PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
With only one leg of the 2003 Paddle Journey to finish, tribal members say they are anxious to complete the journey and celebrate with a five-day potlatch hosted by the Tulalip tribe.
More than 60 canoes are expected to arrive at the Tulalip Reservation’s Totem Beach today between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. to ask permission to come ashore.
Northwest United States and First Nations tribes from Canada are still joining the journey, and organizers say 30 to 40 nations will be represented when canoes arrive.
The drug- and-alcohol-free Paddle Journey is an annual event meant to promote sobriety and cultural exchange among tribes.
Local tribes including the Quinault, Hoh, Quileute, Makah, Lower Elwha Klallam, Jamestown S’Klallam and Port Gamble S’Klallam have joined the journey and will have paddled almost 170 miles by the time they reach the Tulalip Reservation near Marysville, about 30 miles north of Seattle.
“It has been a great experience,” said Donnie Venske, a Makah tribal member from a support boat Sunday afternoon. “We have more pullers joining every day and everyone is excited about reaching Tulalip.”
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The rest of the story appears in the Monday Peninsula Daily News.