Adriene Jenik
Longjaw cisco
Sophie Strand
Tecopa pupfish
Paul Hlava Ceballos
Ivory-billed woodpecker
Alina Stefanescu
Eastern puma
Anne de Marcken
Caribbean monk seal
Alexis Pauline Gumbs
All the Fish
Lou Florez
Kauai akialoa
Kimberly Quinogue Andrews
Kaui nukupuu
Jessica Carpenter
Who is Not Here
Joanna Lilley
Kamao
Vidhu Aggarwal
Bridled white eye
Alixa Garcia
Maui akepa
Donovan Kūhiō Colleps
Maui nukupuu
Mina Gorji
Molokai creeper
Lyz Soto
Po'ouli
Kalilinoe Detwiler
I stood.
Launched as a stone into sea gabbro, igneous. Teneriffe. May the ripples carry us.
*****************
Jennifer Calkins
Developer/Curator
Delisted 2023
Jenn
Ivory-billed woodpecker
Anastacia Renee
Little Mariana fruit bat
Craig Santos Perez
All the Freshwater Museels
Victoria Vesna
San marcos gambusia
Amistad gambusia
Lisa Olstein
Ron Broglio
Scioto madtom
Lydia Millet
Flat pigtoe
Mita Mahato
Southern acornshell
Woogee Bae
Stirrupshell
Madhur Anand
Upland combshell
Megan Kaminski
Green blossom (pearly mussel)
Madeline Bassnett
Tubercled blossom (pearly mussel)
Mandy Suzanne Wong
Turgid blossom (pearly mussel)
Janice Lee
Yellow blossom (pearly mussel)
Summer J. Hart
Upland combshell & Turgid blossom pearly mussel
Brenda Iijima
Phyllostegia glabra var. lanaiensis
Art 25 (Lehua Taitano, Lisa Jarrett, Jocelyn Ng)
The Two Sparrows
Teresa Carmody
All the Species and Subspeces
Hannah Thompson-Garner
Kaua'i O'o'
Alissa Hattman
Ivory-billed woodpeckerry
Jen Calkins
Bachman's warbler
Jonathan Skinner

