JAMESTOWN BEACH — Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Chairman Ron Allen warmly greeted canoe pullers to shore Monday, where tribal members from Northwestern Canada joined others at Jamestown Beach in song and dance by the sea.
“It is more of a spiritual rejuvenation,” Allen said shortly after welcoming pullers from the Quinault tribe that landed at Jamestown shortly before 4 p.m.
“It is a time to renew songs and share songs and stories.”
The longtime tribal chairman and national Native American figure described the Tribal Canoe Journey, this year to Swinomish, as an experience that “relives the old days when we would visit different villages” from what became Canada and south into today’s Northwest U.S.
Jamestown S’Klallam tribal elders cooked fry bread for the pullers, some of them teens.
Allen estimated about 200 gathered Monday afternoon at the beach, where 18 canoes were pulled up on the beach with more on the way at 4 p.m. with weather sunny and waters calm.
The Blyn-based Jamestown S’Klallam tribe owns 10 acres of tradition tribal shoreside land, a house and five acres of the tribal cemetery farther inland at the location of old Jamestown, the tribe’s namesake.
The journey to Swinomish, near La Conner in Skagit County, involves tribes from as far north as Alaska and south to Oregon.
A weeklong potlatch begins when all canoes arrive next Monday.
The leg of the paddle from Port Angeles to Jamestown on Monday is expected to again launch around 6 a.m. today from Jamestown and land in Port Townsend at Fort Worden State Park between 11 a.m. and noon, Allen said.
The 2011 Canoe Journey began in Quinault on July 10.
Tribes from Canada were singing and dancing on the beach shortly before shuttling over to Sequim High School cafeteria for a traditional dinner hosted by the Jamestown S’Klallam, and songs and stories from different families and tribal members would follow.
“Each family presents their songs and stories individually,” Allen said.
The event encourages tribal youths to speak their native tongues.
The tribes were to camp overnight at the high school playfields.
Vickie Carroll, cultural director for the Jamestown S’Klallam, said she had planned the program beginning in March along with tribal descendant Paul Bowlby.
Frank Campbell, a Swinomish tribal member and a puller for 10 years, said he was involved because “it was something different, something that’s being brought back.”
He said the Port Angeles to Jamestown paddle went smoothly, although his crew of 18 in two canoes was paddling against the tide coming ashore.
Elaine Grinnell, a Jamestown S’Klallam elder and storyteller who lives nearby on Jamestown Road, played a drum along with Canadian tribal pullers on the beach Monday.
She called the journey “a wonderful thing.”
“It packs tradition and culture into one,” she said. “It inspires them to share their songs and their storytelling.”
She said she looked forward to giving gifts to visiting tribes.
Grinnell remembers the canoe journey dating back to 1989, but joked that she was not pulling with a canoe crew.
“I can’t pull my own weight,” she said with a big smile.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
