JAMESTOWN — For Elaine Grinnell, a tribal elder of the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, canoes coming ashore on old Jamestown beach Thursday illustrate the resurgence of Indian culture.
About 30 tribal canoes carrying members from more than a dozen Northwest and British Columbia tribes stopped at Jamestown for an overnight rest during the 2003 Paddle Journey.
“Our culture was not lost, but it was suppressed for a long time,” Grinnell said.
“The elders remember a time when we were not allowed to be proud to be Native American.”
Grinnell, who is the tribe’s cultural specialist, said for many years tribes could not teach native languages to youths or practice cultural customs.
“That has changed now,” she said watching a canoe make its way around the New Dungeness Lighthouse.
Canoes will leave Jamestown in the early morning hours today and paddle to Point Hudson at Port Townsend for an overnight stop.
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The rest of the story appears in the Friday/Saturday PDN.
