LITTLE BOSTON — The Canoe Journey — the annual gathering of Northwest Native canoe cultures — stops in Suquamish July 19 and Port Gamble S’Klallam July 20.
This year’s visits will be more intimate than previous years. Canadian and North Sound canoes are traveling to Vancouver Island en route to the final destination of the Quinault Nation on Washington’s Pacific Coast. Suquamish and Port Gamble S’Klallam are hosting canoes only from South Sound; those canoes will proceed along the Olympic Peninsula en route to Quinault. More than 100 canoes are expected to visit Quinault Aug. 1-6.
Suquamish Cultural Activities Director Tina Jackson said the Suquamish Tribe will host about 10-12 canoe families, including Nisqually, Puyallup and Squaxin.
The public can watch the canoes land in the afternoon. The landings will feature traditional welcomes in indigenous languages, followed by a dinner for canoe families and an evening of traditional songs, dances and gifting — also open to the public — in the House of Awakened Culture.
Canoes depart Suquamish the morning of July 20 and arrive at Point Julia between noon and 3 p.m. that day. Visiting canoes will be greeted by S’Klallam canoes on the water and welcomed on the beach by dignitaries — and a clam bake, for which Port Gamble S’Klallam is famous. Dinner and an evening of cultural sharing will follow in Little Boston. Canoes depart Point Julia July 21.
Each Canoe Journey is a test of mental, physical and spiritual readiness; some canoes will travel as far as 400 nautical miles from their home territories to Quinault. Pullers are hosted by indigenous nations along the way, with each stop filled with the sharing of traditional foods, languages, songs, dances and other teachings.
S’Klallam canoe skipper Laura Price uses the Journey to teach the language. Pullers sing songs and keep pace using chants in the S’Klallam language.
“We look at our language as living,” Price said. “When you incorporate the language on the water, it’s like old friends — the canoe and the language — coming together.”
To volunteer at the events in Little Boston, contact Jonelle Grady, 297-6276 or jgrady@pgst.nsn.us.
