Watch For Wakisi 🐢🚸
Photography: Tom Fisk
Photo Description: A street sign along a woodsy backroad says “Turtle Crossing” with an outline of a turtle.
🚸🐢 We need more signs like this in NC. Two weekends ago, I was headed to ceremony on the backroads of Alamance County. I saw something ahead and swerved. It was so small, I had to ask myself “Was that a turtle?” I couldn’t live with myself if it was and they was still alive. So I busted a U-turn at a wide spot in the two-lane road.
🚸🐢 I pulled up and sure enough a tiny box turtle was barely halfway across the road, not quite to the yellow lines: right in the path of would-be tire tracks! 😥
🚸🐢 I made another short u-turn, blocking both parts of the road, just before a pick up truck came barreling down the local highway. The driver may not have seen the turtle in time. I pushed my hazard button and put my arm up as another car came in the opposite direction. She slowed down to a stop.
🚸🐢I briskly walked to the little turtle. As they saw me, the turtle quickly put their head in their shell, terrified at the whole situation. They probably thought to themselves, “This [pavement] sure is a nice, toasty rock to slowly make my way across to the other pond” (there are large ponds on both sides of the road); “I wonder when I’ll get there,” “What are all these loud noises?” (cars coming by), “Oh no! Is this a bear coming to eat me. Better hide!” (Me coming to pick them up).
🚸🐢 “It’s okay little relative,” I gently reassured them, “I got you.” I took the turtle to the other side of the road, in the direction they was going, and sat them gingerly on the grass. “Be safe!” I instructed. I waved to the two waiting cars as I hurried back to my own car. I pulled the door shut and snapped on my seatbelt. The woman in the car opposite of and facing me smiled and waved.
🚸🐢 I turned off my hazards and continued on my journey. About half a mile up the road I saw another turtle who had not made it: they had been crushed by a car. I told my gida Robert Rice this and he said “You probably saved their life.” It sobered me to think how the life and death of small creatures can be so easily taken or saved by the carelessness or kindness of humans.
🚸🐢 It made me think of the pipelines and highways and developments all built on and near wakisi: homes. How all they want is to swim in the water and soak up the sun on a rock. All they want is to live. And yes our Indigenous people use turtle meat to make soup and make rattles from their shells, just as wakisi sustain heron and all types of predators. But at least their lives and deaths have a purpose and a meaning, rather than lackadaisically being run over without a thought or care.
🚸🐢 How you can help spare a turtles life and keep our ecosystems in balance:
Be on the lookout for critters while driving: especially while driving back country roads, especially near bodies of water, especially in the mornings and evenings, especially after storms.
Advocate with your local U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office for more wildlife crossing signs in your area.
As my gida Robert and I say, “If you see a vehicle, warn a turtle.” You, yes you!, can also help turtles cross the road! Just be sure to take them to the side of the road they were headed. Even big turtles aren’t as heavy as you’d think. Run into a giant turtle? Help them by holding up traffic while they cross. If folks get impatient ask them to get out and help you pick “grandpa” up!
🐢 On behalf of the Wakisi Nation, thank you for reading and for caring ♥️
Photography: Vlad Chetan
Photo Description: A side profile of a box turtle stands surrounded by green grass.
