{"id":52474,"date":"2025-03-17T13:28:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T20:28:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.humanities.org\/?p=52474"},"modified":"2025-03-18T10:10:59","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T17:10:59","slug":"john-halliday-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.humanities.org\/spark\/john-halliday-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Be a Chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2020, John Halliday died after having an allergic reaction to post-op medicine. He would die another two times \u2014once on his way to the hospital in the ambulance and again in the ICU\u2014 before falling into a six-day coma.<\/p>\n

Even though Halliday appeared to be still during that coma, in his mind he was battling to wake up.<\/p>\n

In reality, Halliday comes from a long line of warriors. Although a member of the Muckleshoot tribe, ancestrally his family is Duwamish, originally inhabiting the area that is now known as South Lake Union.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy great, great, great grandfather was the chief of the Boise Creek band of White River Duwamish, and he led the warriors, along with Leschi, in the attack on Seattle, on January 26, 1856, when 400 warriors surrounded the city and the battleship Decatur drove them off. But ultimately were able to get the governor, Isaac Stevens, to renegotiate the treaty and create the Muckleshoot Reservation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fighting to survive runs in Halliday\u2019s blood.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is why during his coma he dreamed of his Canoe Family. A Canoe Family refers to the group or team of tribal members who journey together on a canoe for the annual Canoe Journey<\/a> which is hosted by a different tribe every year. Most if not all Northwestern tribes join in on this tradition, but tribes such as the Maori, as well as the Hawaiian and Aleutian peoples, have been known to participate<\/span>. The journey brings hundreds of Canoe Families together to different shores yearly.<\/p>\n

In his dream, his Canoe Family was trying to break him out of the hospital, singing to him from outside. Later in his dream he saw his limp body inside a longhouse, being devoured by snakes.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018You don’t have to be afraid,\u201d he thought to himself.<\/p>\n

Suddenly a white wolf and coyote, his spirit helpers, or Tamanawas as it\u2019s known in the Salish language, appeared to him. He then became the white wolf and defended his body from the snakes. All the while, his Canoe Family marched into the longhouse singing that their land is heaven and is full of chiefs. That\u2019s when Halliday had a realization.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember my mom told me that we had all kinds of different chiefs,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had peace chiefs, war chiefs, chiefs in charge of hunting, chiefs in charge of fishing, chiefs in charge of gathering, chiefs in charge of the fire, chiefs in charge of watching the camp, both men and women\u2026 but what they all had in common was caring for others.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Halliday finished defeating the last snake, his Canoe Family handed him his own paddle and he walked out of the longhouse. That\u2019s when he woke from his coma.<\/p>\n

At 55, he opened his eyes but could barely see. Halliday is now legally blind. His sight is so limited that any glasses he uses must\u00a0 \u201cblow things up so big that in order for me to see it clearly in focus, it has to be so big that it’s almost as if I’m standing next to a letter,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter my [hospitalization], I introduced myself as a father and a husband, and I learned that those were really the important titles. That’s how I should have been introducing myself all along,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Halliday\u2019s life completely changed. Initially, it seemed like his own chief-like roles were being stripped from him all at once. \u201cI was doing congressional and presidential correspondence. I was in charge of 17.5 million acres of Indian reservation,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI handled realty, probate, natural resources, range and agriculture, environmental compliance, engineering, and wildfires.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unable to read, write, or use technology, Halliday resigned from his role as the deputy regional director for the bureau of Indian affairs for the Navajo region.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came home and I couldn’t even get my key in the door,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

At first, losing all these titles felt like a loss of identity and purpose. But Halliday\u2019s voice begins quavering not at the admission of this, but rather at the recognition that the more prominent roles he identifies with now should have always come before the ones he now forgoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter my [hospitalization], I introduced myself as a father and a husband, and I learned that those were really the important titles. That’s how I should have been introducing myself all along,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It took all of six months to find a new purpose. Before losing his sight, \u201cartist\u201d was never a title he ever identified with before. With the help of his wife, Halliday obtained paints, canvases, and the inspiration to create his first work of art: \u201cBear Hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halliday is now traveling the state as part of Humanities Washington\u2019s Speakers Bureau, telling his story, sharing his art, and exploring what it means to be a chief through his public talk, \u201cWhat Is a Chief? How Native Values Can Teach Resilience.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

John Halliday.<\/p><\/div>\n

What\u2019s immediately apparent is that Halliday doesn\u2019t need perfect vision to paint captivating images. According to Halliday, although he is blind, he sees his paintings in his mind, much like the dream he had during his coma.<\/p>\n

In \u201cBear Hope,\u201d two cool eyes balance between a stoic snout. They watch intently, popping out at the viewer from the surrounding fur that burns like embers.<\/p>\n

Halliday didn\u2019t so much become an artist as much as he returned to his roots, recalling how his father, a gallery curator, encouraged him from a young age to charcoal paint and create cultural regalia.<\/p>\n

Halliday has now painted many other works including \u201cWhite Buffalo Medicine,\u201d and \u201cThe Salmon People.\u201d He has also dedicated himself to making Native American regalia like eagle staffs and war bonnets.<\/p>\n

In 2023, he was flown out to Denmark by artist Thomas Dambo<\/span>, best known for his wood palette trolls found all around Washington State. In Denmark, Dambo commissioned Halliday to paint a mural on his house.<\/p>\n

With the help of an assistant, Halliday created the outline by standing far away from the wall and marking the shadows cast upon a cut out placed three inches from his face. This way, the assistant could wave the brush and paint the wall based on the shadows Halliday could see on the cut out, sort of like how a pinhole camera allows a person to see an eclipse without staring directly into the sun.<\/p>\n

An Orca whale now lives permanently on the facade of Dambo’s home.<\/p>\n

In thinking back on his coma dream and the appearance of his Canoe Family, Halliday thinks his culture not only helped him overcome his disability, but taught him his purpose and a powerful lesson.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a chief is about father helping son, daughter helping friend, mom helping granddaughter, friend helping friend. All of those are acts of being a chief, and you have to ask yourself when you have moral questions: What would a chief do?\u00a0Are you being a chief by what you\u2019re doing right now?\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cI believe that I was brought back to bring this message to you: that we can all be chiefs in our own way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Agueda Pacheco Flores is a freelance writer in Seattle who focuses on social justice issues, music, arts, and the Latine diaspora. She\u2019s previously written for <\/em>The Seattle Times, Crosscut, Journey Magazine, Real Change News, and<\/em> The South Seattle Emerald.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the brink of death, John Halliday was sent a message.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"In 2020, John Halliday died after having an allergic reaction to post-op medicine. He would die another two times \u2014once on his way to the hospital in the ambulance and again in the ICU\u2014 before falling into a six-day coma.\r\n\r\nEven though Halliday appeared to be still during that coma, in his mind he was battling to wake up.\r\n\r\nIn reality, Halliday comes from a long line of warriors. Although a member of the Muckleshoot tribe, ancestrally his family is Duwamish, originally inhabiting the area that is now known as South Lake Union.\r\n\r\n\u201cMy great, great, great grandfather was the chief of the Boise Creek band of White River Duwamish, and he led the warriors, along with Leschi, in the attack on Seattle, on January 26, 1856, when 400 warriors surrounded the city and the battleship Decatur drove them off. But ultimately were able to get the governor, Isaac Stevens, to renegotiate the treaty and create the Muckleshoot Reservation,\u201d he said.\r\n\r\nFighting to survive runs in Halliday\u2019s blood.\r\n\r\nPerhaps this is why during his coma he dreamed of his Canoe Family. A Canoe Family refers to the group or team of tribal members who journey together on a canoe for the annual Canoe Journey<\/a> which is hosted by a different tribe every year. Most if not all Northwestern tribes join in on this tradition, but tribes such as the Maori, as well as the Hawaiian and Aleutian peoples, have been known to participate<\/span>. The journey brings hundreds of Canoe Families together to different shores yearly.\r\n\r\nIn his dream, his Canoe Family was trying to break him out of the hospital, singing to him from outside. Later in his dream he saw his limp body inside a longhouse, being devoured by snakes.\r\n\r\n\u201c\u2018You don't have to be afraid,\u201d he thought to himself.\r\n\r\nSuddenly a white wolf and coyote, his spirit helpers, or Tamanawas as it\u2019s known in the Salish language, appeared to him. He then became the white wolf and defended his body from the snakes. All the while, his Canoe Family marched into the longhouse singing that their land is heaven and is full of chiefs. That\u2019s when Halliday had a realization.\r\n\r\n\u201cI remember my mom told me that we had all kinds of different chiefs,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had peace chiefs, war chiefs, chiefs in charge of hunting, chiefs in charge of fishing, chiefs in charge of gathering, chiefs in charge of the fire, chiefs in charge of watching the camp, both men and women\u2026 but what they all had in common was caring for others.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhen Halliday finished defeating the last snake, his Canoe Family handed him his own paddle and he walked out of the longhouse. That\u2019s when he woke from his coma.\r\n\r\nAt 55, he opened his eyes but could barely see. Halliday is now legally blind. His sight is so limited that any glasses he uses must\u00a0 \u201cblow things up so big that in order for me to see it clearly in focus, it has to be so big that it's almost as if I'm standing next to a letter,\u201d he explained.\r\n

\u201cAfter my [hospitalization], I introduced myself as a father and a husband, and I learned that those were really the important titles. That's how I should have been introducing myself all along,\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\nHalliday\u2019s life completely changed. Initially, it seemed like his own chief-like roles were being stripped from him all at once. \u201cI was doing congressional and presidential correspondence. I was in charge of 17.5 million acres of Indian reservation,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI handled realty, probate, natural resources, range and agriculture, environmental compliance, engineering, and wildfires.\u201d\r\n\r\nUnable to read, write, or use technology, Halliday resigned from his role as the deputy regional director for the bureau of Indian affairs for the Navajo region.\r\n\r\n\u201cI came home and I couldn't even get my key in the door,\u201d he adds.\r\n\r\nAt first, losing all these titles felt like a loss of identity and purpose. But Halliday\u2019s voice begins quavering not at the admission of this, but rather at the recognition that the more prominent roles he identifies with now should have always come before the ones he now forgoes.\r\n\r\n\u201cAfter my [hospitalization], I introduced myself as a father and a husband, and I learned that those were really the important titles. That's how I should have been introducing myself all along,\u201d he said.\r\n\r\nIt took all of six months to find a new purpose. Before losing his sight, \u201cartist\u201d was never a title he ever identified with before. With the help of his wife, Halliday obtained paints, canvases, and the inspiration to create his first work of art: \u201cBear Hope.\u201d\r\n\r\nHalliday is now traveling the state as part of Humanities Washington\u2019s Speakers Bureau, telling his story, sharing his art, and exploring what it means to be a chief through his public talk, \u201cWhat Is a Chief? How Native Values Can Teach Resilience.<\/a>\u201d\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_52479\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]\"\"<\/a> John Halliday.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nWhat\u2019s immediately apparent is that Halliday doesn\u2019t need perfect vision to paint captivating images. According to Halliday, although he is blind, he sees his paintings in his mind, much like the dream he had during his coma.\r\n\r\nIn \u201cBear Hope,\u201d two cool eyes balance between a stoic snout. They watch intently, popping out at the viewer from the surrounding fur that burns like embers.\r\n\r\nHalliday didn\u2019t so much become an artist as much as he returned to his roots, recalling how his father, a gallery curator, encouraged him from a young age to charcoal paint and create cultural regalia.\r\n\r\nHalliday has now painted many other works including \u201cWhite Buffalo Medicine,\u201d and \u201cThe Salmon People.\u201d He has also dedicated himself to making Native American regalia like eagle staffs and war bonnets.\r\n\r\nIn 2023, he was flown out to Denmark by artist Brunn Idan, best known for his wood palette trolls found all around Washington State. In Denmark, Idan commissioned Halliday to paint a mural on his house.\r\n\r\nWith the help of an assistant, Halliday created the outline by standing far away from the wall and marking the shadows cast upon a cut out placed three inches from his face. This way, the assistant could wave the brush and paint the wall based on the shadows Halliday could see on the cut out, sort of like how a pinhole camera allows a person to see an eclipse without staring directly into the sun.\r\n\r\nAn Orca whale now lives permanently on the facade of Idan\u2019s home.\r\n\r\nIn thinking back on his coma dream and the appearance of his Canoe Family, Halliday thinks his culture not only helped him overcome his disability, but taught him his purpose and a powerful lesson.\r\n\r\n\u201cBeing a chief is about father helping son, daughter helping friend, mom helping granddaughter, friend helping friend. All of those are acts of being a chief, and you have to ask yourself when you have moral questions: What would a chief do?\u00a0Are you being a chief by what you\u2019re doing right now?\u201d\r\n\r\nHe added, \u201cI believe that I was brought back to bring this message to you: that we can all be chiefs in our own way.\u201d\r\n\r\nAgueda Pacheco Flores is a freelance writer in Seattle who focuses on social justice issues, music, arts, and the Latine diaspora. She\u2019s previously written for <\/em>The Seattle Times, Crosscut, Journey Magazine, Real Change News, and<\/em> The South Seattle Emerald.","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[55,468,619],"class_list":["post-52474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","tag-art","tag-native-american","tag-speakers-bureau"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Be a Chief<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.humanities.org\/spark\/john-halliday-chief\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Be a Chief\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On the brink of death, John Halliday was sent a message.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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