PHOTO BY CLARE JENSEN

Canoes from the Puyallup, Cowlitz, Chehalis, Squaxin Island and Nisqually tribes made a pit stop in Tacoma during their journey. Tribal canoe familes spent the afternoon and evening at Chief Leschi School sharing food, stories and songs with each other, before departing for Alki the next morning.

Canoes head to Cowichan

By Clare Jensen

Pacific Northwest Tribes continue to hold on to the roots of their ancestors, who have navigated the meandering coastline of the Puget Sound by paddle for hundreds of years.

The Puyallup Tribe, along with several of their Coast Salish counterparts, launched the annual Tribal Journeys Canoe Voyage from Squaxin Island July 15.

The two-week voyage would carry them more than 200 miles to their final destination at Duncan, B.C. on the Cowichan Reservation.

The largest-ever Tribal Journeys Canoe Voyage is set to mark the beginning of the 2008 Indigenous Games. As many as 80 to 100 traditional ocean-going canoes, from a variety of canoe cultures and nations, will make the journey to Cowichan, traveling from as far north as the Alaskan border (Tlingket) and the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida) and as far south as Oregon.

On July 16, Puyallup and other tribal members welcomed the travelers to the shore of Owen Beach in Tacoma, as seven canoes reached the edge of the water and asked permission to come ashore.

Canoes from the Cowlitz, Chehalis, Squaxin Island, Nisqually, Skokomish and Puyallup Tribes announced themselves and their relationship to the Puyallups.

“This is the first time in hundreds of years the Cowlitz have come to the shores of the Puyallup (Reservation),” voiced a representative from the Cowlitz canoe, the first Canoe Family to come ashore.

Raymond McCloud, who stood on the pebbled beach, welcomed his neighbors to the land.

“Come share with us, your stories and songs. Enjoy this place before you leave,” he said. “We all need healing, that’s why we do these journeys.”

After the canoe families came ashore, they were invited to come to Chief Leschi School for an evening of traditional foods and sharing of the various tribes’ traditional songs and stories.

The canoe families camped out together at the school before continuing on their 28-mile journey to the Muckleshoot Reservation the next day.

All the members of the Puyallup Tribal Canoe Family, which consists of about 75 area tribal members, participated in the journey at some point throughout the two-week period.

About a dozen canoe family members occupied the Tribe’s canoe, Thunder Spirit, each day.

Tribal Councilmember David Z. Bean welcomed the neighboring tribes to Owen Beach, and thanked the travelers for their work.

Cultural coordinator and canoe family member Clinton McCloud noted the many children who were watching and learning that day.

“One day, they’ll be standing here, asking permission to come ashore.”

A group of young singers made their presence at the protocol ceremony as the canoes came ashore in order of who had traveled the farthest.

Children from the Tribe’s Grandview Early Learning Center sang welcoming songs, as the song of the travelers echoed back over the water to the land.

Story Tools