DAVID FOLKENFLIK, HOST:
There are about 54,000 species of spiders in the world, so it doesn't seem like finding just one more would be that big of a deal. But in Oregon, one new species received a ceremonial welcome. Deena Prichep reports.
DEENA PRICHEP: A few years ago, Greta Binford was taking a hike in the Columbia River Gorge, and she saw a spider.
GRETA BINFORD: And it just looked different from anything that I normally see when I roll over rocks and logs in this area.
PRICHEP: Binford is an evolutionary biologist at Lewis & Clark College who studies spiders, hence rolling over rocks and logs. But this was not the spider she expected to see.
BINFORD: And the first thing I thought was, wow. And it looks like trogloraptor.
PRICHEP: Trogloraptor is a family of spiders that only contains one species, and that species lives about 350 miles away. Over the next few years, Binford found more of these spiders and discovered this was trogloraptor, but a new species. And when you discover a new species, you get to name it. Usually, it's a name that reflects the organism's characteristics or some source of inspiration. Naming is an honor, and Binford's lab decided to share it.
BINFORD: We had an idea really spearheaded by my student, Madeline Jones, who suggested, why don't we reach out to the local tribes and see if they have an idea for a name?
PRICHEP: And they did - trogloraptor tulishpun. It means cave predator in Sahaptin, the Native language traditionally spoken in the land where the spider was found. But that wasn't the end of things.
DONELLA MILLER: I jokingly said - when I said, you know, we're giving the spider a Indian name. That means we're going to have to have the naming ceremony.
PRICHEP: Donella Miller is a member of the Yakama Nation and also a biologist with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, which Binford reached out to to name the spider.
MILLER: Honestly, acknowledging the first people, you know, the Indigenous people who live in that area and bringing them into it, it kind of seems like this is what should have been done all along.
PRICHEP: This past week, several dozen tribal members and scientists gathered under the hemlocks and fir trees near where the spider was found for a traditional naming ceremony.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ANTHONY WASHINES: At this time, we'll open this ground, the sacred ground that we're standing on, and then we'll begin.
PRICHEP: Naming ceremonies are usually, unsurprisingly, for people. It's a formal introduction of the name, but it's also a way to sort of welcome that individual and mark their place in the community.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
WASHINES: You're being a witness to this brother being acknowledged.
PRICHEP: Anthony Washines is the Yakima elder who came up with the spider's name.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
WASHINES: And so, from this day forward, we will call them by the name tulishpun. Repeat after me - tulishpun.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Tulishpun.
PRICHEP: Gifts and food were shared, and a traditional naming song was sung. A few spiders were gathered to receive their name and then returned back to the nearby caves. Washines knows people will see tulishpun as a small thing. But he says every creature has its place, and this little spider has been in this place even when his people were not.
WASHINES: We were literally herded to a reservation up in the high-desert plateau, which was not our land. But he stayed here and remained. He still took care of this land.
PRICHEP: Usually, the discovery of a new species is celebrated with a pizza party in the lab, maybe a nod from the dean. It's an academic milestone. But for tulishpun, it's a community event, a gathering of scientists and citizens, of human and animal, to name all of those who make up this land and honor the connections between them.
For NPR News, I'm Deena Prichep in Cascade Locks, Oregon. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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