PORT ANGELES — Eleven bright-pink canoe paddles received their baptism in Lake Crescent on Sunday in the hands of women determined to raise awareness of breast cancer.
Wading into the chilly, choppy water at Olympic Park Institute toward the west end of the lake, the Lower Elwha Klallam women carefully climbed into the cedar-strip canoe for their first stint pulling, or paddling, the sleek black 36-foot-long craft.
A short Shaker Church blessing ceremony preceded the launch.
The women also ceremonially fed the lake, placing a piece of salmon beneath the waves near the shore, and fed the canoe, draping another piece of fish over the snout of its wolf’s head prow.
The ceremony celebrated the canoe’s first journey in new waters — it’s been loaned to the women by the Muckleshoot tribe — and entreated it and the lake to carry the pullers safely.
Next month, it will be one of 60 to 70 Native American canoes from around coastal Washington, Puget Sound and British Columbia making their way to Sand Point on Lake Washington for the 2007 Tribal Canoe Journey.
Passing through locks
A highlight will be the canoes’ passage June 31 through the Ballard Locks between Puget Sound and Lake Union.
After their arrival, the craft will be trailered to the Muckleshoot reservation along the White and Green rivers near Auburn, where the celebration will continue for a week.
Many women will pull the pink paddles — breast cancer patients, survivors and their loved ones.
“We have relief pullers, we have survivors, we have survivors from other nations,” said the canoe’s skipper, Arlene Wheeler.
Children, sisters and nieces of survivors will pull for women who cannot wield paddles themselves.
The canoe — named Eagle Spirit — and its support boat will depart Port Angeles on July 23 after a rendezvous with craft from coastal tribes and Canadian First Nations.
