Blue Heron canoe family camps in La Conner

The Blue Heron Canoe Family camped at the former Maple Avenue ballfield in La Conner last week, a stop on their Healing Waters 2021 journey to Lummi Island. The Willapa Spirit canoe accompanied it. Swinomish tribal member Eric Day joined the journey in La Conner to help skipper the second canoe.

The Snohomish tribe crew and supporters totaled 65 people, Karen Condos, director of Natives United Journey, told the Weekly News Thursday. Vehicles arrived at the ballfield site late Wednesday morning (Aug. 4) and members set up their sleeping and cooking tents for their two day stay.

Swinomish tribal members had welcomed them at their reservation with singing, water and salmon. “Our hands are up for that. We are very grateful, Condos said, verbalizing the raised hands of prayer offered in gratitude and thanks.

The canoes left Edmonds Aug. 2, traveling first to Camano Island. After paddling against the tide and winds Aug. 5, the canoes were towed to Washington Park in Anacortes. Friday (Aug. 6) the crews paddled to Lopez Island. The ground crew broke camp and were on the road to the ferry in Anacortes before 7 a.m.

“The Blue Heron canoe came to life in 2003 and has been on canoe journeys ever since,” Condos said, until stopped last year because of the coronavirus pandemic. They have been well received on this journey, she said.

Mike Evans, Blue Heron skipper and chief of the Snohomish Tribe of Indians, said the mayor and police had visited Wednesday and “were very nice, more inquisitive, like everyone else.”

Evans noted that “Healthy Waters” was the literal translation of the Lushootseed phrase for the journey’s theme. He said some of the crew are as young as ten, others are middle teens and the Blue Heron’s skipper is a new high school graduate who has full responsibility and the respect of the people in the canoe. He observes his combined crews of paddlers and support people as “squirrels and elders. This year we are on our own and what a difference it is making. It is a ‘wow.’”

Through their paddle journey they “honor our ancestors through the continued teaching of this vital ancestral knowledge and canoe culture for our Indigenous youth and families who are learning and reclaiming a culture once forcibly removed through assimilation and cultural genocide,” stated a written announcement.

Their two week journey will end on the Lummi Reservation, a paddle they will make from San Juan Island.

In 2022 the international Canoe Journey’s destination of tribal canoe families will be Mukilteo. While that is south of here, Evans said the Blue Heron Canoe Family will return to the Swinomish Reservation as part of their route.