A 24-foot totem pole from the Northwest is making its way through the Bay Area on its way to Washington D.C.
Visitors in San Leandro could touch and even climb the Red Road to DC Totem Pole, which stayed prone on a flatbed trailer since it weighs 4,900 pounds.
Head carver Jewell James, with the Lummi Indian Nation in Washington State, said they engraved fish and whales on the storied pole to remind Americans that climate change is threatening the nation's waterways.
“(The waterways) are getting shallower and the water is being consumed,” James told KCBS Radio. “The rivers are heating up and the fish die off.”
Corrina Gould, a tribal chair with the Ohlone people of the Bay Area, said the totem pole's message of environmental stewardship has never been more needed.
“I am so blessed that they decided to bring this beautiful totem pole here to our territory,” she said.
Gould also explained that many of their sacred sites are endangered besides rivers.
“More people don’t even realize because we are so urbanized that there’s sacred sites everywhere,” she said.
Those locations include the West Berkeley Shellmound, which she said may end up before the State Supreme Court.
The totem pole will be at Marina Park for two days before continuing its journey to Washington D.C. where it will be placed in the Smithsonian.