Rachel Heaton, member of the Muckleshoot Indian tribe, with Duwamish Ancestors, led an All Native Tahoma (Mount Rainier) Climb this September with the goal to see her people represented on the mountain while inspiring the other Native climbers to enjoy the connection to their land. Due to weather constraints, the group was not able to summit, but in the end, they realized the climb was about so much more.
Rachel Heaton, member of the Muckleshoot Indian tribe, with Duwamish Ancestors, led an All Native Tahoma (Mount Rainier) Climb this September with the goal to see her people represented on the mountain while inspiring the other Native climbers to enjoy the connection to their land. Due to weather constraints, the group was not able to summit, but in the end, they realized the climb was about so much more.
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Rachel Heaton:
Mother Earth doesn't need us, but we absolutely need her. We can't live without Mother Earth, but she can live without humans. And when we think about the power that nature carries, I feel like it removes that whole idea of conquering.
Shelby Stanger:
Rachel Heaton hails from the Muckleshoot Tribe in the Pacific Northwest. She lives and works on her reservation about an hour away from the base of Tahoma, the mountain commonly known as Mount Rainier. We'll refer to it as Tahoma for the remainder of the episode. About five years ago when Rachel was in her early 40s, she started hiking and mountaineering. She fell in love with being out on the trail, and it brought her even closer to her land and her people. In 2023, Rachel organized the first all Native team to climb the mountain. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-Op Studios production. In 2017, Rachel Heaton's world turned upside down. Alongside thousands of others she went to Standing Rock Reservation in North and South Dakota to protest against the U.S. Government's Dakota Access Pipeline. The experience was intense, and when Rachel came home, she struggled to go back to her day-to-day life. She became depressed, quit her job of 20 years, and then found out that she was unexpectedly pregnant. Rachel already had two teenage children at home and she thought she was done having kids.
Rachel Heaton:
I had this new baby again and I'm like, how do I continue to have this lifestyle and be able to go to the gym? Because, that was my go-to for my mental health. And I had just started working in our culture department when he was about six months old. And so, I was having to go outside regularly and harvest plants and medicines, and I was thinking like, hey, I can take the baby and thinking of it in the gym since he'll be my resistance, and hiking will be my cardio, and that will be like going to the gym. So, it started off with just kind of these basic little hikes. Our first one was only a mile long, and I remember packing a little backpack and not really knowing what to put in it, and then having him on a pack. And for me, hiking brought peace.
I found peace out there and I really started noticing how much I enjoyed the solitude and the healing that was coming from it. And I heard a question one day, and it was kind of one of those aha moments. And the question was, and I think at this time I was really trying to search of what am I going to do for a career at this point, I just quit my job. I'd been in it for 20 years. I hadn't been doing these other things besides organizing and being on the front lines, but I was like, what am I going to do? And I heard this question, when you're looking for your purpose, go back to what made you happy in your childhood and do that for a job. And so, of course, you could really dig into that, but I really thought about it.
I'm like, what made me happy when I was a kid? And so, really digging deep I'm like, I was always happy outside. If I was happy outside, it meant I wasn't in trouble. I wasn't doing something wrong. I wasn't getting hurt, I wasn't being bullied. I was happy. And so, it really resonated with me. Being outside really makes me happy, and it calms me and it heals me, and I do really good alone in those spaces. And so, that's what hiking brought to me, is it brought this form of peace that I didn't know, one I was looking for, and two, I didn't know it was available.
Shelby Stanger:
In 2021, Rachel signed up to climb to Tahoma with a local guiding company. As she trained for the expedition, Rachel realized that a lot of the culture around mountaineering is focused on reaching the summit, but Rachel was interested in approaching her climb in a different way. Instead of conquering the mountain and making it to the very top, she wanted to use her time on Tahoma to build her relationship with the land. The name Tahoma, can you talk to me about it and the meaning?
Rachel Heaton:
So, there's six tribes around the base of Rainier, but when you go further back in history, there weren't tribes. We were villages. So, when you envision this mountain, imagine hundreds of villages around this mountain. And so, then those villages had to come together through colonization and things. And so, then those hundreds of villages became six tribes. And so, we were all placed around the mountain. And so, actually each of those tribes have their own name for the mountain. Tacobet is the one that our community specifically uses. So, you'll hear Tacobet, Tacoba, Tacoma. And so, there's different words for it, but Tahoma kind of encompasses all of that. It's kind more of a common way for people to, I guess, it's kind of like the English derivative of some of those words. And so, Tahoma more reflects the Native indigeneity of the mountain. And Rainier is actually just the name that was given to the mountain about 200 years ago.
And it was by, I believe it was Governor Stevens. And what he did was he named it after a friend. He was just like, oh, hey, Pierre Rainier was his name. And he actually never saw the mountain or anything. His friend just named it after him. And that's the Westernized way that has taken on the mountain. And also too in Westernized thinking, I think we look at nature as like you said, as this means to conquer. And the reality is, as humans, we don't own earth. And when we think about the power that nature carries, I feel like it removes that whole idea of conquering. When we look at Mother Earth as a provider, when we think of the water and we think about the plants and our animal relatives, those are all things that are provided for us. But, this historical, Westernized patriarchal, it's raised us in this world of like we have to conquer something.
But, when you allow yourself to go out into spaces, and I remember the first time I climbed, I had to turn around and I attempted twice last year. And in that process of climbing, and it wasn't because of the mountain, it was because my pack was too heavy and I was going to basically hold the team behind and I had to make a decision to turn around. And I remember my ego was shattered, and it was a wake-up call. Because, I got down to the bottom of the mountain, my boyfriend picked me up and I was devastated. And he literally looked over at me and was like, I don't know you. What is going on with you? This isn't you. And I remember he took me home and I didn't want to go home. I wanted to just pout and hide. And then-
Shelby Stanger:
I was going to ask you, when you're in these moods, do you pout? Because, when my ego is crushed, I kind of act like a 12-year-old-
Rachel Heaton:
Oh, I did.
Shelby Stanger:
... or even younger.
Rachel Heaton:
I did.
Shelby Stanger:
Got it.
Rachel Heaton:
I totally did. And I had to go home and I really had to sit and think about it. And I'm like, why is my ego so involved in this? Why am I devastated? And it's because in the process of getting ready for that climb, I never imagined not making it. I never imagined that that was even going to be a possibility. It wasn't even something that crossed my mind. And so, then when it happened, it was shocking, but then I had to humble myself and go, wait a second. That's not why you're going out there. You're not going out there to summit. You're going out there to teach people. You're going out there to let them know that Native people are still here, that you walk by our traditional plants and our medicines all the time, and you have no idea the beauty that you're surrounded by. You have no idea the spiritual connection that this land holds when you walk on it. And so, it just gets looked at as a tourist location or it gets looked at as this place that needs to be explored and conquered.
And I was just like, wait. That's exactly what I don't want people to come up here and think that this is about. So then, the more that I started getting out there, I realized like, holy cow, our people aren't out here. We're not visible in this space. I don't see us out there. And so, then that really got me thinking, our language isn't out there. Our knowledge isn't out there. We're not out there, but we're ancestrally from these lands. Why do I not see my face at all on this mountain? So then, it became this mission of how do I get our voice out onto this mountain? Or how do I get us out there? So, I ended up going back to the climbing company that I was climbing with at the time, and I sat down with the owner of that company and I told him my reason for going up there.
And it was about creating visibility for our people, and it was about introducing our medicines, and it was about taking medicines to the mountain and letting her know we are here and we understand the power that you carry, and it's our job to educate the people that come out here and experience you. And so, by that afternoon, he had connected me with their climbing manager and everything, and they had actually had me on a climb two months later. And I get to have the opportunity to educate outsiders about the sacred space that they're actually in and the villages of the tribes that surround that mountain I get to talk about. And, that's really what it's about for me.
Shelby Stanger:
By day, Rachel works in the cultural department for the Muckleshoot Tribe, collecting Indigenous herbs, seeds and plants to share with her community. As she became more involved in mountaineering, Rachel figured out a way to bring her work on the reservation up to Tahoma. She started carrying food and teas from local tribes on expeditions to share with visiting mountaineers. Soon enough, Rachel was presented with the opportunity to put together the first all Native team to climb Tahoma. When we come back, Rachel talks about how this expedition came together, what it was like to actually train for the climb, and we even hear voice memos that the team recorded while on the mountain.
In 2022, Rachel started working with a guiding company and sharing her Native culture with climbers on Tahoma, also known as Mount Rainier. Her work was so impactful that the Washington Parks Fund took notice. They offered to sponsor the first all Native expedition on Tahoma, and they asked Rachel to organize it. She recruited seven climbers from tribes all over the northwest. Most of them didn't have much mountaineering experience, but they were all eager to form a deeper relationship with their Native land. The team prepared for months and planned to set out the first week of September 2023. I talked to Rachel six weeks before the team left on their expedition. How are you guys preparing for it?
Rachel Heaton:
So, everybody lives in different areas of Washington, and so everybody is on their own for their training. However, the really cool thing about the climbing companies is they all have tools of how to specifically train for a mountain, because training for a mountain is absolutely nothing like training for bodybuilding for me. But, we do have practices, training practices to expose the climbers to the environment that they're going to be in, and just giving them an idea of what to expect when we get out on this climb. And it also gives us a chance to talk about, hey, how are you feeling? Where are you at? I personally, this time around got a custom program to train, and I've been using that program for the last several months to get myself ready.
Shelby Stanger:
Any good stories so far from some of those practice climbs that you can share?
Rachel Heaton:
Our first climb was really great because it's funny, a lot of our team thought, well, I'm a great hiker, so that will make me a great climber. And it's crazy because they're so different when you bring in the snow and the technical piece. And so, the first practice that we all did together, we all hiked up to the base camp, Camp Muir, which is where we will all be for the first night. And it was a big learning experience of some of the climbers realizing I have to have certain medications. So, realizing what are the absolute things you have to have with you? And some of my climbers have anxiety, so it was super important to make sure that they have that.
We have our younger ones that have just endless energy and just the energy that they bring. That's the cool thing is like, our group is everyone from their early 20s to our 40s, and everybody just brings this different level of energy, and we all have great chemistry and we're all just very different and we recognize it. And the mountain taught us that being out there as a group and how that support plays, but it was a very big learning lesson. Some of us didn't have the right boots, some of us didn't have our medications. We burned really, really bad. We were putting sunscreen on all day long and we still fried. So, it was just kind of these learning things that you would not want to learn on the official climb. So, these practices have been really great.
Shelby Stanger:
What kind of Indigenous knowledge and practices are you taking with you on this climb?
Rachel Heaton:
So, definitely with this particular climb, because everybody with me is Native, so it's not so much about educating others about where they're at as much as it is about us enjoying who we are as Native people, and enjoying that connection to the land, and each of us understanding that connection that we have as Native people. So, that's important, but also too, having our traditional medicines and plants with us is important to me because that mountain's alive and she knows that we're bringing those things there. And so, when my team comes together and starts climbing, we all gather and we give an offering to the mountain. So, we lay tobacco out and we all say a prayer before we go into that setting and introduce ourselves because she knows we're there. And so, we take that with us, but then the opportunity to go up and smudge and clear those spaces and just, I feel like bringing that medicines to her, which is the mountain. And so, I think just taking who we are as Native people up there and that experience is really what I'm taking with this.
Shelby Stanger:
Rachel has spent a lot of time up on Tahoma, so she can tell when something doesn't feel right. On a hiking trip in August of this year, Rachel noticed that it was hot up on the mountain, the snow was melting, and conditions were icier than normal. By early September, most trips to Tahoma were canceled because it was unsafe to summit. But, Rachel and her team were determined to move forward even if they couldn't make it to the top of the mountain. Here are voice memos from some of the team members before they left for their expedition.
Jennifer Vickers:
My name is Jennifer Vickers. My Nipmuc name is [Indigenous language 00:16:57]. I reside on the Coast Salish lands here in Edmonds, Washington. This has been a bucket list adventure for me for about three years, and once you put things into the air and manifest things, they somehow in some way become real. We've always talked about what representation is missing, and it's such a rich opportunity of learning and development for everyone that enters these spaces.
Gil Damian:
Hi, my name's Gil Damian. I'm from the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. Part of the reason why I'm doing this climb is because, to show my kids no matter what age they are, not to give up. This is not something that was in my plans. I felt like I wasn't even supposed to be here, but I feel like my kids will watch this and other people will watch this and hopefully spark their mind to get into places like this.
Steven Gray:
My name is Steven Gray, and Nooksack and Seabird Island. Going into the climb, I'm feeling pretty anxious. I can only imagine how tested we will be, both physically and mentally. I'm a little worried about trying to stay as present as possible when I'm sure your feet, your legs, hips, things are just on fire. But then, I think those are those moments where you kind of try and tap into that gratitude of sharing the space and the air of the group and our ancestors.
Shelby Stanger:
The team hiked with a guiding company up to Camp Muir, which is one of the base camps at Tahoma. It sits at almost 11,000 feet, and getting up there is no small trek. After they made it to Camp Muir, the team is committed to continuing up the mountain, but as they made their way toward a higher camp, the group ran into several rockfalls. Their guide told them, sometimes the mountain whispers, but today she's shouting. It was clear that it wasn't safe to go any further and they needed to return to a lower elevation. In total, the team spent three days on the mountain. They did technical exercises like getting lowered into crevasses and navigating ice fields. Here's some messages from the actual climb.
Rita Gray:
[Indigenous Laguage]. Rita Gray, [Indigenous language]. Hello, this is Rita Gray. I am at Camp Muir with my lovely Indigenous hiking team, and we are getting ready to head out this morning, and I am just feeling really grateful to be a part of such an amazing group of people and to be a part of this monumental moment, and just really grateful to be here. I'm also really tired. I've had a lot of anxiety since being up here. I think that my community would be really proud of me for being a part of a group that's reclaiming Indigenous spaces and just paving the way for Indigenous folks to get out there and mountaineer and reclaim those spaces.
Speaker 7:
Final day up here on Mount Tahoma. I have so many complaints, like it's pretty chilly. We didn't even get to make it to the flats after all the tough training and the excruciating first date of Muir. Hold on, I can't breathe. Surprisingly, my body doesn't feel too sore, but I seriously had to reteach myself how to breathe, if you can't tell. Now, I know there's a lot of negative, but it's kind of the raw truth. The crazy part though is none of that even matters to me. It's so breathtaking up here, and even if we only got as high as Muir, the views day and night are immaculate. So, just being able to be up here and absorb the beauty and energy is such a blessing. We got lucky and are up here alone, so it's peaceful and quiet. Plus the people that are up here with me make it a million times better. Our laughter just echoes off the mountains up here. All in all, a 100 out of 10 would recommend and will be doing again.
Steven Gray:
Steven Gray, last morning here. I am feeling pretty good. I'm excited to be going down, that's for sure. But, I've had a great time. Just the peace and the quiet of being at Camp Muir by ourselves was, made the trip. Just because there's so much chaos and activity going on beneath the clouds and up where we were it's us, one raven, Mount Hood, Mount St. Helen's, Mount Adams. When things are feeling crazy and things are feeling overwhelming, just being able to call back on this moment of being above the clouds and the peace that comes with that. So, for me, it's just continuing to be myself and do things that I find to be of value. So, looking forward to being able to reflect and see the impact that this trip has.
Shelby Stanger:
While they weren't able to reach the peak of Tahoma, the group achieved their goal to connect with Mother Nature. Rachel only hopes that this approach to adventure and representation makes a lasting impact.
Rachel Heaton:
The team may not want to do this as a lifelong thing. They're not necessarily looking to be mountaineers. I hope that this isn't a one-time thing, even if it's not this team. I don't want this to be a one-time thing, because it's not just a visibility issue here. It's a visibility issue everywhere. And so, that's what I hope comes from this.
Shelby Stanger:
This all Native climb was hopefully the first of many opportunities, projects and initiatives that support Native climbers and adventurers. Rachel, Mercedes, Gil, Tayla, Jennifer, Steven, and Rita, congrats on your climb. Thank you so much for coming on Wild Ideas Worth Living and sharing your experiences with us. Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI Podcast Network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, produced by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas, and Sam Peers Nitzberg of Puddle Creative, and our senior producer is Jenny Barber. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby. As always, we love it when you follow the show, when you rate it, and when you take time to write a review. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.