Canoes blessed, launched at Lake Crescent

Published 1:30 am Saturday, August 1, 2026

PORT ANGELES — The waters of Lake Crescent rippled against the shore while tribal singing filled the air and an eagle flew overhead, all marking the blessing of two canoes.

Members of the Quileute and Lower Elwha Klallam tribes gathered Thursday morning at NatureBridge Campus for the ceremony and official first launching of the canoes, which were carved on the campus.

It was the first time in 100 years that canoes have been carved at that site, event organizer Darrell Charles said.

Charles pitched the idea of carving traditional dugout canoes at the site after a cedar tree was cut down and transporting it elsewhere kept getting pushed back, he said.

Charles was the lead carver on one canoe — named The Klamath Spirit during Thursday’s ceremony — with Harmony Arakawa and Brad Hollawa.

The second canoe — named Bear Shadow — was carved by lead carver Randy Eastman Jr. and Mike Ward.

“A lot of the tools we used were hand forged,” Charles said, adding that traditional carving methods were used on the canoes.

This is the first time the Lower Elwha Klallam and Quileute tribes have collobrated on a project at the NatureBridge site, Charles said.

“It was primarily a site a lot of us did use,” he said. “The Elwha and Quileute both utilized this space, not always at the same time. It was a place that was utilized for prayer.”

During the ceremony, young tribal members used cedar branches dipped in Lake Crescent to help bless the canoes.

“This territory is sacred, this soil is sacred,” Wade Greene said. “To walk upon it is an honor.”

The cedar tree was a vital tool for the tribes, he said. Longhouses were built with cedar as were canoes.

“We were taught to always honor the spirit in the cedar trees,” Greene said.

The ceremony represented the birth of the canoes, he said.

The Klamath Spirit name was chosen by Frank Charles, whose granddaughter, Cheyenne Wheeler, announced the name.

Bear Shadow was named by Roger Jackson, one of the Elwha tribe’s oldest members.

“Now that the canoes have their names, they have their identities,” Eastman said. “They were brought to life here.”

Designs for painting the canoes will be created by the tribes to match the canoes’ identities, Charles said.

The songs sung during the ceremony first thanked the creator for the lives the tribes are living and then honored the upcoming generation, Ward said.

“Everything points down to these next generations that are coming,” he said. “The young ones are taking that role. This generation is going to lift us up again.”

As part of the ceremony, the canoes were carried into Lake Crescent where Landon Eastman and JeDiyah Jackson paddled Bear Shadow for the first time. Valerie Charles and Skylar Wheeler went out on the lake in The Klamath Spirit.

The canoes were carved throughout the month of July, with carvers working from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays at the NatureBridge Campus.

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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.