Canoe journey participants greeted in Jamestown

By Emily Matthiessen Sequim Gazette • August 2, 2023 1:30 am

Participants in the inter-tribal 2023 Paddle to Muckleshoot canoe journey, the first since 2019, landed on the Jamestown Beach on July 25, as a member of each canoe family requested permission to bring the canoe on shore, and members of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe welcomed them in response.

Groups of men and women helped carry the canoes onto the beach and placed them in a line of other canoes. Pullers (paddlers) reunited with family and friends waiting on the beach after driving from a previous stop. Everyone was welcomed to stay overnight for food and fellowship.

The journey continued to Fort Worden in Port Townsend on July 27 — the final one on the North Olympic Peninsula before canoes went on to the Muckleshoot Indian Nation near Auburn, their final destination, on July 30.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen / Josiah Powless, 7-years-old, holds the bow of a canoe as a member of the canoe family requests permission to land on Jamestown S’klallam shore.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen / Puyallup canoe family members pose with their canoe on the Jamestown Beach on July 25 after pulling from the lower Elwha.

Sequim Gazette photoS by Emily Matthiessen Above: Carver Michael Hall, culture coordinator for the Puyallup tribe, is also a skipper on his canoe family’s canoe, which rests for the night at Jamestown Beach. At left: Josiah Powless, 7-years-old, holds the bow of a canoe as a member of the canoe family requests permission to land on Jamestown S’klallam shore. Below: Puyallup canoe family members pose with their canoe on the Jamestown Beach on July 25 after pulling from the lower Elwha.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen / Two ladies watch as a canoe approaches Jamestown Beach for an overnight stop on the intertribal Canoe Journey.