Se’Si’Le secured a loan to assume title to land on Orcas Island (the ancient village site of Tsil’Whi’Sen), a traditional cultural property highly regarded by the LhaqTemish Peoples of the Northern Straits of Xw’ullemey (the Salish Sea). This heritage landscape on Orcas Island was slated for commercial development until Se’Si’Le stepped in and assumed title at the 11th hour.
Plans are now underway to honor this ancient site, its ancestors and their descendants, and the Orcas Island community with programs as part of the vision of Grandmother’s Journey Home. Programs to be put in place over the next two years will include:
- A Seventh Generation Longhouse
- Legacy Landscape traditional medicinal and horticultural gardens.
- A trail with historical markers and QR-coded plaques for access to oral histories of Tsil’Whi’Sen and other LhaqTemish heritage sites in the San Juan Islands.
- A virtual reality dome to provide the viewer with an immersive experience of the ancestral lifeway of the LhaqTemish people at Tsil’Whi’Sen.
- Events that will include tribal elders and orators, an annual Tsil’Whi’Sen Cultural Arts Festival, and special events designed by, and for, young people from the tribe and the Orcas Island community.
