In the early 1970's, brother Phil Lucas and I went to Lunni visit our brother, Gary Hallaire, a 5th generation Lummi carver.
When we arrived Brother Gary was using a chainsaw to prepare a large cedar log for carving. This was just after the Wounded Knee takeover, and everyone was trying to be traditional. Some relatives even beaded their glasses.
When brother Phil saw brother Gary using a chainsaw, he seemed shocked. He said, " Brother Gary, you are supposed to a traditional carver, and you are using a chainsaw."
Brother Gary smiled, turned off his chainsaw, and slowly said, " I can see we need to have a talk. My Lummi people are among the most wise and intelligent People on Mother Earth! And we always used the best tools available to us, like this chainsaw. If there was a 747 in the past, we would have on it flying around to see the world!"
