About 30 canoes from Coastal Washington tribes and Canadian First Nations will rendezvous Tuesday at Port Angeles’ Hollywood Beach and at the mouth of the Elwha River.
The hand-hewn cedar craft are heading eastbound — many will stop at Jamestown, northeast of Sequim, and Port Townsend later this week — and are part of the 2006 InterTribal Canoe Journey that is expected to draw as many as 70 canoes to Seattle’s Sand Point on Lake Washington on July 31.
At least 17 canoes gathered in Neah Bay on Sunday. A few of them will pull for Clallam Bay today.
Others will head for Pillar Point. The crews hope to leave their camps before dawn Tuesday, canoe leaders said.
The canoes are expected at Hollywood Beach late Tuesday afternoon or early evening.
Meanwhile, Canadian canoeists who have gathered at Becher Bay will cross the Strait of Juan de Fuca and try to make it over the Elwha River bar.
Depending on elements
Any canoe’s arrival at any place, however, depends on winds, tides and the vigor of its crew.
The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe will host the crews at a dinner Tuesday night, then join the flotilla as it heads eastward early Wednesday.
Some of the canoes will go to Jamestown, where the Jamestown S’Klallam canoes will join them, then continue to Port Townsend.
Others will pull directly for Port Townsend, then go on to Port Gamble, picking up the Port Gamble S’Klallam canoes.
Soon they will join canoes from British Columbia’s inside passage, the Strait of Georgia and the length of Puget Sound, all heading for Seattle.
The canoes will follow ancestral routes of transport and trade among the coastal tribes. Their young “pullers,” or paddlers, pledge to remain free of drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
A highlight of this year’s celebration by Pacific Northwest “peoples of the water” will be their passage through the Hiram N. Chittenden Locks, also known as the Ballard locks, that lead from Puget Sound to the Washington Ship Canal.
Once the flotilla arrives at Sand Point, the canoes will be taken by trailer to the Auburn reservation of the Muckleshoot tribe, host of this year’s week-long celebration.
