PORT TOWNSEND — Wrestling with the tide and strong currents, participants in the 2005 Tribal Canoe Journey arrived in Port Townsend one by one on Saturday afternoon as a crowd of about 300 onlookers cheered them on.
Between 30 to 40 canoes carrying pullers from the Lower Elwha Klallam, Jamestown S’Klallam and other tribes spent the night in Port Townsend and are planning to continue their journey on to Jamestown today.
They are scheduled to arrive in Port Angeles on Monday afternoon, where the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe is hosting this year’s event, nicknamed Paddle to Elwha.
More than 5,000 people are expected to attend the event, organizers say.
The Tribal Canoe Journey covers the entire Puget Sound area, celebrating Native American culture and campaigning against drug and alcohol use.
The canoe armada passing through Port Townsend also included several vessels from the Aleut Islands in Alaska that were airlifted to Seattle to begin their journey.
“We travel here on behalf of our ancestors,” Chief Frank Nelson told the crowd upon his vessel’s arrival.
“And we travel drug- and alcohol-free.”
Nelson represents the Kingcome Inlet Kwakiutl tribe from British Columbia.