As I said in the blog yesterday, I have something special to show you today. Every year the native tribes from the NW have a canoe journey. This is aimed at celebrating their culture and sharing their native ways with their children. The tribes come from all over the region including Vancouver Island, the Pacific coast and other part of the NW and British Columbia. Each year a different tribe hosts the event. The tribe hosting the event this year is the Squaxin Island Tribe. They live south of here near Olympia. The paddlers make stops all along the way to rest, eat,and greet their fellow tribes. Today they arrived in Suquamish. That is about 20 minutes from our home. Our DD and SIL live very close to the arrival site. We went over to see the arrival of the canoes and the ceremony that accompanied this event. It was quite impressive. The SBA took 116 photos-no I'll not hit you with all of them. I'll just try to show a few highlights.
We could see the canoes coming into Miller Bay from Puget sound.
There was a welcoming committee. They chanted a welcoming song and played drums.
When each canoe arrived, tradition demanded that they ask permission form the hosting tribe to come ashore. The elder from the tribe welcomed each canoe.
Many of the paddlers wore the traditional cedar hats.
Waiting for their chance to ask permission and to be welcomed.
Notice the little blond paddler. Several canoes had children paddling. It is amazing when you realize they have been paddling from as far away as the Pacific or the islands of British Columbia.
There was also several women paddlers!!
Each canoe was then pulled up on shore.
This evening they will be having a salmon bake and what they call Protocol. That is when they dance,sing , and tell tribal stories.
Some of the canoes were painted in a very beautiful way. I'll show you a few of them tomorrow. I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into NW Native life.
How interesting!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing...
:o)
What an interesting event; thank you for sharing the story and the photos!
ReplyDeleteThose pictures and the story are spectacular! Oh how I wish I lived so close to the water!
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome event! I would love to see something like that.
ReplyDeleteI never knew about anything like this, Barb. How wonderful to help keep all those old stories and songs passed down from generation to generation! It must have been so interesting...
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed watching the canoes arrive - the photos Dad took are great! It was an amazing and beautiful experience. I only wish I'd had the energy to watch the Protocol (dancing, singing, etc.) in the evening!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing those lovely pictures Barb! Neat to see what the American NW Natives do for traditions!! I'm so used to our Squamish and Takaya Native traditions, that I forget that their are others!!
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