On the weekend of March 6, my partner and I were at the entrance to Madrona Point, and we observed many people exiting or attempting to enter the Point despite the LARGE sign saying that Madrona Point is closed by order of the Lummi Tribe. Many had dogs with them.

When told that the point is closed, one man said he wasn’t going there (the main path) and proceeded down the side path onto the point. Others entered by way of the dockside after being told that the point is closed. Others came in trucks and cars with or without dogs, obviously bent on walking the point.

On Sunday, we placed additional signs at the entrance: “No Trespassing, No Exceptions.” Two Sheriff’s Deputies drove by while we were doing this. Vehicle after vehicle came to the point and turned around and left when they saw the Sheriff’s car. It is obvious that people understand that they are ignoring the law and the Lummi Indian Nation’s wishes for their land.

Many people now living here don’t know the importance of Madrona Point and the three-year fight that took place 23 years ago to preserve this land “in perpetuity.” It was owned by a subsidiary of Weyerhauser Corporation. They had plans for 88 units (houses and condos) on this 30-acre peninsula.

The Lummi people were uninformed of this proposed development on their sacred burial ground. I had just arrived on the island when I learned about it. I let the tribe know what was happening. A three-year fight ensued with islanders divided on the issue of Native ownership. Some of us formed the Madrona Point Committee; I was the liaison between the committee and the Lummi Nation. I completed an ethnobotany and an ethnozoological study of the point’s varied species.

Over the years, people have illegally camped there and blazed new paths, thus exposing delicate micro-ecosystems to extinction. They have carved names in ancient trees, trampled plants listed as threatened or endangered, picked flowers and plants, and destroyed ancient lichen.

People use illegal drugs and drink alcohol there and have made campfires causing fires that needed professional help in dousing. Some restauranteurs sent customers to the point when they had to wait for tables during the summer season. They called it a park! There have been the dog-walkers who have thought nothing of the Lummi people’s request that no dogs be walked there!

I ask myself what is it in this non-Indian culture that, like a little child, thinks that it is entitled, to go anywhere, do anything, destroy Mother Earth, (even here, on Orcas Island)? How is it that people are so disrespectful of others’ cultures? Like willful children, they will do what they want, when they want to and everyone else be damned. How would you respond to someone ignoring “Closed” and “No Trespassing” signs on your property?

How can we humans expect to grow and mature, to evolve as real human beings on this earth when we will neither honor and respect the earth, (who feeds, clothes and houses us) nor our cultural differences? Just because you cannot see, touch, taste, hear and smell the spirit world, it doesn’t mean that it does not exist.

Spirit Eagle lives on Orcas Island.