Watchlist: “More than the summit: An Indigenous journey up Tahoma (aka Mount Rainier)”

Kamiah Koch

Social media/digital journalist

Muckleshoot Tribal member Rachel Heaton is an outdoor educator and trainer with the goal of getting Native people back on Mount Tahoma (Mount Rainier) in Washington.

Oregon Public Broadcasting’s recent Oregon Field Guide video, published in late September, follows a group of six Indigenous people training to climb to Camp Muir, reaching more than 4,600 feet of elevation gain.

“I attempted once to summit with Rachel and it was tough,” Muckleshoot Tribal member Tayla LaClair said. “I watched her train and I was like, ‘That looks horrible… let me in.’”

Heaton hopes this journey will allow Tribal people, specifically Tribal youth, to experience the mountain in a way that they can learn more about the mountain’s connection with Native people and feel its spirituality.

According to Heaton, there were historically six Tribes near the base of the mountain, and they all gave the mountain a different name. The snowmelt from the mountain supplies water to rivers the Tribes depend on, so all the names roughly translate to “mother of the water.” 

“My journey is not to summit, my journey is introducing people to the mountain in a sacred way,” Heaton said.

After a summer of training, the all-Native group set off on their ascent, only to reach Camp Muir to find 50 mph winds at the top. They persevered throughout the night and were rewarded with glissading back down the mountain. Glissading is a mountaineering technique where a climber slides down a steep snow or ice slope to speed their descent.

“When we are on our mountain, that means our stories are there, our language is there, our songs are there,” Heaton said.

You can watch the Native hiking expedition on the OPB YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QBGyfQEVk4.