Bellingham (Land of the Lhaq ‘temish – People of the Sea)

A magical weekend visiting friends in Bellingham WA, traditional land of the Lummi Nation (also called Lhaq ‘temish – People of the Sea).

As with much of what we call the Pacific Northwest, this is the unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples. For thousands of years, the Lummi, Nooksack, Samish, and Semiahmoo Indians inhabited current-day Bellingham and its surrounding area. Known as the “salmon people,” their oral history pays homage to the Salmon Woman and her Children.

We are the Lhaq’temish, The Lummi People. We are the original inhabitants of Washington’s northernmost coast and southern British Columbia. For thousands of years, we worked, struggled and celebrated life on the shores and waters of Puget Sound.

We are fishers, hunters, gatherers, and harvesters of nature’s abundance. We envision our homeland as a place where we enjoy an abundant, safe, and healthy life in mind, body, society, environment, space, time and spirituality; where all are encouraged to succeed and none are left behind.

From the Lummi Nation website

Harbour Beauty

Facing west on the water to watch the sun set on the warmly lit horizon.

Harbour Seal

Harbour seals, aka the common seal, is a true seal. They’re the most widely distributed pinniped (fin- or flipper-footed and refers to the marine mammals that have front and rear flippers). So many of them in the harbour, swimming and popping out to say hello.

Loon

Aquatic birds – evident in how many of them kept diving under the water for extended periods of time.

Magical Sunset

Along the Coast

Big Leaf Maples in Bloom

Acer macrophyllum

The big leaf maple has green (almost yellow!) flowers appear as the leaves are developing in spring. These large maples can reach heights of 36 meters.

Getting to Know More About the Big Leaf Maple

Uses
Coastal peoples used bigleaf maple wood to make dishes, pipes and hooks for clothing. Many groups who made paddles out of the wood called it the paddle tree. They used the inner bark to make baskets, rope and whisks for whipping soopolalie berries.
In the Interior, aboriginal people ate the young shoots raw in the spring. They also made a type of maple syrup, but because the sap has a low sugar content, it takes a large quantity of sap to make a small amount of syrup.

Because of its close grain and moderate hardness, maple wood is used commercially for furniture, interior finishing, and musical instruments.

Notes
Maple flowers are quite sweet and edible and can be used in salads.
Bigleaf maple trees are often draped in mosses, because the bark is rich in calcium and moisture, adding to the attractive wet rainforest plant community.
From https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/library/documents/treebook/bigleafmaple.htm