As diamond-shaped cedar paddles dipped into the cold water of the Port Angeles Harbor, the paddle song of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe filled the air.
The tribe has been practicing each night in preparation for the 2003 Paddle Journey to the Tulalip reservation near Marysville.
The journey, which starts this week for distant tribes, will be completed July 28 when 50 to 80 canoes from 40 Washington and British Columbia tribes ask permission to come ashore at Totem Beach, near Marysville.
A five-day, potlatch hosted by the Tulalip tribe will celebrate the journey.
Other North Olympic Peninsula tribes, including Quinault, Hoh, Quileute, Makah, Jamestown S’Klallam and Port Gamble S’Klallam, will begin paddling hundreds of miles during the next two weeks.
Canoes have varied departure schedules.
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The rest of the story is in the Sunday Peninsula Daily News.
