Swinomish provide food, rest for Canoe families

On a perfectly sunlit summer afternoon last week, pricey yachts were upstaged on Swinomish Channel by a caravan of canoes.

Not just any canoes, mind you.

These were the colorfully painted tribal canoes being pulled from village to village over Northwest waters in both British Columbia and western Washington as part of the 2018 Canoe Journey.

The annual event pays tribute to ancestral use of canoes on waterways as means of trade, travel and making cultural connections.

This year’s route made Swinomish a key stopping point five days removed from the canoes reaching their destination in Puyallup, where a week-long celebration is now underway, with festivities linked to the theme “Honoring Our Medicine.”

Swinomish made sure canoe families, including its own, were well fed and rested before making their final pushes to Puyallup.

The Tribal Youth Center kitchen was bustling with activity for over 14 hours as some 2,000 meals were prepared and served for overnight guests, many of whom camped in tents dotting John K. Bob Ballpark and neighborhoods throughout Swinomish Village.

Dinner consisted of salmon, scalloped potatoes, ham and beans, rice, rolls, fry bread, macaroni and potato salad, tossed salad and juice.

“These canoe families have traveled a long way to be here,” Swinomish Tribal Community Vice-Chair Brian Porter said, “and we want to treat them the best way we can.”

Porter was among those gathered at the Swinomish landing area to formally welcome canoe families.

“We’re all tired, hungry and sunburned,” one skipper said while seeking and receiving permission to come ashore.

Porter noted that the day’s work wasn’t done for canoe families upon their arrival at Swinomish from Fidalgo Bay. They still had to tote their canoes, most weighing several hundred pounds, up a steep slope from where they landed.

“That area will be under water when the tide comes in,” Porter explained.

The tide of enthusiasm among the canoe families and tribal leaders didn’t waver.

“Coast Salish tribes have always moved through the region along the water,” noted Puyallup Tribal Council Chair Bill Sterud in a written statement released last week. “We are dedicated to practicing this ancient tradition.”

Sterud said the Canoe Journey is also a way to honor the waters that have sustained marine-oriented tribes for generations.

He expected more than 100 canoes, including those from Swinomish, at Puyallup last weekend.

“As our natural resources are being depleted and our waters are being threatened by the continued spread of industry on our shorelines,” said Sterud, “we will gather in a ceremony to honor the medicine of the Salish Sea and all the waters we rely on.”