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California’s first canoe journey, timed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Occupation of Alcatraz, will take place over six days in August of 2019.

Tule creates community.

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We are in the BAY AREA of CALIFORNIA – Learn about the ORIGINAL PEOPLE OF THE BAY

Canoe Journey to Alcatraz

In the summer of 2019, canoes representing tribes, communities and families the world over are hoping to converge on san francisco bay to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the occupation of alcatraz and stand in solidarity for peace, prayer, the water, the land, the air, future generations, indigenous values, inclusion and a diverse humanity. , 2018 paddle to puyallup.

Occupied Canoe Family

The occupied canoe family out of oakland, ca hosted two protocols and giveaways demonstrating the bay area’s intention to participate actively in canoe journey and potentially serve as 2019 canoe journey hosts., tribal canoe journey, north america’s fastest growing native tradition brings thousands of people and hundreds of canoes together to honor the water and celebrate indigenous values..

Alcatraz Occupation

In 1969, native students and activists occupied the iconic island of alcatraz, a former federal prison and landmark in san francisco bay, catalyzing the indigenous rights movement..

Timed to align with San Francisco’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration, we invite all indigenous canoes to join us for a paddle around Alcatraz.

Canoe journey mission.

Planet, Climate, Water, Biodiversity and Environmental Justice

Demonstrate the potential for Indigenous values to lead the way forward in the context of a planet at risk. Highlight threats to climate and biodiversity, and the urgent need to protect water that sustains life.

Teach children about climate, water and environmental stewardship. Engage youth in planning, organizing and pulling.

Arts and Culture

Celebrate California tribal protocols. Engage community in tule boat building, canoe making and more.

Community – Building

Bring together Bay Area territory owners, California tribes, Alcatraz veterans, urban Natives and diverse allies to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Occupation of Alcatraz, participate in Alcatraz Canoe Journey, and address challenges to climate, water, biodiversity and environmental justice.

Alcatraz 50th

Bring Indigenous history and rights into the public conversation, building upon legacies of courage, oratory and persistence to frame a future where Native people take their rightful seat at the table of public leadership and decision-making.

“This tiny island would be a symbol of the great lands once ruled by free and noble Indians.” — INDIANS OF ALL TRIBES

All are equal in this effort.

NON-VIOLENCE

We come in peace and prayer to heal legacies of violence and loss.

A broad range of perspectives leads to deep insights and sound decisions.

Actions are prioritized based on impact and alignment.

We are thankful for all who make this momentous event possible.

Without our relatives, allies and supporters, we would be diminished.

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE

We can do this.

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Put them first.

No one of us will ever be greater than all of us together.

STORYTELLING

Our words and histories are powerful, and they guide us to a better future.

Whats Going On

Keep up to date –, > canoe journey blog, >canoe journey 2019, >canoe on the water.

Julian Brave NoiseCat ([email protected])

Manny Lieras ([email protected]) or ask KanyonKonsulting for his number

Alcatraz Canoe Journey is a fiscally sponsored project of MarinLink, a California non profit corporation exempt from federal tax under section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Service #20-0879422.

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Ed Archie NoiseCat

Artist, activist and puller

Julian Brave NoiseCat

Activist, journalist and puller

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Canoe Journey 2019 – Samish Landing

July 26, 2019 - 3:02 pm

This year’s Tribal Canoe Journey , honoring ancient indigenous traditions is underway.  The Lummi Nation is hosting this year’s festivities by welcoming over one hundred indigenous canoes  to their shores.  Canoe families come from Washington state, British Columbia, Alaska and as far as Hawaii. KBCS’s Yuko Kodama was at the Samish Landing, a day before protocol started in Lummi.  She brings you sounds and voices from the event.

Producer: Yuko Kodama and Mari McMenamin

Photos: Yuko Kodama

Thanks to John Woodgate and Jingjing Bu for help with transcription.  Special thanks to Maizy Brown for assistance with this story.

Kelly Hall, Canoe Skipper for the Samish Tribe

Samish Landing 

0:00 You’re listening to 91.3 KBCS. The annual 2019 inter-tribal Canoe journey came to a close this past weekend. KBCS Yuko Kodama was at the Samish landing last week, where over sixty canoes stopped on their way to festivities at Lummi. You will listen to sounds and stories from the event next

0:23 (Chanting)

1:03 Good afternoon. We are the Pacheedaht First Nations, our name means People of the Sea Foam. This Canoe is “Sea Foam Dancer” It’s our first pull in over 20 years. We’re revitalizing our ways and culture. We also have our Chief, Victor, and would like to ask permission to come ashore, share song and dance and participate in this afternoon’s festivities.

1:41 We’re so honored to not only have you come to our territory, but to choose to do this journey for the first time in 20 years. We’re so excited to have you here to share songs, dances and food. We also have showers, please come ashore, we’ll spend the day and the afternoon together.

2:07 My name is Elaine Grinnell I’m from Jamestown Klallam, this is Sarah. And that’s her daughter, Arya.

2:18 Three generations?

2:19 Three generations. There is a canoe going by, it’s a beautiful, beautiful representative of the culture that’s returning to all of us. And we’re so proud of that, not only the culture, but the language is also coming back. We want that so badly, its growing our tribe. It was taken away from us, you know, we couldn’t speak it for so long – My mother’s generation, it was stopped there. And you know, I can hear it. But they wouldn’t teach because we’d be punished at school and but now it isn’t, so they teach it in the schools. We have our own teacher within our tribe now. We’re writing it, it we’re taping it, We’re putting it on desks, we’re doing it every way that we can.

3:06 You want to add anything because this is three generations here.

3:09 Yeah, it truly has been a blessing to be able to follow my grandmother’s teachings for years and years.

3:16 What does she (her daughter) take away from it?

3:18 She’s two, at home we’ll sing and she’ll just start singing our welcome song, its just so fun.

3:23 She’s teaching her, Yeah. You know what that does for grandma’s heart and spirit? I’m just so proud of my family.

3:31 (Singing)

3:51 My name is Raymond, I’m from the Yakima Nation. I’m also Skokomish, Cree and Chilliwack. I’ve been doing the canoe journeys fully immersed, three years ago, when we traveled to Campbell River. I grew up traveling, we would do vending at powows, my aunt would make stuff, and we’d go to sell it. And then I ended up becoming a dancer at powows and I ended up going on the powow trail all over the United States and Canada for months on end, going to powows during the weekend and the week day, setting up my tent and taking it down and all that so I’ve been traveling for a really long time. Yeah.

4:26 Are Powows then, in a sense a little bit like the canoe journey because you’re traveling from location to location and there’s also like a hosting?

4:35 The songs and dances are different. And of course, the mode of transportation is different. We don’t travel in cars all over the United States, we’re traveling on a actual ancient highway of the Salish Sea and canoes, we usually stop at every landing area that’s scheduled. And we have to go through the certain protocols of asking permission to come ashore, you have to know the language a little bit, it’s total immersion.

4:58 tell me have a remarkable event that happened on your canoe journeys.

5:04 One thing that comes to my mind was when we were in Puyallup last year, how they were talking about the medicine. You can have a pack of cigarettes, right? The pack of cigarettes is just tobacco to anybody else, until you take a cigarette out, you open it up, and you have that tobacco in your hand. And you talk to the tobacco and ask it for it to be the medicine and acknowledge it for what it is and speak to it. And then it becomes medicine. Any other time ever anybody else, It may not be medicine, but when you put that energy into that tobacco in that manner, it becomes medicine. That’s one of the things that really spoke to me, because then I started doing things differently after that. They say that we all come from Mother Earth, and we really can’t share gifts with each other, because all the gifts come from Mother Earth too. So it’s not even about the gifts that we’re giving you know, it’s about the energy that we’re putting into it. I work for the Stillaguamish tribe, we loaded up on gifts that we bought, and we made and we’re going to share them with everybody. But the people that were traveling down here with that are from the Stillaguamish tribe are all just like amazing people that know that, you know, and they just want to gift to what they can. But it’s not about the gifts that they’re giving. It’s about the energy they’re putting into the gift that they are giving. And so it’s really, really awesome like to know that everybody’s doing that

6:27 Anything that you think it’s like the less told the story that you would want people to know about?

6:34 I think the less told story is all the ancestors that held on to this knowledge and passed it down, Even through great pains that were brought upon to kill a culture it was actually illegal for people to travel in canoes in this waterway. It was illegal for Native Americans to sing songs the way they were and me being where I’m from, I go to sweat houses, it was illegal for us to sweat. It was very important that our native ancestors held on to that knowledge and they thought it was very important that they held on to the knowledge and passed it down out of all the knowledge that actually has been lost. And there is actually 10,000 years of canoe-going people that live in the Salish Sea. And that 10,000 year was cut. There’s a lot of knowledge that’s been lost. There’s natives that can look into the water and know exactly how the sea floor is. And now there’s not hardly any out there that can do that anymore.

7:31 (Singing)

8:02 My name is Thomas Murphy and I’m the chair of the anthropology department at Edmonds Community College, where I teach and lead an environmental anthropology field school, nicknamed the leaf school for the learn and serve environmental anthropology field school. I’ve been a member of the Blue Heron canoe family and the Samish canoe family. And I’ve also traveled with this Stillaguamish canoe family. My heritage is English, French, Scandinavian and Mohawk on my mother’s side, Irish and Mexican on my father’s side.

8:34 Tell me what you teach. It sounds like it’s not your typical anthropology class.

8:40 Well, when I was a graduate student at the University of Washington, as well as an undergraduate at the University of Iowa, my field experiences as a student were the most impactful and most meaningful. And so when I had the opportunity at Edmonds Community College to develop curriculum, I was looking towards developing a field school option. Particularly in anthropology, there’s a tension between the anthropologist coming in studying somebody else’s community, And you know, just taking information from that community for the benefit of academia or that that individual anthropologist and not necessarily providing something in return to the community that is sharing that information and knowledge and so I was motivated by decolonizing methodologies that place the indigenous communities at the center, their needs and interests driving the research agenda. Service Learning became a valuable tool for that. Initially, the early projects were developing ethno-botanical Gardens. We did a native plant trail for the Snoqualmie tribe. We worked with this Snohomish tribe to build an ethno-Botanical Garden near campus that work with the Snohomish tribe led to an invitation to join them on a canoe journey as part of the blue heron canoe family in 2011, And now this will be the ninth year that we’ve helped Blue Heron and other tribal canoe families with canoe journey. So we’ve also helped Squaxin island host and we’ve also traveled with the Samish and stillaguamish families. A canoe journey is a revival of ancient seafaring traditions, to do that requires a lot of use of traditional knowledge, requires a lot of logistics, a lot of support. And the canoe families have asked us to do a number of things, help with fundraising throughout the year, we help with gift making throughout the year. So this is a year round program. It’s not just something we do in the summer. And then during the summer, we travel with the canoe family, we provide support on the ground, we have students pulling in the canoe. And we have students on support vessels. And we combine that also with engagement with the local communities that we travel through. I think participating in a cultural event is only one step in a process of building a relationship. While we worked with the Snohomish county and city of Mukilteo and Tulalip tribes to bring salmon back to the side of the point Elliot treaty. And we run a number of our classes through the field schools there, the Japanese gulch, which is right next to where the treaty was signed, or part of where the treaty was signed. And we’ve helped remove barriers to salmon migration. We’ve done protection of cultural resources there, and then have spent the last seven years monitoring Fish and Wildlife as they return once we remove those barriers. And now for seven years in a row, coho have returned to Japanese Gulch. That stream just in the shadows of the signing of the Treaty. We’re trying to get back to the tribal communities for the gift that they’ve given us with journey by again putting the efforts of our students into something that’s greater and more meaningful, and to take the students to the site of the treaty and talk about what has happened and talk about how there were promises to be able to hunt and fish, in usual custom places forever. Yet, salmon were exterminated from the stream right in the shadows of the treaty. But we don’t have to give up, it’s still possible to do something. And so the students have something they can do that’s tangible. In going out and monitoring water quality, or doing an archaeology film school to protect the cultural resources or going out and counting the fish. They have tangible ways to undo some of the tragedies of settler colonialism.

12:53 (Chanting)

12:53 My name is Bree. I’m a Samish a tribal member and a member of the Samish canoe family. I also work Edmonds Community College, doing material management and canoe family liaison. Allies need to be formed, living in Seattle, Nobody knows about these huge celebrations that are happening. I say to my co workers, because I have two jobs. I’m on the canoe journeys. Have you ever heard of it? And they’re like no, what is that? But it happens every single year, and there’s thousands of people. And so having those allies, I think, can just be important for spreading the word about just the injustices that these tribal communities are facing and what we can do about them and just incorporating that into the westernized society that we have now today.

13:53 (Chanting)

13:59 So my name is Sam Var, I’m Samish, and I come from the Varick family line. I’ve been doing tribal canoe journeys for 13 years, I started out when I was about 15 years old. And Samish, is a tribe that does not have a reservation, and so as a youth in high school, canoe journeys have been the place for Samish to gather. It’s one of the reasons for us to be practicing our culture and our songs and dances year round, to prepare for the canoe journey.

14:36 What’s the moment that happened that turned for you,

14:40 The moments that were really big for me, were just like just learning one or two words at a time and, and then learning the meaning behind those words, like the word for sea lion, for example, is ashas, that literally means diving face. right so, that relates to how humans encounter that sea lion, you know, so that actually, it’s not just a word for sea lion, and actually describes the relationship that we have with those sea lions when we’re on the canoe, you see that face pop up, and then it dives down. It’s the diving face that greets you out on the water. Even just the small meanings like that just struck me as very beautiful. There has been a huge surge in youth learning the languages and speaking the languages. And just in the last four years on canoe journey, the increase in language that you hear is unbelievable. And it’s mostly youth who are excited to represent themselves and retain that. And I think that getting to that stage of fluency is the next step. And it’s going to take a little bit, when you think about the thousands and thousands of years that the indigenous culture was founded upon as being a chain. And then you have that chain just as cut off. And there’s no more links being added to it. To get to a place where we can connect back to that foundation, It might take seven generations, we’re only on generation like two, maybe three of strong cultural revitalization. And so I think we should give ourselves some credit on that journey and not be hard on ourselves. If we’re not to the fluency place. Yeah, and our language learning. But when we get to that, I think that it’s going to be really powerful.

16:32 (Chanting)

16:46 Tell me your name?

16:48 My name is … and my English name is Kelly Hall, Samish Indian Nation

16:55 As I understand you are the skipper this year for Samish Indian nation. So how long have you been involved in the canoe journeys?

17:04 My first official canoe journey was in 2015, paddle to Muckelshoot. I just really enjoyed the connection with the water. I can’t speak enough to how, how it almost like cleanses you. When you’re out on the water, you have one heart and mind with all those people that are in the canoe with you. It takes everyone to move forward, and to sing your way forward even, as a group. We believe that our canoes all have spirits, and we take care of our canoes in that way to take care of the Spirit. They come from living things, dugout cedar canoes come from big, huge old-grow cedar trees and our plank canoes come from cedar trees, as well. And we believe in reciprocal relationships with these beings we took life, we believe that they still have a spirit because we took that life and that spirit protects us in the water, protects us from the cold and it helps us get to where we’re going on our journey. So every year we put them to sleep for the winter and we awaken them in the spring and that’s to dust off their spirit, to waken their spirit and to honor them for all the times in that coming year that they will protect us.

18:28 Tell me of a story from pulling.

18:31 One of the most powerful things about canoe journey is singing collectively together and what singing does for you when you sing together. Songs, we believe, are prayers. A few years ago, we were out in super rough water and you could tell that the crew was nervous and just needed to be in that one heart one mind mode. But you could tell that people were getting a little bit antsy. The canoe was rocking a bit, the waves were big, some of them were splashing over onto people’s laps, and we just started singing and I remember leading songs and just singing for probably 30 minutes straight to get us through that rough patch but like the feeling of everybody just really jumping in and singing those songs together, you could feel that it really settled people, those prayers were being heard, and it pushed us through the rough waters. That was just one of the things I felt like it was needed in that moment to sing and we believe that songs carry us forward in the water, they lift our canoes and that was just that was one of those things I’ll never forget. Because oftentimes we’re on the water and we’re just paddling and it’s a nice day and the “yeah, like let’s sing a song”. But that was one of those moments where it felt like my heart, my heart and mind were telling me we needed we needed those songs that power to get through

20:31 (Singing)

20:31 Those were songs and stories from the 2019 canoe journey, The Stop at Samish landing, last week. You’re listening to independent Radio KBCS

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Samish Landing Kelly Hall

91.3 KBCS music and ideas- listener supported radio from Bellevue College –

The annual tribal canoe journey is underway. Over 100 canoes have made it to the event. The celebration honors and revitalizes ancient Coast Salish tribal traditions. The Lummi nation is hosting this year’s event. Participants include tribes from Washington, British Columbia, Alaska, and as far away as Hawaii. Earlier this week, Yuko Kodama was at the Samish, landing a stop way point on the way to the event.

I’m in Anacortes at Seafarers Memorial Park for the Samish landing of the 2019 canoe journey. Over 60 canoes are welcomed by the Samish Indian Nation and hosted here for festivities, as the last stop before the final destination at Jamestown beach in Lummi. There, thousands will celebrate the indigenous cultures of the Coast Salish people and tribes from the region and around the world. You’ll listen to sounds and voices from the Samish landing of the canoe journey.

Good afternoon. We are the Pacheedaht first nations. The name means People of the Sea Foam. This canoe is ‘Sea Foam Dancer’. It’s our first pull in over 20 years…We’re revitalizing our ways and culture. We also have our Chief, Victor and our nation’s prince – princess…. On that note, we would like to ask permission to come ashore to share, share song and dance and participate in this afternoon’s festivities.

(indigenous language spoken)…We’re so honored to not only have you come to our territory, but to choose to do this journey for the first time in 20 years. We’re so excited to have you here to share songs, dances and food. We also have showers. Please come ashore. We’ll spend the day in the afternoon together. (indigenous language spoken)

Could you tell me your name?

My Indian name is …, and my English name is Kelly Hall. Samish Indian Nation.

As I understand you are the skipper this year for the Samish Indian nation. So how long have you been involved in the canoe journey?

My first official canoe journey was in 2015 Paddle to Muckelshoot. I just really enjoyed the connection with the water. I can’t speak enough to how it almost like cleanses you. When you’re out on the water. You have one heart in mind with all those people that are in the canoe with you. It takes everyone to move forward…and to sing your way forward. ebven as a group. We believe that our canoes all have spirits. And we take care of our canoes in that way to take care of the spirit. They come from living things. Dugout, cedar canoes come from big huge old grow cedar trees and our plank news come from cedar trees as well. And, we believe in reciprocal relationships with these beings. We took life, and we believe that they still have a spirit because we took that life and that spirit protects us in the water, protects us from the cold, and it helps us get to where we’re going on our journey. So every year, we put them to sleep for the winter and we awaken them in the spring and that’s to, to dust off, their spirit, to awaken their spirit and to honor them for all the times in that coming year that they will protect us.

Tell me of a story from pulling.

One of the most powerful things about canoe journey is singing collectively together and what singing does for you when you sing together. Songs, we believe our prayers. A few years ago, we were out in super rough water, and you could tell that the crew was nervous and just needed to be in that one heart one mind mode. But you could tell that people were getting a little bit antsy. The canoe was rocking in bit. The waves were big. Some of them were splashing over onto people’s laps, and we just started singing and I remember leading songs and just singing for probably thirty minutes straight to get us through that rough patch. But, like, the feeling of everybody just really jumping in and singing those songs together, you could feel that it really settled people. Those prayers were being heard and it pushed us through the rough waters and it was just one of the things I felt like it was needed in that moment to sing, and we believe that songs carry us forward in the water. They lift our canoes and …That was just that was one of the things I’ll never forget. Because oftentimes we’re on the water and we’re just paddling and it’s a nice day and …Yeah, like let’s sing a song. But that was one of those moments where it felt like my heart. My (indigenous word)… my heart and mind were telling me we needed, we needed those songs, that power to get through in that moment.

That’s Kelly Hall singing her song, ‘Celebration of Life’.

Canoe Journey protocol continues through Sunday with the Lummi Nation. Special thanks to Maizy Brown, the Sampish Indian Nation Stillaguamish Tribe, the Edmonds Community College LEAF school and Blue Heron Canoe Family.

For KBCS, this is Yuko Kodama.

For more information on the canoe journey and the festivities this weekend. You can visit paddletolummi.org.

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Canoe Journey 2019 marked by 'hope, healing, happiness and hospitality'

Five days of inter-tribal festivities wrapped up over the weekend as the 2019 Paddle to Lummi came to an end. This year, nearly 100 canoes made their way to the shores of the Lummi Nation’s Stommish Grounds near Bellingham, for a celebration of unity and common causes.

Each canoe was paddled by a tribal family – and they came from as far as Hawaii, Alaska, New York and even Papua New Guinea. Council member Freddie Lane estimates about 60 different tribes were represented. A group from Alaska camped out in his front yard.

“It’s just amazing to see all the canoes that came from three different directions,” Lane said, expressing his admiration particularly for the tribes who paddled all the way from the west coast of Vancouver Island.

“They were on the water for 24 days and got here July 24 – to honor the invitation… to honor one another and to bring our communities together,” he said, adding that there are five words to explain what this intertribal gathering is all about.   

“We host canoe journey here at Lummi in ‘hope, healing, honor, happiness and hospitality,’” he said.

Simple black and white signs bearing those words were taped up on the walls inside a community center, where meals, snacks and beverages were served, free of charge.

 SHARING CULTURES 

For five days, the families took turns sharing songs, dances and stories inside a longhouse. On Saturday afternoon, hundreds of guests filled seating around a central performance area. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, tiny children, toddlers and teens watched.  Some milled about distractedly, some seemed rapt – singing or chanting along.

PADDLING TOGETHER FOR CONNECTION

Among the paddlers attending was Jason Gomez, who said he had filled the fifth seat (“the powerhouse”) in a traditional dugout canoe that made the journey here from the Port Gamble S'klallam Tribe.

He says when you’re in the boat, it’s all about connection and working together.

“Because there were a couple of days out there where it got pretty rough on the water," Gomez said. "And we have to keep pulling – no matter what – we’ve got to keep pulling."

And when they pull together and connect, he says the canoes lift and start to rise out of the water.

"It’s an amazing experience. It’s too hard to explain, but it’s like everything lifts away…when everyone’s in tune and pulling and singing," he said. "And when we get tired, we start singing because every song is a prayer, every pull is a prayer."

One canoe Gomez paddled in was one of just seven originals from the first Paddle to Seattle 30 years ago. His tribe brought it to the Lummi grounds on a trailer.

Canoe Journey 2020 will be to Nanaimo, British Columbia, where the Snuneymuxw First Nation will be hosting on the shores of Vancouver Island.  

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Carrying Traditions by Canoe: The Tribal Journeys Movement in Washington

October 6, 2022 | 10:27 pm

from Washington Trust

By Philip H. Red Eagle

Note: this article was originally published in the Fall 2020 issue of This Place magazine under the title “Tribal Journeys.” Image above: Canoe Journey 2019 landing at Swinomish, photo by Swinomish Police Department, courtesy of Swinomish Tribal Archive.

What we now know as Tribal Journeys started back in the 1980s and culminated in what would eventually be called “The Paddle to Seattle” in 1989 for the Washington State Centennial. The Paddle was initiated, constructed, and completed by our Elder Emmett Oliver (a member of the Quinault Indian Nation), who went to Governor Booth Gardner in the mid ‘80s and requested that there be Native American participation in the Centennial programming. The Governor gave Emmett the nod, and then Emmett began the return of the canoes and the beginning of Tribal Journeys.

In the now-famous “Paddle to Seattle,” multiple tribes carved big traditional canoes and paddled from the Suquamish tribal lands on Agate Pass to Seattle’s Golden Gardens Park. An immediate outcome of the Paddle to Seattle was a second canoe journey to Bella Bella in 1993. It was that journey that led to the development of a canoe protocol. 

Another, and stronger, element of the program would be the use of Traditional Ceremonies handed down by the elders of many of the tribes in the region. It would be these ceremonies that would bind the various tribes and tribal organizations into a contiguous movement toward traditional values and processes. We also decided that these ceremonies and traditional practices would be placed in the canoe. The canoe would carry these practices and values and would teach the young people, and others who cared to learn, these elements.

In 1994, Tom Heidlebaugh and I, along with other members of the Cedar Tree Institute—a cultural advocacy organization formed by Tom Heidlebaugh— began looking for a way to teach culture to the local tribes and other Native individuals in the area. We decided that the canoe should play a vital role in the development of this teaching program.

We also decided that each journey should begin with a ceremony. During the ceremony, each person on a canoe journey must promise to conduct themselves according to the following Ten Rules of the Canoe, which were developed and presented in Tacoma at the Northwest Experiential Education Association Conference in 1990 by Tom Heidlebaugh and David Forlines:

Rule One: Every stroke we take is one less we have to make. Rule Two: There is to be no abuse of self or others. Rule Three: Be flexible. Rule Four: The gift of each enriches all. Rule Five: We all pull and support each other. Rule Six: A hungry person has no charity. Rule Seven: Our experiences are not enhanced through criticism. Rule Eight: The journey is what we enjoy. Rule Nine: A good teacher always allows the student to learn. Rule Ten: When given a choice at all, be a worker bee–make honey!

The device for this ceremony is a copper ring necklace, and the ceremony is called the Copper Ring Ceremony. This copper ring is a constant reminder to each bearer of these ten rules. This “program” was first instituted in 1995 and 1996 while on a canoe journey titled the Full Circle Journey. This two-part journey around Key Peninsula started in 1995 with a paddle from the Skokomish Reservation to the Suquamish Reservation and concluded in 1996 with a second journey from Suquamish to Squaxin Island. There were three canoes and 50 participants on the first leg and seven canoes and 280 participants on the second leg. Ever since that journey, the Copper Ring Ceremony and the Ten Rules of the Canoe have remained a part of the annual Tribal Journeys. Tom Heidlebaugh died from cancer in 1997. I have made over 7,000 copper ring necklaces and conducted several hundred Ring Ceremonies since 1995.

Currently, after 25 years of annual journeys, there are up to 125 canoes and 10,000 participants arriving at each Hosting, meaning the ending site and ceremony for the annual journey. Over those years there have been 23 Hosts. Tribal Journeys was canceled in 2020 to meet safety precautions for COVID-19, but planning is underway for 2021.

October 2022 update: full-scale Tribal Journeys did not take place in 2021 after all, nor 2022. However, plans are taking shape to bring back this unique and important tradition in 2023.

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Best moments from the Alcatraz Canoe Journey 2019

At daybreak on Indigenous People’s Day 2019, in commemoration of 50th anniversary of the 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz by the Indians of All Tribes, indigenous communities from across the West Coast took a historic canoe trip around the island. The flotilla of canoes, including ones made using tule reed, encircled the island before returning to shore at Aquatic Park Cove. Each canoe and persons therein carried forward the legacy of the 1969-1971 Occupation for a new generation.

Here are moments from the milestone trip:

View this post on Instagram Today, On Indigenous Peoples’ Day (Monday, October 14) canoes representing communities from up and down the West Coast and beyond took to the waters of San Francisco Bay and circled Alcatraz Island to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1969 occupation • Jonathan Cordero, Chairperson of the Ramaytush Ohlone, gave the following statement of support. “San Francisco is in the ancestral homeland of my people, the Ramaytush Ohlone. Our history—and indeed our current presence—is little known or understood in our own homeland. Alcatraz Canoe Journey honors the 50th anniversary of the Occupation of Alcatraz and will make plain to the residents of San Francisco that we are still here, and these lands and waters must be preserved and protected for future generations. I have been proud to support this event from the early days of its inception and am excited to see the good that comes out of it for Indigenous peoples everywhere.” • The Alcatraz Canoe Journey committee thanks Chairperson Cordero and the Ohlone People for their support and we look forward to welcoming Indigenous peoples of all nations to the Alcatraz Canoe Journey in years to come • Beyond commemorating 50 years since the occupation of Alcatraz and supporting the Ohlone and Indigenous Peoples in the Bay Area to uplift their narratives, the goal of this journey is to reclaim Alcatraz as a vision, rather than as a penitentiary, for Indigenous sovereignty, rights, and freedom • #IndigenousPeoplesDay2019 #IndigenousRising #ReclaimYourPower #CanoeJourney #AlcatrazCanoeJourney • : @urbannativeera @joeyymontoya A post shared by Alcatraz Canoe Journey 2019 (@alcatrazcanoe19) on Oct 14, 2019 at 12:17pm PDT

A canoe waits to begin @AlcatrazCanoe19 in the early hours of #IndigenousPeoplesDay at San Francisco’s aquatic park pic.twitter.com/DEqzgevaNA — Alice Woelfle (@turfstarwolf) October 15, 2019

View this post on Instagram Happy Indigenous Peoples Day! @alcatrazcanoe19 A post shared by Tricia Rainwater-Tutwiler (@triciarainwaterart) on Oct 14, 2019 at 10:51am PDT

View this post on Instagram We started this years Indigenous Peoples Day in San Francisco watching canoes make their way to Alcatraz to commemorate the 50th year of the takeover and occupation of Alcatraz in 1969. A post shared by Urban Native Era (@urbannativeera) on Oct 14, 2019 at 11:42am PDT

View this post on Instagram “On Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2019, canoes representing tribes, communities and families from as far North as Canada and as far West as Hawaii converged on San Francisco Bay to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Occupation of Alcatraz and stood in solidarity for peace, prayer, the water, the land, the air, future generations, Indigenous values, inclusion and a diverse humanity.” - Canoe Journey 2019 website. . . I am grateful for the invitation to witness and document this effort to bring Indigenous history and rights into the public conversation, building upon legacies of courage, oratory and persistence to frame a future where Native people take their rightful seat at the table of public leadership and decision-making. . . Meeting Ruth Orta, Elder of the Himren Ohlone Tribe, and hearing her story was a gift I will treasure always. #alcatraz50 #canoejourney2019 #indigenouspeoplesday #occupyalcatraz #sanfrancisco #paigegreenphotography A post shared by Paige Green Photography (@paigegreenphoto) on Oct 15, 2019 at 1:18am PDT

View this post on Instagram The reed canoe sets off at dawn this morning, sailing forth around Alcatraz island on the Occupy Alcatraz 50th anniversary, Indigenous Peoples' Day. - Ruth Orta, an Ohlone 85 year old elder blessed each and every canoe on its journey. - Songs, dances and stories from Indian country honoured the water, the land, the spirit world. - I will share a poem soon inspired by this beautiful, moving and soulful experience. @alcatrazcanoe19 #alcatraz50 #alcatrazcanoejourney A post shared by Anne Colvin (@annelcolvin) on Oct 14, 2019 at 12:12pm PDT

Returning boats are welcomed by Ohlone elder Ruth Orta as they return from #IndigenousPeoplesDay @AlcatrazCanoe19 pic.twitter.com/RXJIAih6fZ — Alice Woelfle (@turfstarwolf) October 15, 2019

For more information about the anniversary and events, including the Indians of All Tribes Days on the island as well as the ticketed Thanksgiving Sunrise Gathering on Alcatraz, visit the National Park Service website . That site also has a listing of anniversary events throughout San Francisco and beyond, hosted by the Presidio Trust, San Francisco Public Library, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and many more groups.

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Tribal Canoe Journeys: Paddle to Lummi

January 3, 2020 - march 8, 2020, lightcatcher building.

The Whatcom Museum features photographs documenting the Tribal Canoe Journey of 2019, Paddle to Lummi. Since 1989, this significant cultural experience has occurred annually and is hosted by different tribal nations of and around the Salish Sea, with the Lummi Nation hosting the most recent journey in 2019.

The canoe journey is a two-week to month-long voyage undertaken in traditional 12-person canoes. It is followed by many days of gathering people and sharing food, song and dance. These ceremonial practices are vital to the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and coastal British Columbia. More than 100 canoes from different tribes and tribal nations traveled the waters of their ancestors to reach the completion of their journey. From their tribal village to the homelands of the Lummi people, participants pull the whole way in family canoes to reach the final potlatch, a celebration sharing food, dance, song, and gifts.

The images documenting the 2019 Canoe Journey were captured by Children of the Setting Sun Productions, Inc., whose mission is to enliven the rich history, legacies, stories and historical traditions of the Salish people using traditional and contemporary art mediums.

Photo courtesy of Children of the Setting Sun Productions, Inc.

The Whatcom Museum is offering free admission to the Lightcatcher building to Indigenous Peoples through March 8, 2020, during the run of the photo exhibit. Free admission is upon request at the attendant desk inside the Lightcatcher building, 250 Flora St.

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(Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)

2019 Canoe Journey underway for Peninsula tribes

Two-week cultural experience culminates at Lummi Nation

• Friday, July 12, 2019 11:33am
• News Clallam County Jefferson County

Members of the Mowachaht Tribe’s canoe family arrive at Jamestown during the Paddle to Puyallup in 2018. This year tribes are participating in the Paddle to Lummi. (Jesse Major/Peninsula Daily News)

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A Unitarian Universalist State Action Network

Tribal Canoe Journeys

2020 paddle to snuneymuxw, nanaimo, bc – cancelled.

Snuneymuxw cancels Tribal Journeys Paddle to Snuneymuxw due to COVID-19

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the emergency public health crisis that is impacting communities, Snuneymuxw First Nation has cancelled hosting Tribal Journeys on July 27 – August 1, 2020 in Snuneymuxw territory. Protecting the health and wellbeing of the public is the greatest priority while following the health orders issued by the Public Health Officer.

Chief Mike Wyse said on behalf of Snuneymuxw First Nation that “Covid-19 poses a serious threat to the health and well-being of paddlers, Canoe Families and First Nations across the Pacific North West. Given the enormous health and safety risk to participants of Tribal Journeys 2020, we have decided that it is in the best interest of everyone that Snuneymuxw cancel hosting Tribal Journeys this year. There will be many questions given we are in unprecedented times. We ask for the understanding and support of those who are assisting to plan, organize and fund Tribal Journeys 2020. Your partnership with Snuneymuxw is appreciated and I know we will work through this together. If there is an opportunity for Snuneymuxw to resume as hosts for Tribal Journeys sometime in the future, we are honoured to do that.”

Tribal Journeys is a longstanding tradition that unifies Indigenous Nations and is a celebration of Indigenous peoples. Chief Wyse says “it is a way for our culture and tradition to be shared with the world. While large gatherings is our custom, the health risk due to COVID-19 is substantial and we cannot bring thousands of people together for a number of days with the presence of the pandemic. The long-term impacts of COVID-19 is unknown and we must err on the side of caution to protect everyone.”

Chief Wyse assures all that “there will come a time when we will celebrate Indigenous culture and resilience with friends, relatives, Canoe Families, Elders, children and youth. Until then, we wish you all health and safety and send our solidarity as you care for each other during this crisis.”

The Canoe Journey is an annual event in which Pacific Northwest Tribes travel the ancestral highways of their cultures.  Tribes from Oregon, Washington, Alaska and British Columbia have participated and hosted landings.  The landings are events that occur along the canoe journey route

The Canoe Journey began in 1989, part of the 100th anniversary of Washington Statehood in which the state and indigenous governments signed the Centennial Accord, recognizing indigenous sovereignty.  Canoe Journeys have organized up and down the whole Pacific Northwest Coast and being hosted by many different Northwest Native communities.

In the past several years, UU congregations throughout the region have been finding ways to work with and support Pacific Northwest Tribes in the U.S. and Canada in these journeys.

Recent Canoe Journeys can be followed on the Tribal Canoe Journeys Facebook page .

1989: Paddle to Seattle, WA
Emmett Oliver’s 1989 Paddle to Seattle 1993: Paddle to Bella Bella, BC Qatuwas 1994: Youth Paddle (Olympia, WA, with the 2nd Cedar Tree Conference)

1995: Full Circle Youth Paddle, in Puget Sound, Washington 1996: Full Circle Youth Paddle, in Puget Sound, Washington 1997: Paddle to LaPush, WA 1998: Paddle to Puyallup, WA 1999: Paddle to Ahousaht, BC 2000: Paddle to Songhees, BC

2001: Paddle to Squamish, BC 2002: Paddle to Quinault, Taholah, WA 2003: Paddle to Tulalip, WA 2004: Paddle to Chemainus, BC 2005: Paddle to Elwha, Port Angeles, WA 2006: Paddle to Muckleshoot, Auburn, WA 2007: Paddle to Lummi, WA

2008: Paddle to Cowichan, Cowichan Bay, BC 2009: Paddle to Suquamish, WA 2010: Paddle to Makah, Neah Bay, WA 2011: Paddle to Swinomish, La Conner, WA 2012: Paddle to Squaxin Island, Kamilche, WA 2013: Paddle to Quinault at Taholah, WA

2014: Paddle to Bella Bella, Qatuwas Festival, at Bella Bella, BC on Campbell Island, BC 2015: Various locations in the Salish Sea, BC and WA 2016:  Paddle to Nisqually, Olympia, WA 2017:  We Wai Kai Nation and Wei Wai Kum Nation, Campbell River Spit, BC. 2018:  Paddle to Puyallup, Tacoma, WA 2019:  Paddle to Lummi, Bellingham, WA

2020 Paddle to Snuneymuxw, Nanaimo, BC!!

Lummi members to sue seaquarium to bring captive orca home event, july 27th, 11:00 am, lummi nation reservation, northwest tribes land at alki during annual canoe journey.

By Brian Contreras,  Seattle Times July 18, 2019 “The canoes are coming!” a young girl cried from the crowd of onlookers. “They’re right there!” The 20-odd canoes approached Alki Beach  just before noon Thursday as part of the “Paddle to Lummi” — or  Sqweshenet Tse Schelangen (“honoring our way of life”) — a journey through the Salish Sea toward the Lummi Nation, this year’s host. During the  annual Tribal Canoe Journey, tribes and nations from throughout the Pacific Northwest join up with one another on the way toward Lummi, starting from different points but picking up new canoes along the way. Read more here .

PHOTO GALLERY: 2019 Canoe Journey lands at Jamestown Beach

Paddle to Lummi Community Volunteer Orientation and sign-up info

This will be the only community volunteer orientation before the landing..

• The history of Tribal Journey
• Ways to support the event through your contributions and volunteer efforts
• What is involved in hosting 10,000 people a day and serving over 11,000 meals a day
• What to expect about noon landing of tribal canoes, June 24, and start of cultural protocol after dinner that night
• What cultural protocols are followed by host nation and the visiting Tribal Nations?
• Where to park and get from one venue to another

BRING A FOOD ITEM/S TO THE EVENT FOR LANDING CANOE FAMILY'S GIFT BOXES

Further things to do now to support 2019 tribal canoe journey, support lummi nations hosting of 2019 tribal canoe journey.

• Raise $300,000 towards the $1.1 million cost
• Help make handmade gifts as part of the handmade 10,000 that will be gifted
• Help create an official acknowledgement of the Original Peoples of These Lands and Waters (July 13, Maritime Heritage Park)
• Recruit volunteers for the work involved to bring funds, gifts, and services from the entire county, and afar to support this amazing event!

30 years after the Paddle to Seattle, Tribal Canoe Journeys represent healing and revival

LUMMI NATION — As the setting sun casts warm shadows over dozens of tents scattered across the grounds of the Lummi Nation School, a casual circle of drummers sings soulfully to the slow steady rhythm.

A woman hums along as she smooths an elder’s hair. Nearby kids play in the grass, and elders lounge and shift, trying to find a shady spot to keep out of the rapidly retiring sun.

They’ve all earned this leisurely hour after journeying in canoes for weeks, from various tribes along the Salish Sea and beyond , all the way to Lummi, the site of this year’s annual tribal canoe journey, the Paddle to Lummi.

It was a brief repose after an odyssey that began as an idea 30 years ago and has grown into the reclamation of a lost tradition.

Earlier in the day, nearly 100 large canoes, bearing crews of eight to 10 “pullers” from all over the world, landed on the shores of the Lummi Stommish Grounds, where, one at a time, they asked permission from the Lummi Nation to come ashore and partake in several days of camping and sharing Coast Salish cultural heritage.

Each “canoe family” started from their own home, making predetermined stops at host tribes along the way. At each stop, they were welcomed to rest and eat, and together the visitors and hosts set out the next day, several canoes stronger.

The flotilla of canoes grew as more canoe families joined the journey. By the time they reached their destination — some having pulled for nearly 300 miles — they were ready for a multiday celebration with meals, songs, dances, stories and gifts, as well as discussions of matters important to different nations.

This post-arrival ceremony is based on a tradition known as potlatch, practiced by Coast Salish tribes for hundreds of years. The potlatch was banned in Canada from the 1850s until the 1950s, and t he journeys of the late 1980s and early 1990s helped revive the potlatch tradition. Every year, the Tribal Canoe Journey is hosted by a different indigenous nation in the Pacific Northwest. This year, the Lummi Nation hosted an estimated 10,000 visitors.

Canoes have held a special place in the lives of the Coast Salish peoples for thousands of years. As the primary means of travel between coastal destinations, the canoe was a vehicle of welcome, war, fishing, trade and cultural exchange.

Now, as generations of indigenous youth who grew up participating in Tribal Canoe Journeys step into leadership roles, they are exploring and expanding upon their elders’ hopes for what the journeys can do for indigenous culture.

The origins of the canoe culture revival

Tribal Canoe Journey has grown from its origins 30 years ago as an experiment to revive indigenous maritime traditions, to its current role as part of a renaissance among indigenous peoples worldwide who are reclaiming their cultures after centuries of forced removal, forced assimilation and genocide.

“Right here in these timbers are the people,” said Ken Workman as he gestured all around him to the tall wooden walls of the University of Washington Shell House and behind him to the Willapa Spirit, a humble cedar canoe that’s the reason a group of family and friends gathered that day.

The Willapa Spirit was carved in 2009 to honor Emmett Oliver, a Quinault elder and the founder of the 1989 Paddle to Seattle, an event that ultimately sparked the revival of Coast Salish canoe culture.

Oliver’s son, the renowned artist and professor Marvin Oliver, had died the night before, on July 17.

Father and son were instrumental in the movement to revive indigenous culture in the Pacific Northwest, and to bless the Willapa Spirit was to honor them.

As family members performed a smudging ceremony to bless the canoe by circling it with burning sage and brushing it with a branch from a cedar tree, Workman explained how canoes carry the spirits of the ancestors.

“All of these burial grounds, all of the material that was us, the soft material decays and goes down into the ground like everything else, and then in the spring, the rains come and it all gets sucked up into these trees,” said Workman, a former Duwamish tribal council member and a descendant of Chief Sealth, known as Chief Seattle.

“These canoes are made out of wood. So we’re simply replicating the natural process and recognizing that Grandma and Grandpa are in the wood that’s in the canoe,” he said.

After its blessing, the Willapa Spirit was laid to rest for this canoe journey season out of respect for the Oliver family. But even without the Willapa Spirit in the water this year, Emmett Oliver’s legacy is honored every time Tribal Canoe Journeys take place.

“The saying was that we put the knowledge into the canoe and the canoe teaches.” — Philip H. Red Eagle

In the mid-1980s, as planning for Washington state’s centennial celebrations began, Emmett Oliver, the state’s supervisor of Indian Education at the time, saw an opportunity to include Native representation in the celebrations. His mind turned to canoes.

“He just thought that the Native tribes and the canoes should be part of this celebration. Because at that time, it was a lost art of canoe building. For some tribes, they hadn’t carved or built a canoe in over 50 years,” said Marylin Bard, Emmett Oliver’s daughter.

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Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the U.S. government forcibly removed indigenous people from their ancestral lands and enforced practices to repress indigenous culture.

In the Pacific Northwest, this cultural repression took the form of violations of tribal fishing rights and of indigenous youth being forced to attend boarding schools aimed at destroying their culture, punishing them for speaking their Native languages and practicing cultural traditions. Consequently, generations of indigenous people grew up disconnected from their traditions.

By the 1980s, Native canoes no longer had a presence in the Pacific Northwest.

Oliver persuaded Gov. Booth Gardner to commission the carving of eight canoes for the ceremony, and he invited several First Nations tribes from Canada to bring their canoes and join the celebration.

On July 21, 1989, a flotilla of 40 canoes landed at Golden Gardens Park in North Seattle. The event became known as the “Paddle to Seattle.” After several days of races and celebration, Heiltsuk First Nations member Frank Brown, who had been part of initiatives to revive native maritime traditions in British Columbia in the ’80s, invited tribes to continue the tradition by paddling to his tribe’s lands in Bella Bella, B.C., in 1993.

The Paddle to Seattle inspired a generation of Native leaders and organizers to develop and refine Oliver’s idea, injecting it with ceremonies and protocols that educate participants about traditions and culture, ultimately creating the annual Tribal Canoe Journeys.

Philip H. Red Eagle and Tom Heidlbaugh were two of those inspired leaders. After participating in the 1993 Paddle to Bella Bella, Heidlbaugh, who died in 1997, told Red Eagle how moved some tribal elders were when they saw the canoes from shore.

“The elders were coming down to meet the canoes and they were crying, because they hadn’t seen canoes in 50 or 60 years used for journeying. And it had been a tradition here for a long time, hundreds of years,” said Red Eagle.

Soon Heidlbaugh and Red Eagle were organizing short journeys for indigenous youth, in which they incorporated a landing ceremony at each stop before camping and sharing traditional songs and stories.

“One of the things it was supposed to be was a healing process, the return to culture and a healing to find the way that the elders did it and the ancestors did it,” said Red Eagle. “The saying was that we put the knowledge into the canoe and the canoe teaches.”

As more tribes became involved, the Tribal Canoe Journeys became an annual tradition, and Emmett Oliver was there for every journey.

According to his daughter, Marylin Bard, it was Oliver’s wish to live to see 100 canoes land ashore in Washington.

In 2012 at the Paddle to Squaxin, Oliver watched as 103 canoes landed in Olympia. He died in 2016 at the age of 102, but the tradition he started lives on.

This year, 30 years after the Paddle to Seattle inspired the Tribal Canoe Journeys, the Paddle to Lummi brought over 90 canoes and thousands of people from all over the world. Next year’s Tribal Canoe Journey will be hosted by the Snuneymuxw First Nation on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

Changing lives and healing from trauma

As they expanded what Oliver began, Heidlbaugh and Red Eagle strove to create a world where indigenous youth could grow up immersed in traditions. They believed it would take seven generations for the tribal journeys to make an impact on that scale.

“We know that people are feeling that hunger the way we felt that hunger — to be not just someone who’s brown and called a Native American or American Indian, but actually someone who was and is still practicing who they were,” said Red Eagle.

Shin-Gee Dunstan, now a puller for Nisqually Canoe Family, was 16 when he took part in the first youth journeys organized by Red Eagle and Heidlbaugh. Now, more than 20 years later, when Dunstan attends Tribal Canoe Journeys, he is inspired by the young people.

“It’s changing my life,” Dunstan said. “I’m stepping into the roles that our people have laid out for us. I want to get a family canoe. I want to learn the language, because I’m super [jealous] when we pulled up and the little kids are speaking the language fluently. That wasn’t even a thing when we were little!”

But Tribal Journeys are not just about cultural revival, Red Eagle said. They’re also about healing from the traumas that caused that loss of indigenous culture and tradition.

Nahaan , a Tlingit artist and member of the Naac Dancers Canoe Family, credits Marvin Oliver with helping him prioritize his culture and find healing through art.

“My culture is my life, it’s a way of life. It’s not a part-time weekend thing. It’s what I do all the time, every day,” said Nahaan. “There’s 527 years of trauma that we’re working through, and that presence has devastated our culture and our place, our environment, our generations. So we’re helping to reverse that in multiple ways — by practicing sustainable culture, by practicing honoring the water, honoring the killer whales, the fish, each other, the words and stories of our ancestors, the teachings.”

However, not all trauma can be spoken of in the past tense. A major focus of this year’s Paddle to Lummi was the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW).

Hundreds of indigenous women and girls are murdered or missing every year throughout the U.S. and Canada. A recent report from the Urban Indian Health Institute found at least 506 cases in urban areas in the U.S. Of the 71 cities surveyed in the report, Seattle had the highest number of MMIW cases.

Calling for greater awareness of MMIW, members of several canoe families wore red handprints painted across their mouths or decorated their canoes with red ribbons bearing the names of lost or missing loved ones.

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A special ceremony for missing and murdered indigenous women was held on the beach after the canoes landed at Lummi. And later that evening, during protocol — the sharing of songs, dances and gifts by representatives of each tribe — a special song and dance was held in honor of MMIW.

Each dancer held a hand in front of her face to mirror the red handprint painted over her mouth. As they sang, they moved along to the slow beat of the drums, sometimes raising their hands in prayer, sometimes holding them out in front of them as if reaching for their departed loved ones:

Every night.

Pray for you

I love and miss you

Sister, come home

Please God, please God

Bring her home.

“I hope it opens everyone’s eyes and I hope that all these families that do have missing loved ones or murdered loved ones, I hope they all get that support that they need, because they’re not getting help,” said dancer Nashawnee Johnson.

“It’s scary, especially for those of us that have daughters,” she said. “That’s the last thing I would want for my daughter.”

Like the generation before them that was inspired by cultural revival movements such as the Paddle to Seattle, leaders of this generation are envisioning new hopes for indigenous peoples.

“We know that people are feeling that hunger the way we felt that hunger — to be not just someone who’s brown and called a Native American or American Indian, but actually someone who was and is still practicing who they were,” — Philip H. Red Eagle.  

Julian Brave NoiseCat cited the Tribal Canoe Journeys as an influence in the organization of this year’s first-ever Alcatraz Canoe Journey, which will be held in the Bay Area on Indigenous Peoples Day, Oct. 14.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz Island, when Native protesters occupied the abandoned federally owned island for 14 months, calling for the land to be returned to its original Native inhabitants.

NoiseCat, an Alcatraz Canoe Journey committee member who has participated in several Tribal Journeys, wanted to honor the legacy of the occupation with a tribal canoe journey.

“For community empowerment and for culture and for an intergenerational transfer …, I think [tribal journeys are] just a really powerful tool for our people,” said NoiseCat. “That experience has really been borne out in how this has really taken off in the Northwest.”

He also says the legacy of tribal journeys extends far beyond cultural revival. With indigenous peoples camping, getting out on the water, and engaging with wildlife and the land, NoiseCat believes these journeys could eventually lead to meaningful political change.

“The world is facing a biodiversity crisis of many many species going extinct or dying out, or (being) in very precarious situations. And many indigenous communities often live in the very places that protect many of the species that are most vulnerable and are key stewards of biodiversity,” he said.

“I think that that’s a very, very powerful cultural tool which can translate into real political and policy change impact.”

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