Canoe and Paddle | Spirit and Energy of People Near Water

Members of the Chinook Nation participate in a modern-day canoe journey. Note the distinctive paddle design traditionally used by the Chinook for navigating the lakes and sloughs of the Lower Columbia region. Image courtesy of the U.S. Geological Society

Canoes remain very significant to many Native communities along the Pacific Coast. Since 1989, indigenous people of the Northwest have joined together for the Annual Interntribal Canoe Journey, an activity that has grown and expanded into the twenty-first century. The first modern canoe journey was known as the “Paddle to Seattle” and was conceived of and organized by Emmett Oliver to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Washington statehood. Known in the twenty-first century as the oldest living Quinault tribal member, Oliver is also a Chinook who was raised in South Bend, Washington on Willapa Bay. Mr. Oliver and participating tribes used the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act to gain access to old growth trees that were used for some of the first new canoes made in many years along the coast of Washington. These communities held carving workshops, trained for long days of paddling, and prepared routes in their indigenous territories.

Supporters welcome the tribes with drumming, chanting, and cheers. Image courtesy of the U.S. Geological Society

Today, the Canoe Journey often attracts upwards of 100 canoes with as many as 10,000 Natives participating. The canoes that travel represent canoe “families” and communities that have accepted the invitation from a host community to come to their lands. The journey requires physical and mental stamina, and is considered by many a spiritual journey. Canoe families consist of ground support as well as the actual “pullers” in the canoe. All work with one goal in mind, to get their canoe to the host community. Travelers are on the water for as long as a month and paddle between 10 and 40 miles daily as they travel from Native community to community or reservation to reservation. Twelve hour days are not uncommon. When arriving and throughout the visit, the travelers follow traditional protocols that include asking permission to come ashore. The host community provides a campsite, meals, showers, and takes care of every need of the visitors. After dinner the hosts open a “floor,” and it is the obligation of the visitors to share songs, dances and heartfelt words. When the canoes leave the shores of the host community, they are generally accompanied by the canoes from that community. This pattern continues until all the canoes arrive at the final host community where a large potlatch has been prepared. This usually takes the better part of a week to conclude. Oliver declared the journeys “an outstanding analogy of the spirit and energy of people who live near the water” when he recalled the history of the journey for a reporter in 2003.Canoes remain very significant to many Native communities along the Pacific Coast.

Video: Landing Day. Landing Day at Cowichan Bay | 2008 Longer videos—with narration, interviews, and music—are posted on the A Blending of Science and Tradition web site

Since 1989, indigenous people of the Northwest have joined together for the Annual Interntribal Canoe Journey, an activity that has grown and expanded into the twenty-first century. The first modern canoe journey was known as the “Paddle to Seattle” and was conceived of and organized by Emmett Oliver to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Washington statehood. Known in the twenty-first century as the oldest living Quinault tribal member, Oliver is also a Chinook who was raised in South Bend, Washington on Willapa Bay. Mr. Oliver and participating tribes used the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act to gain access to old growth trees that were used for some of the first new canoes made in many years along the coast of Washington. These communities held carving workshops, trained for long days of paddling, and prepared routes in their indigenous territories.

Canoe journey articles:

The Intertribal Canoe Journey revives the centuries-old traditions of transport and trade by the Coastal Tribes of the Northwest, many of whom traveled over open waters to meet and gather for festivities. Canoe Journeys have become a major catalyst for Native people to relearn, strengthen and reinforce their traditions. The Journey teaches people about canoeing, living, working, and achieving in a community. Canoe Journey builds pride in, and respect for, Native cultures.

Sam Robinson, Vice-Chairman of the Chinook Nation, describes the modern canoe journeys, their origin and meanings

Blessing itsxut (pronounced “its-woot”), Chairman Ray Gardner’s canoe, before its first voyage at the First Salmon Ceremony, June 2010. Courtesy of Damian Mulinix 

 

As of 2014, the Chinook Nation has five canoes that are maintained for regular use. They are skakwal (lamprey eel), itsxut (black bear), and klmin (moon), ul-iymits (old nose) and yakanim (his canoe). Descendants of William Clark gifted the most recent canoe to replace one stolen from the Chinook by the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1806. In a moving ceremony at Chinook Point in 2011, members of the Clark family presented the Chinook Nation with a 36-foot canoe. The Chinook named the canoe klmin in honor of a Columbia River headman who once lived near Westport, Oregon. The name has roots in the Chinookan word for moon, a fitting name for a craft that will carry Chinook people on the tides of Pacific Northwest waters.

Joan Wekell, a member of the Chinook Nation Culture Committee, was one of the official witnesses at the canoe naming ceremony. Read her statement describing the day: “The Repatriation of the Canoe Stolen by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1805.”

Video: Media coverage of the gifting of Klmin, from the Daily Astorian.