MUCKLESHOOT RESERVATION, Washington — As the late July heat beats down on the rivers and forests of western Washington, the waters of the Salish Sea provide a cooling, healing sanctuary for many Indigenous tribes crossing the waters.
The annual Canoe Journey event for Indigenous tribes across the Pacific Northwest and beyond is well underway, with families coming together to paddle to the host nation. The journey takes different lengths of time for each family, depending on where they first put in their canoe and where they are traveling from.
This year, for the first time in nearly 15 years since deconstruction began on two dams, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe is the host nation. After landing in Elwha, west of Port Angeles, Washington, comes five days of protocol with the sharing of songs, dance, meals and gifts.
Every summer canoe families from across the region — and sometimes as far away as places like New Zealand and Thailand — begin the annual journey, starting from their communities and visiting Native nations across the Salish sea at the end of July.
Every night, a different nation that is on the way to that year’s host will take a turn welcoming everyone as guests to their land.
The theme for journey this year is: “Paddle to Elwha: Dams Removed — A River Reborn — Spirits Returned.”
Many on the journey drew parallels to the historic descent of 310 miles down the free-flowing Klamath River that 120 Indigenous youth kayakers completed on July 10.
For Coast Salish tribes, water is a way for connection. Like the water takes care of its people, Fabian Mendoza affirms that the people must take care of the water – in particular, with the success of recent dam removals, which is paving a way for an exciting time as Native nations are once again traveling and fishing in their ancestral waterways.
“For me and for my people, the water is our way of life,” said Mendoza, Muckleshoot and Latina, part of the Muckleshoot Canoe Family. “ By respecting it, [that means] letting the water flow and letting it be in its natural state, rather than having dams being built,” she added.
‘It’s never a dull moment on the canoe’
On July 24, after spending a night hosted by the Squaxin Island Tribe, the approximately 70-person Muckleshoot Canoe Family, among others, put their two canoes in the water for their first day of paddling, or pull, on the Paddle to Elwha, joining around seven other families landing in Nisqually. From Squaxin to Nisqually it took the canoes about five hours.
Decisions about when to leave each morning are made at nightly skipper meetings, with a member from each canoe family attending so they can relay the message back to their respective canoe family. Skippers sit at the back of the canoe and are in charge of leading the navigation and general operation of the canoe.
The journey is not just a simple act of hopping in the canoe and paddling away – there are specific logistics to discuss, like tides and water conditions to determine when it is the safest to leave.
The landing at Nisqually on July 24 was originally scheduled to take place at Nisqually Reach Nature Center, but low tides made that not possible. Canoe families had to help each other out on the water by reporting a change in plans to land at Zittels Marina instead.
On July 25, canoes were in the water at Zittels Marina by 5 a.m. Pacific Time, highest tide, to begin the approximate 30-mile paddle north to Puyallup.
Each day’s journey on the water is different, with some days traveling less than 10 miles and others as many as 30.
“It’s never a dull moment on the canoe,” said Cameron Williams, Muckleshoot and Diné, the youngest skipper for the Muckleshoot tribe.
He described seeing a pod of orcas, getting friendly splashes from another canoe family and listening to the bickering between friends.
After a long day of pulling, canoe families are greeted on the shores by representatives from that evening’s host nation, often met with songs from that night’s host nation, as well as whoops and cheers of support from those eagerly and proudly waiting on shore.
As is tradition, each family must ask permission to come ashore from the host nation, where they will share kinship.
“To all you folks, you are my family, you are my friends,” said a representative from the Squaxin Island canoe family, asking for permission from Nisqually to land on July 24. “We humbly ask for permission to come ashore.”
Out of the Water and Into the Night
After a long day on the water, canoe families are able to travel to their campsites each night to rest. At camp, teens and adults unload trucks and cars, blow up air mattresses, build makeshift kitchen areas and put up tents.
Host nations provide meals, like clams and clam chowder from Squaxin and crab, frybread and salmon from Nisqually, and other necessities like showers and bathrooms – not to mention booths selling merchandise and playgrounds full of energetic children.
Overall, nine nations take turns hosting their guests for a night, with the host nation, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, preparing for a longer five-night event that will include much of the same things but on a larger scale at the end of the journey.
Dinner usually starts with a prayer song and ends with chairs being cleared and tables wiped and folded away. An evening jam session then ensues to commemorate the day, with strangers turned friends being pulled onto the floor, as it’s an old rule that those invited to dance must take to the floor.
Canoe families take individual turns to practice their songs and dance, all in preparation for the endgame: protocol.
While the journeys late nights and early mornings can be exhausting, there is support in all corners from those that have attended for years. As paddlers settle into the flow of journey, muscle memory takes over.
“Once we get there and we get going, the routine takes place,” said Autumn McGee, the canoe program manager for the Muckleshoot tribe. “You just kind of fall into the routine of things. So it’s just getting there, getting set up, kind of figuring out things. Some things aren’t decided until the night before.”
For many tribes, preparing for canoe journey takes at least a year. There are gifts to be made, songs and dances to be practiced, cold water training and logistics to handle.
While all that takes a considerable amount of time, at the end of the day, when chairs are set up, often put in a circle-like formation just like the tents, for people to sit and enjoy the cool winds, or listen to more songs and laughter from kids in the camp, it’s a reminder that canoe journey doesn’t just start with the first canoe touching the water and doesn’t end with driving away – it’s a gathering that sits, remembered, in old muscles and builds, new, in others becoming involved.
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