Lost Heritage Poem by Kathryne B. Roberts

A grey carved totem pole
Faces outward to the sea.
A reminder of a stolen heritage.

Grey planked smokehouses
Facing the riverbank
Stand empty in rows.

An old Indian chants
Laxwesa WA; Laxwesa WA.
A few wind-dried salmon
For the Potlatch
Celebrate the salmon run.

An outlawed dance
From the spiritual world
Rekindles the ancestral fires.
Reconnecting the circle of
The Potlatch
Long lost in dislocation
And despair