The relentless sun blazed overhead along Owen Beach, its heat radiating off the sand. A flotilla of canoes approached the beach, the rhythmic thrum of their paddles merged with the resonant calls seeking permission from the Puyallup canoe family to land. The canoes are a unique testament to individual Indigenous nations’ traditions,​ bearing distinct colors, symbols and wood that announce their origins. 

Owen Beach in Tacoma, Washington, was bursting with songs, prayers and drums.

At the edge of the shore for a split second, a seal could be seen popping their heads up, almost as if they were curious about the activity in the water. Owen Beach is one of this year’s Canoe Journey’s last landings before reaching the Puyallup Reservation. A landing is a traditional ceremony for coastal tribes who come to shore and ask the host nation permission to land by stating their nation, along with an opportunity for each nation to share their language, food, traditions and songs. The road towards Owen Beach is full of vibrant forest treelines and ocean shores are filled with children’s laughter intertwined with the beating of the drum. 

There were 26 landings on this year’s journey. The Puyallup canoe family hosted this year’s journey. Seventy-nine families are participating. Some families traveled from as far as Alaska. The Puyallup tribe and other nations were unable to share exactly how many miles were traveled by canoe, especially considering the bad weather. By UNN estimations, a combined  965 miles are traveled by canoe by those who made all 26 landings during this year’s journey. 

‘Our youth are sacred’

This year, Canoe Journey is focused on youth to teach them the customs and practices and continue passing down knowledge from their older generations, according to the cultural director for the Puyallup Tribe, Connie McCloud’s announcement.

McCloud told UNN + ICT that this is her 30th anniversary participating in the annual Canoe Journey. She went on to share that youth are bringing their families to the Canoe Journey and are excited. 

“These are positive experiences with positive people,” said McCloud. “Almost all of our families have advocated for being drug and alcohol-free, our current family is tobacco-free. We’re creating an environment that is healthy, putting strong elders and adults in places to support our youth so that we can have strong youth.” 

Just like the Puyallup longhouses, the Puyallup’s canoe is sourced from cedar trees. According to McCloud, they use all parts of the tree in different ways. 

The cedar tree has been a vessel for traveling great distances and healing for the nation from time immemorial to today. 

“It is a sacred temple,” McCloud said “The cedar tree is a vital teacher, our protector. Our stories tell us at times of great destruction and chaos in our community to go to the cedar tree and pray.” 

Ruby Sheriff, 21, Hoh Tribe, is an intern at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, focusing on natural resources. NOAA representatives said they hoped that her presence would connect more youth with NOAA through Sheriff’s relations at canoe journey.

Sheriff’s cousins and relatives all participated or were present at canoe journey. And Sheriff was excited about connecting with youth who might be interested in the work that she’s doing at NOAA. 

Canoe Journey is also a place where old friends see each other again. Sheriff connected with an old friend from the Quileute Tribe who was trying to get his son into natural resources. 

“We actually went to school and daycare our whole life together and we finally found each other again,” said Sheriff. “But yeah, was just like ‘Oh, fuck yeah. Let’s do it. But that’s their hope is trying to get more Indigenous kids to sign up for internships.” 

Sheriff is enrolled at Peninsula Community College, taking a natural resource course and working on an Associate of Science degree. She says she’s unsure of what she wants to do after obtaining her associate degree, but she does have a dream of returning to her tribal school. 

“My mission is to at least come back to my tribe and be the director for the natural resources, or be some kind of advocate for the kids and to do natural resource things,” said Sheriff. “And then I wanted to try to go back and be a science teacher at the Quileute Tribal School.”

NOAA’s booth was located at Puyallup’s edge of the vendors’ area, just about 30 feet from where the protocol was happening. Protocol is a time of giving by the nations that traveled to the host nation and in return the host family will share what they can give. During protocol, each nation shares its traditional songs and dances with all tribes and other gifts were often given to the host nation for their hospitality. 

The excitement and pride of being involved in the canoe journey from the youth could be heard. 

Outside of protocol, a group of kids were gathered. A young boy with a half-up braid asked “Did you canoe?”  followed by an excited bragging tone from another teenager with a shirt tied around his head, “Yes I did! Did you?” 

According to everyone UNN spoke with this year, the answer would always be “yes.’’ When the last tent came down and all the youth left, the journey didn’t come to an end. It’s a time for anticipation and preparation until next year.