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Muckleshoot Library Construction Project
Tribe Blesses New Library Site
In a small clearing surrounded on all sides by trees, members of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe blessed the ground where a new library will soon be built.
More than 40 people, including members of the Tribal Council, community members, library staff, contractors and architects gathered on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 14 for a blessing ceremony at the site of the new 6,000 square foot Muckleshoot Library.
Holding a large gold bell, Tribal Council Member Dennis Anderson began the ceremony by explaining the ritual.
“We bless the ground so nothing will happen,” Anderson said. “After this is done and the building is done, we come in and we bless it one more time. This is the way we were taught from our elders.”
Several members of the Muckleshoot Shaker Church were invited to hold candles and lead the group in song and prayer, keeping time with the bell. The audience was requested to divide down the middle, to form a pathway for sound to travel.
In between song and prayer, people involved in the project were invited to say a few words. Muckleshoot Planning Director, Steve Taylor, explained that the Tribe and KCLS began working on the project four years ago, even before the bond issue. The Muckleshoot Tribal College is located nearby, so the library will be an asset to students, he said.
The new library will be six times the size of the existing facility, said KCLS Associate Director Denise Siers.
“We want to express our deepest gratitude from KCLS to the Tribal Council and to all of the Muckleshoot Tribe for working with us,” Siers said.
The new library is a vision of the Tribal Council and other leaders and visionaries in the Tribe, said Joseph Martin, assistant tribal operations manager. Students, families and community members will come to the new library to expand their education, he said.
“This place of gathering will be a place of intellectual development and a place where ideas and thoughts will be exchanged,” he said.
After the final prayer, the church members were asked to take their candles home with them and continue praying for the site during construction.
