Submitted by The Lopez Island Library

The Lopez Island Library is pleased to announce the date for the third speaker in the 2019 Coast Salish Speaker Series program. On Thursday, June 20 at 6:30 p.m. at the Lopez Center for Community and the Arts, we welcome Lummi Elder William John. William John, whose Lummi name is X’welwelat’se, is a storyteller and retired teacher from Ferndale High School and Northwest Indian College, where he taught Lummi language classes. He and his wife Ane Berrett co-facilitate an ongoing series of public presentations titled “Cultural Orientation to Coast Salish Concepts of Time and Space” to audiences at a small nonprofit arts space named Bruna Press + Archive in Bellingham, Washington. He has been invited to Lopez and the other San Juan Islands to speak about some of the ideas and values that sustain Coast Salish peoples. The 2019 Coast Salish Speaker Series is an interisland educational project focusing on connecting the current residents of and visitors to the San Juan Islands with the Native history of this region. It is a collaborative endeavor amongst the Lopez, Orcas and San Juan Islands’ public libraries and the San Juan Islands National Monument. After his performance at the Lopez Center, William John will travel to San Juan and Orcas Islands to present at their respective public libraries. The series will include one more Coast Salish speaker in August. The Speaker Series is a project funded largely by the San Juan County Lodging Tax grant and co-sponsored by the Friends of the Lopez Library and the San Juan Islands National Monument. For any questions about the series, please contact Malia Sanford at malia@lopezlibrary.org.