Tim McNulty, whose indelible prose winds throughout the book, shared center stage with a slideshow of the book's stunning photography and with several of the books numerous other contributors, acknowledging that the collaborative effort of the book was always its intention:
At our first meeting with [the book's publisher] Braided River, we all agreed that Indigenous voices should be a part of this project, and that required proposing this project to each tribal government on the Peninsula and meeting with the Olympic Peninsula Intertribal Cultural Advisory Committee, the elders... and realizing that this was pretty serious business, what we were asking.
That serious business of telling the full story of the Olympic Peninsula depended on the efforts of many, not least of which was Wendy Sampson (Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe), who was credited with connecting many of the key players and was in attendance at the launch. "The result was a beautiful finished product," Sampson said. "As soon as it came in the mail I was running to everybody's house 'Look, look look! It's so beautiful!'"
Having the participants speak their essays in their native language, both literally and figuratively, was invaluable.
"My hands go up to all of our storytellers here," said Frances Charles, Chairwoman of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, also in attendance to share her thoughts.
Being able to contribute their perspective, their creation stories, their ancestor stories to a book whose design and intention was in large part to contextualize local issues for interested parties and policymakers who have never been here was clearly important to all involved. Jamie Valadez (Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe) said: "Our ancestors were always stewards to this land and they saw what was happening and they never stopped fighting for what they knew was the right way to treat our land, to respect it and to take care of it."
