NEAH BAY — Summer is winding down, but not without one more festival.
The 82nd annual Makah Days Celebration kicks off in Neah Bay at noon today with a street fair of more the 60 vendors along Bayview Avenue.
The tribe plans all year round for the three-day event that celebrates Makah culture with dancing, games, art and food.
The theme of this year’s celebration is “All My Relations,” and a full schedule of events can be found in today’s Peninsula Spotlight.
Among the 60 vendors are artists from the Makah tribe, Canada, South America and other parts of the United States, said Nan Taylor, vendor organizer for this year’s event.
There will also be a wide variety of food available, Taylor said, with vendors selling everything from Indian Tacos to strawberry shortcake.
The Makah Fishermen Co-op will also sell fresh packed and canned fish.
And if you prefer someone else to cook your fish, don’t miss the traditional salmon bake for $10 a plate at noon on Saturday.
There also will be plenty of entertainment to take in while filling your belly with good food, including the Traditional Makah Dancers, canoe races and Slahal tournaments.
Slahal is a Klallam word for a traditional stick game that involves gambling and singing, said Jean Vitalis, organizer of this year’s tournament.
One game can last anywhere from 15 minutes to hours on end, Vitalis said.
“Once you start you don’t stop. You just keep going until there’s a winner,” she said.
The game pits two teams against each other in trying to acquire a set of 11 sticks by guessing the correct order of four bones.
Two of the bones are marked and two are not.
In the process of play, two members on one team mix the bones and keep them hidden in their hands while their teammates sing and taunt the “guesser” on the other team.
The singing is actually one of the only vocal parts of the game, as the guessing of the bone order is done with hand signals.
“Sometimes people will come just to watch the rivalry of the Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth tribes,” Vitalis said.
