Did you know? Alaska salmon in the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree

Salmon skin ornaments made by youth in Sitka. (Photo by Lee House/Sitka Conservation Society)

This year, there is a little Christmas magic hiding inside the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. After a nearly 5,000-mile journey from the Tongass National Forest to Washington, D.C., the 80-foot tall Sitka Spruce standing on the U.S. Capitol grounds has a secret to share with the country: It is packed with wild Pacific salmon. 

In our coastal forests, salmon nutrients are quite literally in the trees. At nearly 17 million acres, the Tongass National Forest is densely woven with hundreds of thousands of miles of salmon streams, providing ample habitat for salmon to swim up from the ocean and spawn. Bears, birds and wolves pull the fish into the forest for a feast and leave the rest to decompose and be carried further by smaller critters and insects. The salmon eventually fertilize the vast trees throughout the Tongass National Forest. Research from Tom Reimchen, a forest ecologist at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, has shown that trees growing near salmon streams contain anywhere from 40% to 80% of nitrogen from ocean-going fish.

It’s only fitting that a Tongass Christmas tree, itself nourished by salmon, has salmon ornaments in its branches. To honor the ocean nutrients in the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree, youth from Sitka created ornaments using tanned salmon skins as part of Sitka Conservation Society’s Alaska Way of Life 4-H project. The salmon skins, provided by local Sitka artist Judi Lehman, reflect the importance that wild Alaska salmon have in Southeast Alaska, nourishing the Indigenous Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian for millennia, supporting sustainable fishing economies, and being a highly sought-after source of protein countrywide.

The youth made the ornaments for the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree as part of a broader effort by Alaskans to produce more than 10,000 ornaments to adorn it. Drawn, sewn, and more, many of the ornaments pay homage to the rich cultures, ecosystems and ways of life in Alaska. Indigenous Northwest Coast formline designs were featured in many ornament-making workshops. In Petersburg, tribal artist Mary Ann Rainey, worked with participants to create felt formline ornaments with traditional beadwork incorporated. Designs included fish, birds and other animals. In Juneau, the Central Council of the Tlingit  and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska and the U.S. Forest Service co-hosted an event to create more ornaments featuring formline artwork.

Since 1964, the USDA Forest Service has provided a Christmas tree, also known as ”the Peoples’ Tree,”  from a national forest to make our nation’s capital a little more merry and bright each holiday season. After the tree is brought from the selected forest to the U.S. Capitol building, it is raised, decorated and rung in with joy and cheer during a tree-lighting ceremony in early December.

This year’s tree came from Wrangell, Alaska, the Indigenous Lingít homelands of the Shtax’héen Ḵwáan. During the tree’s lighting ceremony on Dec. 3, Esther Aaltséen Reese, Tribal administrator of the Wrangell Cooperative Association, addressed the crowd in D.C.: “For the Lingít people, trees are our life-givers. They are how we create our canoes, our homes and our totems, which tell our stories. They are our connection to our ancestors and they show our love for our children and those who come after us as we steward the land. Our Lingít culture is about balance, reciprocity and respect, gunalchéesh for allowing us to share a part of ourselves bringing this balance, love and respect to the Nation’s Capitol by sharing our life-giver with you.”

The lands and waters of the Tongass National Forest support the ways of life of 31 communities and 19 federally recognized tribes that reside in the region. It is also globally significant, making up a main part of the world’s largest intact coastal rainforest, which spans from Southeast Alaska down to the Pacific Northwest. The tree stands shining on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol as a reminder to Americans of the importance that the far-off Tongass National Forest holds for our country.