Northwest tribes land at Alki during annual canoe journey
Brian Contreras,
“The canoes are coming!” a young girl cried from the crowd of onlookers. “They’re right there!”
The 20-odd canoes approached Alki Beach just before noon Thursday as part of the “Paddle to Lummi” — or Sqweshenet Tse Schelangen (“honoring our way of life”) — a journey through the Salish Sea toward the Lummi Nation, this year’s host. During the annual Tribal Canoe Journey, tribes and nations from throughout the Pacific Northwest join up with one another on the way toward Lummi, starting from different points but picking up new canoes along the way.
