Watch our canoes, respect our life force
Beginning July 28, the Puyallup Tribe will celebrate its 25th year of participation in the Canoe Journey.
As we gather with thousands of relatives from all over our region, and as far north as Alaska and Canada, we will put our canoes in the water to travel and connect with one another as our ancestors did so long ago.
During this weeklong gathering, we will celebrate and honor the water that sustains us. We invite you to join us in our effort to bring more balance to the Salish Sea. (Please join our Canoe Journey events and learn more online at puyallup-tribe.com.)
This year, we are blessed to host about 120 canoes and dozens of tribes to our shores as we celebrate the theme of Honoring our Medicine. Our elders have always taught us that water is a powerful medicine — a life-giving force that sustains, heals and protects us.
And as we see with Canoe Journey, where more than 15,000 people will gather to greet the canoes, the water also provides connection between Native peoples and the land.
The Puyallup Tribe is one of the most urban reservations in the country. We know intimately the effects of industry and development on our culture.
So we must balance city living with the need to protect the way of life our ancestors practiced before freeways and industry transformed our land.
Coast Salish tribes have always moved through the region along the water, and we are dedicated to practicing this ancient tradition.
Reclaiming our traditions is a commitment we practice every day to make sure that our children, and theirs, can enjoy these waters after we are gone.
Today, the tips of our canoes touch the sand of beaches polluted by chemicals from upstream contamination. The same pollutants poison our tideflats and seep into shellfish beds.
Like tribes across the nation, we live with the result of declining fish supply as salmon habitat is degraded and salmon passage blocked by roads.
With every new development, such as PSE’s liquid natural gas plant under development at the Port of Tacoma, we are faced with a battle to protect our waters, our life force and our medicine.
We gather with fellow tribes during the journey to honor and celebrate a shared bond. We are all working to preserve the ways, lands and waters of our ancestors. We do this because it is sacred to us.
So, as our natural resources are depleted, and our waters threatened by continued spread of industry on our shorelines, we will gather in a ceremony to honor the medicine of the Salish Sea and all the waters we rely on.
We invite our canoe family to bring their traditional medicine to share. Whether a bottle of water from the Columbia River or a shell from the shores of Vancouver Island, they will be introduced to our waters and honored in prayer and communion.
It’s a powerful way for the original peoples of this area to share our medicine, help restore some balance to our environment and offer thanks and healing to the water that gives us so much life.
Bill Sterud has served on the Puyallup Tribal Council for more than 37 years, and has been elected chairman or vice chairman several times since 1977. He was recently re-elected to continue serving as chairman this year.
This story was originally published July 14, 2018 at 11:30 AM.