PHOTOS BY LEONDA LEVCHUK
“ ABOUT FOUR OR FIVE MONTHS AGO, WE DIDN’T HAVE ANY IDEA ABOUT OCEAN ACIDIFICATION,” CHARGUALAF ADMITTED. “BUT THE MORE I LEARN, THE MORE SCARED I GET. I THINK I SPEAK FOR ALL OF US WHEN I SAY THIS ISSUE HAS INVIGORATED MY SPIRIT. “
economy that has sustained their families for hundreds of generations. “My father taught me how to fish, his fa-
ther taught him. It’s a rite of passage. And it makes me sad to think that my children or my children’s children may not get to experience that,” said Purser, whose European and Native roots include fishermen on both sides of his family. “With lack of salmon come unhappy Northwest Indians,” he joked. But the students were quick to point out
that ocean acidification isn’t a problem con- fined to the Northwest. “It doesn’t affect only our tribe,” Boure told the audience. “It affects the global economy.” In fact, according to
the students, nearly half of the world’s CO2 emissions will eventually be absorbed into the world’s oceans. Before screening their film at the museum,
the tribe’s young delegates presented their
documentary at the 4th
National Student
Summit on the Ocean and Coasts, a con- ference sponsored by the Coastal America Partnership that brings together dozens of students and educators from across the U.S., Canada and Mexico to promote stewardship of the world’s water resources. Following a welcome performance of
traditional Suquamish song in the museum’s Rasmuson Theater, the students took ques- tions from the audience. “About four or five months ago, we didn’t have any idea about ocean
acidification,” Chargualaf
ABOVE, FROM LEFT: Shaylene Sky Jefferson, Crystal Boure, Vincent Chargualaf and Tyleeander Purser, a group of four high school students from the Suquamish Tribe of Washington state, ponder questions about their community at the Smithson- ian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., March 14, 2013.
“It’s almost like losing our treaty rights,”
Jefferson added. “What our ancestors fought so hard for.” “I think we will have sea life to harvest in
admitted.
“But the more I learn, the more scared I get. I think I speak for all of us when I say this issue has invigorated my spirit. “There are no words to explain how fright-
ening it is to hear that we might lose a huge part of our culture within our own genera- tion,” Chargualaf said.
the next generation,” said Paul Williams, the tribe’s shellfish biologist, who had traveled across the country with his community’s young ambassadors. “The question is what will it be, and will we like to eat it. Will we have to figure out a way to eat jellyfish?”X
Molly Stephey is a senior writer for the magazine and a public affairs producer at the Museum.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 47
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