return of the canoe journey

Stella Wenstob | Author

This summer scan the ocean highways because after a three year COVID hiatus the Canoe Journeys are finally making their return. At Alki Beach Park just outside of Seattle on July 30th, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe is expecting to welcome the landings of indigenous canoes and paddlers from all over Puget Sound (including the Skokomish and Squaxin of Mason County), Washington State, Oregon, Canada, Alaska, and more exotic far-flung places such as Peru and New Zealand. All united by the canoe and the revitalization of canoe culture.

The Paddle to Muckleshoot: Honoring our Warriors Past and Present, is a continuation of the annual Canoe Journeys. The inspiration for the Canoe Journeys stems from across the border in Canada with the Heiltsuk canoeist, Frank Brown, and several paddlers from Bella Bella on the Central Coast of British Columbia when they paddled to Vancouver’s Expo celebrations in 1986— marking one of the first long distance, open water, dugout canoe journeys in recent times. This was followed by a series of “paddles,” most importantly

the 1989 Paddle to Seattle. Elder Emmett Oliver had secured funding and support for several tribes to carve their own canoes for this maritime celebration of Washington’s centenary, and he invited tribes from across the border to fill the numbers. The Governor of Washington was purportedly not in support of the international canoeists, but the flotilla served to assert indigenous sovereignty in the celebrations and sparked the Native American resurgence in interest in canoe culture.

At the 1989 Paddle to Seattle, Frank Brown invited all canoe nations to journey to Bella Bella in four years’ time, beginning the Qatuwus Festival. Qatuwas translates as “people gathered together in one place.” In 1993, the Heiltsuk Nation hosted 23 canoes from along the coast, with close to 2000 people attending the week-long celebrations in Bella Bella. The following year, the 1994 Tribal Journey paddle started in Wuikinuxv Traditional territory from, Oweekeno near Rivers Inlet, B.C., paddling to Victoria, B.C. for the commencement of the Commonwealth Games. Over the years, the Canoe Journeys has had host nations in both Canada and the United States and participating canoes from across the globe including the Maori of New Zealand, the Ainu of Japan, Alutes from the Aleutian Islands, the Crees and the Metis from the boreal forests and plains.

The Qatuwus Festival celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2009, when the Suquamish Tribe hosted 84 canoes and over 6000 guests.

Some of the more far-flung participant paddlers may set out a month or more before event, to make time for visiting other nations along their oceangoing route. Many Tribes have Canoe Families that consist of the paddlers, steersman, and skippers. Since open ocean paddling can be very dangerous many canoes are accompanied by a motorboat for safety. Communities raise money for these canoe families throughout the winter to assist with the journey’s expenses.

Many paddlers travel in the large, traditional dugout canoes typically carved of a single cedar log. There are several varieties of these traditional

canoes but the two most typically seen on such a long oceangoing voyage will be the Northern style canoe and the Nuu-chah-nulth style canoe (also known as the Nootka or War Canoe). These two styles are the largest and have high sides that make it safer to travel across a following sea. They have specially designed keels that cut the water smoothly.

The dugout canoe has come to be a symbol of cultural resurgence for the canoe nations along the Pacific coast. Squaxin Island Tribe began carving two 22,000-pound cedar logs from the Wynoochee Valley in 1995. The process brought a revitalization of interest in carving both as an art and as a highly technical craft, accomplished by Head Carver George Krise and volunteers under the guidance of Tulalip Tribal member, Jerry Jones.

When not being paddled, these two canoes are housed at the Canoe Shed at Squaxin Island Tribe’s Museum Library and Research Centre, where visitors are welcome to view them. More modern-style fiberglass hybrids are also popular at the Canoe Journeys—but even these styles are often modelled after the traditional lines of the cedar canoes. When the guest canoes arrive in the host’s territory, there is a landing ceremony where the paddlers ask formally in their native language for permission to land on the host’s beach. Upon arrival, there is an exchange of songs, dances, speeches and gifts between the host Tribe and the many guest tribes, which is known as Protocol.

The host takes care of the visiting paddlers providing the feast and space for the week-long festivities. Visitors are welcome to come to this public event, but respectful behavior is expected.

The revitalization of canoe culture does not just mean the reawakening of practice – of carving, of being on the water and paddling, of sharing regalia, songs, and dance, of preparing and eating traditional foods, it is the rebuilding of connections that existed between tribes since time immemorial linked through waterways and the canoe. It is a physical, embodied interaction with the past and the present to forge a culturally dynamic future on the water.