We bless this fleet

Five-year old Drea Edwards-Gould hugged her Auntie Melinda tight as the Swinomish Fish and Game Enforcement boat pulled out of the docks and propelled in one of the four directions to make an offering to the sea for a safe fishing season – the annual Blessing of the Fleet and First Salmon Ceremony of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community.

Sgt. Shaun Beasley navigated Skagit Bay at 24 knots with the precious cargo of a king salmon dressed in crab, clams, mussels, blackberries and blueberries on a bed of cedar boughs, through Deception Pass – at much slower speed – where the engine was cut, the boat rocked and Beasley, balancing on the foot-wide platform at the stern, gently tossed the offering into the sea.

Based on tradition, three other boats, skippered by Bruce James Jr., Joe McDonald and Dave Heenan, also sailed off for parts unknown in propitiation for a safe fishing season.

Thus ended a day of feasting, prayers, singing and dancing.

Fishing, along with hunting, has been a staple of Native American life for millennia and particularly here in the Pacific Northwest the bounty of fish and shellfish provided an abundant living. So the original peoples had the time, the tools and creativity to produce the well-known and beloved artwork of totems, boats, hats, beadwork and regalia for which they are known.

At the Youth and Community Center, Senator Barbara James, taleq tale II, the tribal senate treasurer, welcomed over 300 guests to the lavish meal humbly called "lunch," of salmon – thick, sweet and juicy – clams, mussels, shrimp and crab cooked to perfection. "It's a pleasure to see the ones who have come to join us as we prepare for the Blessing of the Fleet – such an important work that we do on behalf of our fishermen on the water. We are thankful for the waters that we have [that] provide the nourishment that you will be able to partake in today. You are the ones that pray for our folks that go out on the water."

Joe McCoy, former minister of the Indian Shaker Church, led the meal's blessing. Back in the 1960s, one dark night, McCoy, just a 19-year old kid, got ticketed for "illegal" fishing on tribal waters, called "common waters" back then. Staff from the Washington state Department of Game (regulating game fish) took his 52 fish, many weighing upwards of 70 pounds.

"They told me to pick up [the net.] They said, 'if we go to court, you may get your fish back,'" McCoy recalled, laughing at the memory.

He again hauled another 70 king salmon, the Department of Game on his heels, escaping through hole-in-the-jetty into Skagit Bay.

"It was 8 feet wide and low tide. Couldn't stop because the boat would have hit bottom. I had to keep going to deep water. I went to Snee-Oosh Beach. Sold all the 70 kings, but lost the first 50 to Fish and Game.

"It was Billy Frank, Jr. who did everything." McCoy added, honoring Frank who that decade organized a series of "fish-ins" which led to the Boldt Decision.

The procession from the gym to the docks was led by the Edwards family, followed by representatives from several faiths including Father Mel of Saint Mary's/Saint Paul's church, the Catholic Church, Pastor Doug York of the Pentecostal church and Wendy of the Shaker church. They all offered a blessing.

An eagle screeched overhead as J.J. Wilbur led the Wilbur family song. "It came to us from the ancestors after our beloved kuts-bat-soot – Claude Wilbur Sr. – passed in 2018. We sing the song in honor of Aunt Lorraine, our long-time salmon warrior and fisheries manager here at Swinomish."

Four dignitaries, Col. Kathryn P. Sanborn, Seattle District Commander, of the Army Core of Engineers; Liz Lovelett, 40th state legislative district; Craig Bill – soon to be elder – twice appointed director of the Governor's Office of Indian Affairs and Swinomish member; and Larry Wasserman, retired director of the Swinomish Department of Environmental Protection, were honored with traditional offerings and blessings.

Brian Porter, ya qua leouse, vice-chairman of the Swinomish Senate, Fish & Game Commission, bemoaned the drastic effects on salmon fishing due to environmental impacts. "My 18-year-old son didn't know what a Chum was."

Here on the shores of the Salish Sea, according to NOAA Fisheries, "Chum salmon may historically have been the most abundant of all Pacific salmonids."

"In pre-contact times their [indigenous] fisheries took nearly as many salmon as did later industrial fisheries, but indigenous practices resulted in a sustainable resource," writes Priscilla Long on historylink.org.

As I write this on Friday, May 17, I see that it is Endangered Species Day. How appropriate.