Born Free in the Puget Sound,
Tokatai was just four years old
when she was captured in the
San Juan Islands and sold to the
Miami's Aquarium in the early 7.
Her new owners named her Lolita,
and for the past 52 years
she's been languishing
in this small Miami aquarium moe
than 3000 miles away from home.
Your relative I'm
here to bring messages to
members of the Lummi Nation have never
stopped fighting and praying for
Tokatai's return to the Salish .
To the lummi. Orcas
are considered family
relatives under the waves.
When they came in the roundup
in the 70s and took her,
it's exactly what they did to hr
black to miss children by roundg
them up and taking them to Indin
resident boarding schools, he s.
Stripped them of their families,
stripped them of their home,
stripped them of their culture,
of their traditional food.
Thursday, Tokatai's corporate owners,
the Dolphin Company,
entered into a formal and binding agreement
with nonprofit Friends of Lolito
return Tokatai to her native wa.
CEO Eduardo Albore shared it was
his daughter's reaction to seeig
Tokatai in her small tank for te
first time that pushed him to
prioritize her health and relea.
I cannot be more time here becae
this place is too small for for
the for Lolita. What you mean?
It is too small. I feel so bad.
I have to go, right? We'll cry.
And she told me when we leave.
If we ever take management of this place,
you promise me that you will
see how to improve this.
I promise I will do
it. The pledge to bring Tokatai
home comes in part because
her health has improved.
Thanks to a team of independent
veterinarians, she's receiving
specialized care for the first .
We brought in some enrichment, folks.
To help with the vets
in between everyone working together,
she started to heal.
Morris and another elder have ao
been granted exclusive access to
Tokatai on several occasions,
serenading her with traditional drumming
and cedar from the Salish Sea and I drummed
and she stayed right in front o.
Scaly Chuck did not.
That's the first time she's been
able to hear her lacked MIS lane
to be able to get traditional
healing when she comes home.
The plan is for tokatai to live in a large
underwater pen in the San Juan Islands.
The sea pen would be built with help from
the nonprofit The Whale Sanctuary Project,
although construction for
Tokatai's Pen hasn't begun yet.
But they are currently constructing a
seaside sanctuary in Nova Scotia for Wales,
retired from entertainment park,
and they're helping finalize
plans for Tokkatai C pen too.
And now that we have financial resources,
what ancestors have told me is there.
Clearing her path home and her
lactamish culture is going to ry
her spirit to make that journey.
Morris says the signs of a homecoming
on the horizon have been hard to miss.
This is your heartbeat, skelly.
Chuck the nut.
This is my heartbeat,
your mother's heartbeat.
During the prayer ceremony held
earlier this year to let Tokutas
family know she is ready to come home,
a sign too powerful to ignore.
About the time we were doing ceremony,
they were there, the superpaw.
They know they're getting ready.
Before Tokatai can return home to Washington,
several federal agencies have
to sign off on her move,
including the Department of Natl
Resources and the Department of Agriculture.
Morris is still, however,
convinced that Tokatai could be home by
the end of the year for facing .
I'm PJ randawa.