Bellingham’s Old Town Hall, one of the stops on the walking tour. Annika Taylor // AS Review
By Annika Taylor
Past events inform and shape the present. The most telling sign of this, but also the most easily normalized, are the physical spaces that we inhabit.
The Systematic Racism Curriculum Project [SRCP] and the Bellingham Racial History Timeline created a walking tour to teach about Bellingham’s past and present relationship to systematic racism. Racism is a systemic problem built into our culture, policies, institutions and very environment.
As I visited these stops myself I realized more and more how my own experience shaped my perception. Some of the spots I identified with, while others I could only reflect over. The one glaringly obvious thread was how many times I had passed these landmarks without a passing thought.
Stop 1: Centennial History Pole – European Arrival
The tour starts just outside the doors of the Whatcom County Courthouse.
Joe Hillaire carved the totem pole in 1953 to mark the centennial anniversary of Europeans arriving on Indigenous land. Hillaire was a prolific Lummi carver, completing 12 major totem poles in his life, while also advocating for Indigenous rights. The pole tells a story of Native People and the arrival of Europeans.
The plaque at the base of the pole reads:
This monument commemorates the arrival on Bellingham Bay of the first permanent white settlers, Captain Henry Roeder and Russell V. Peabody searching for water-power to turn a mill wheel. This site is near the mouth of Whatcom Creek where they were landed by Lummi Indians 100 years ago, December 15, 1852. Dedicated December 15, 1952.
Totem poles are read bottom to top. The following is a transcription from Western history professor Dr. Josh Cerretti’s Decolonizing Bellingham Tour.
“At the beginning is Raven, who is the first bird awake in the morning, and a very talkative bird. Above Raven is Bear. In Lummi history, Bear taught people how to fish for salmon. Above that is Wolf. Wolf gave people songs and dance. A flea sits upon the moon to tell the story of the disease that white people had brought to the Indigenous people even before 1854. By the mid 1800’s, two thirds of the Natives of the Pacific Northwest had died from diseases introduced by the settlers such as smallpox, influenza. A serpent is also depicted on the pole, indicating more dangers of European settlers coming to the Lummi land. The serpent is shown coiled around some reeds, called cat o’ nine tale. Cat o’ nine tale is an extremely resilient plant, which survives harsh winters. The reeds represent how the Lummi are an enduring people, and their traditions continue to this day. Also on the pole is a series of baskets, which represents the women of the Lummi and the feast they made celebrating the Treaty of Point Elliott. Showing viewers what time of the year the treaty happened is a winter sun god. The last figure on the totem pole is a Lummi man holding drums and dice from a traditional Lummi game. There are two versions of what story this figure tells. One story says that the lummi people still retained their traditions, song and dance while white settlers started taking over. The other version of the story is that the dice represent the Lummi’s uncertain future.”
Stop 2: Old Town Hall – Point Elliott Treaty
Although not built during the period, the building represents an early seat of government that oversaw the colonization of this land.
Lummi Chief Chow-its-hoot, Duwamish and Suquamish Chief Seattle and representatives of other local tribes signed the The Point Elliott Treaty in Mukilteo on Jan. 22, 1855. Tribal representatives had little choice but to sign the treaty and it is unlikely they fully understood what they were signing due to language barriers and deception.
The enforced treaty required that the tribes “cede, relinquish and convey to the United States all their right, title and interest in and to the lands and country occupied by them” and move to the reservations.
Stop 3: The Pickett House –The Confederacy
The Pickett House is the oldest documented wooden structure on its original site in Washington. The house was built in 1856 by John Peabody, a co-owner of the 1853 Saw Mill on Whatcom Creek. The site is maintained by the Daughters of the Pioneers of Washington State.
This stop commemorates George E. Pickett who is most well known as an officer for the Confederacy and the leader of “Pickett’s Charge” at the Battle of Gettysburg.
George E. Pickett grew up in an affluent slave holding family in Virginia, and was a career U.S. military officer before being assigned to the Pacific Northwest. George E. Pickett is known for building Fort Bellingham, a U.S. Army fort built to protect local white settlers and enforce the Treaty of Point Elliott.
While he settled the land, which belongs then and now to the Lummi nation, he “took” a Kagani Haida wife, who died of complications from the birth of their son James Pickett. James Pickett was never accepted into the Virginia Pickett family and lived a short, isolated life grappling with his mixed-race ancestry. George E. Pickett moved back to his home state of Virginia to serve as a general in the Confederate army during the Civil War.
Stop 4: Cornwall Park – The Ku Klux Klan [KKK]
Cornwall Memorial Park was given to the people of Bellingham in 1908 by Bertha James Cornwall Fischer in memory of her father Pierre Barlow Cornwall. The park signage credits Pierre as a Mason and “a California pioneer whose faith, interest, and activities in the development of Bellingham were outstanding.”
Cornwall Park is a pleasant place for a spring stroll, a game of tennis or Frisbee golf but on May 15, 1926 it featured something entirely different. After a picnic, 776 KKK members led a mile-long parade through downtown Bellingham. This gathering was spurred after the klan’s float was denied entry in the annual tulip parade.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Whatcom County had the highest number of klan members for the longest amount of time in Washington. Many klansmen were in positions of authority in Bellingham, and when the KKK had its convention there in 1929, the head klansman was given a key to the city by the mayor himself.
The klan also criticized the then Western president, Charles H. Fisher, for accepting students who were pacifists. At that time Western was known as Western Washington State College. The klan claimed Fisher held values that were atheist, non-patriotic and overall non-American.
Stop 5: Bellingham Police Station – Sundowning
The Bellingham Police Station represents how law enforcement maintains the status quo of white supremacy. Our police system and laws disenfranchise and harm marginalized communities. From stop and frisk to excessive force, police are part of a larger system that has led to a prison industrial complex. With a prison population that is disproportionately represented by people of color, this system is undeniably racist.
One example of how this pattern has played out in Bellingham is the instance of sundowning. American cities and towns used sundowning to exclude people of color by requiring that they leave town before sunset. If they were found on the streets after sunset, they would be picked up by the police and dropped on the roadside outside of town.
Sundowning occurred in Bellingham until the early 1970s when a Black military veteran was picked up by a Bellingham police officer and dropped off in the dark at the Skagit County line. He was struck by a vehicle and killed. The attention this garnered is what ended the practice of sundowning in Bellingham.
Stop 6: Arch of Healing and Reconciliation – Asian American Discrimination
This arch was erected in 2017 and reads: “a tribute to all immigrants to the Pacific Northwest for their courage, hard work, and resilience and as a welcoming symbol of acceptance for new immigrants.”
The arch remembers Chinese persecution, South Asian expulsion and Japanese expulsion in Bellingham.
In the fall of 1885 Bellingham newspaper publishers, the mayor and other civic leaders carried out a successful campaign to force out all Chinese residents from Whatcom County through a combination of threats, boycotts and insistence that the immigrants were taking jobs away from the white residents.
In the early 20th century Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus came to the Pacific Northwest seeking more opportunities. Many found work in Bellingham lumber mills, where they performed the most dangerous work and were paid the lowest wage. Racial fear and prejudice combined with economic competition fed local resentment of these immigrants. Mob riots on Sep. 4, 1907 resulted in the expulsion of the entire community of immigrants of Indian descent within days from Bellingham
On June 3, 1942 all 33 Whatcom County residents of Japanese ancestry, including American-born citizens were forcibly removed from their homes, businesses and schools and imprisoned in concentration camps. This was made possible by Executive Order 9066 signed into law Feb. 19, 1942 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although not a single act of treason or espionage was committed by Japanese Americans during World War II, almost all faced hostility and financial distress.
Stop 7: City Hall – The Hate Continues
The site of countless protests, Bellingham’s current city hall is an important rallying point for activists. The tour ends by highlighting the fact that systemic racism is alive and continuing to harm marginalized communities in Bellingham and Whatcom County. As long as we do not address the underlying systems of oppression, this cycle will painfully continue.
For the original tour, and additional commentary visit The Bellingham Racial History Timeline website.