The Nooksack Indian Tribe will welcome canoes landing in Birch Bay Monday, July 22 for a stop along the Paddle to Puyallup Canoe Journey.
The canoes are expected to stop at Birch Bay State Park about 5-6 p.m., tide permitting, wrote Frank Leyva, grants and compliance manager for Nooksack Indian Tribe, in an email to The Northern Light. The public is welcome to join and dinner will be served at the bp Heron Center in celebration of the paddlers’ arrival, Levya wrote.
The paddlers will leave early Tuesday, tide permitting, to travel to their next stop on the shores of Lummi Nation.
About 50 tribes and First Nations located in Washington, Alaska, B.C. and other areas will participate in the annual canoe journey, according to a proclamation governor Jay Inslee issued July 5 on the canoe journey. The canoe journey’s official stops run from Squamish, B.C. to the Olympic Peninsula and include Vancouver Island.
Canoes will arrive at traditional territory of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians on July 31. A week-long celebration will follow the arrival of the canoes.
The canoe journey is an annual tradition for tribes in the Pacific Northwest and B.C. to travel ancestral waterways. This year’s theme for the canoe journey is a focus on youth, with the hope that elders will share their knowledge and youth will feel more confident to step into leadership roles, according to the Puyallup Tribe of Indians website.
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