PORT ANGELES — Native American filmmakers from Tacoma are tracing the voyage of the “Spirit of Elwha” as the canoe’s young paddlers head home to the Lower Elwha Klallam Reservation.
The movie makers will record events throughout the Tribal Canoe Journey — the Paddle to Elwha — from the time an estimated 70 canoes land at Port Angeles’ Hollywood Beach on Monday until the last gifts are given at an all-night potlatch that will end Aug. 6.
And Steven Stumpf and Frank Moxley of Tri Moon Films will add segments of tribal history — the construction and planned demolition of the Elwha Dam and the drama of Tse-whit-zen village — to their documentary.
“This is going to be a great job,” said Stumpf, who recorded the 2003 Paddle to Tulalip and several other tribal canoe journeys.
“We get to spend the next three months documenting the Lower Elwha and their history.”
Chase boat
The filmmakers used a chase boat to shoot footage of the Lower Elwha canoe as it left the Muckleshoot Reservation near Auburn earlier this week.
The chase boat will meet the “Spirit of Elwha” when it reaches Jamestown, northeast of Sequim, on Sunday.
They will use a helicopter to film it and scores of other Native American and Canadian First Nations canoes when they enter Port Angeles Harbor on Monday
The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe will retain rights to the hour-long documentary, which may feature Leilani Barkley singing a family Klallam song in front of Madison Creek Falls on the Elwha River.
She is the daughter of Darryl Barkley, one of Paddle to Elwha’s four canoe journey coordinators.
Canoes at Pillar Point
Barkley was busy Wednesday tracing canoes on their way eastward along the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Paddlers from the Makah, Quinault, Hoh and Quileute tribes reached Pillar Point east of Clallam Bay early Wednesday afternoon.