[Music]
Our modern-day warriors are, you know,
people that make sure that uh,
what we had, where we came from continues
you know. This is all part of that battle
because all the things that they tried
to take from us, these warriors are
making sure that we still have and we're
able to pass that down to future
generations. We welcome you to the
homelands and Waters of the Muckleshoot
people. We've been expecting you and
we've been working hard preparing for
you. Hey this is what it's all about
We've been waiting since 2006 for this
hosting to honor our ancestor warriors.
This is it we're here here. Honor the
warriors. Muckleshoot! We're here to
paddle for all of our warriors at home
that couldn't make this journey. We sing
and dance for all of our warriors that
are stuck on the streets,
lost. We're here to show our pride of who
we are. Proud, beautiful
people. Paddle to Muckleshoot this year
we know that there are over 100 canoes.
You know some of the tribes have more
than one canoe, some of the canoes
will be family canoes, Muckleshoot has a a
family that has their own canoe and I
think it's probably a record to have
over a 100 canoes at one final
destination.
Welcome to all. My name is
Jason Elkins, I'm the chairman of the
Mukcleshoot Tribe. You have permission to come
ashore. You have permission to
come
[Applause]
Good job good
job. It is joyful to see all of you. We
give thanks to everyone for being here,
come to shore now and we will enjoy
visiting one
[Applause]
another. It's just a beautiful feeling
pulling up and seeing everybody cheering
you on and getting to come ashore and
I'm looking forward to singing and
dancing and feasting with everyone when
they're here. Your canoe family took the
floor of our house await and culture at 3:30
this
morning. They represented you very very
well, your Tribe has a bright future. This
is the landing the final pull for the
Tribal Journey 2023 and we have 10,000
people here and we want to hear
everybody's songs, we want to share our
culture, we want to share our food with
everybody and share the
stories of how we're connected with one
another and this is what happens when
all of us come together to work as one.
One heart one mind one goal. This is
beautiful to see everybody here today I
have hope for for future
generations.
I feel that if there wasn't a canoe
Journey
we wouldn't be as close to the other
Tribes as we are today. I wouldn't know
the songs of other Tribes and the other
people. I wouldn't know the motivation
that keeps them going. There's a sense of
pride that you get going on canoe
journey and it's a bond that you create.
They heal you, it's
medicine. Everybody can relate here today.
These canoes are part of who we are they
are an embodiment of the family and the
Tribe and the
people and the spiritual connection that
we have to the land. This is way bigger
than just one person, one canoe. One heart
one mind goes beyond the canoe. It goes
to all of the Salish Tribes. Some things
that you learn when you're out there on
the water is you're a lot tougher than
you think you are. You learn that you can
be out there a lot longer than you think.
It's all about the mindset and when
everybody has that same mindset and
we're all cheering each other on, we can
overcome
anything. You know in our in our culture,
we believe that everything has life. And
so awakening the canoes is a spiritual
process where they're being honored
they're being fed so we can use them so
we can uh start the process of
practicing and bringing our canoes
on the water.
And
when we're not using our canoes, you know
they're they're cared for, and we rub
them with oils and protect them from the
elements. Cedar is really uh important to
our people it's basically waterproof and
at the same time it's medicine. Sometimes
we'll hang cedar boughs around the
openings of our dwellings or our homes.
You'll see cedar put out as medicine and
it protects you from bad
entities. The Tribe really puts a lot of
value in our traditions and our in our
culture. They're basically our existence
and who we are so be able to
demonstrate that by letting employees
come down and bring their families
and everything is really uh important.
And it has to be passed on to the next
generation. Canoe program means a lot of
different things to a lot of people but
for me you know is keeping youth
occupied in something good, you know,
something traditional, cultural.
Without our youth we don't have a future
and protecting them is really uh
important. Continuing our traditions you
know some of it was lost it took time to
get our canoe program up and going
in again people didn't know how to carve
canoes anymore and things like that.
One of the things that happens is it
brings you back to ancient times, it
makes you feel like you're you're back
with your ancestors it's just something
in inside of you a spiritual awakening
or
feeling. The theme of our canoe hosting
this year is honoring our warriors past
and present. Everybody who's enrolled in
the Muckleshoot Tribe is descended from
somebody who was fought for who we are
and for what we have. You know it's the
city of Seattle but it's Muckleshoot
[Music]
territory. To fight for each other you
know for Native rights is basically the
Indian Wars that we're in
now. Sometimes we don't all get along but
one thing that we have in common is that
we will fight for each other.
We'll fight for our Tribe, our
[Music]
existence. So this Canoe Journey provides
a great opportunity for our younger
generation to understand who they are
and where they come from. Right now
they're on the saltwater and they're
paddling south on the Puget Sound and
they are getting be acquainted with that
saltwater
culture. This is exactly what our
warriors were fighting
for. To remain in our
homeland. The bottom line is
that our ancestors didn't want to
relocate. This was home. This Green River
Watershed. Not just Flaming Geyser State
Park. The entire watershed from its
mountain tops all the way down to the
mouth at Elliot Bay. And that is what
this Medicine Creek
Treaty War was all
about. The
warriors uh of
1855,
understood what was at
risk. Their livelihoods, their
identity, their homes were under attack
attack via this treaty. The villages on
this river system were not included in
the the reservation plan so there was
nothing left to do. There were literally
no options left so it's either fight or
die. The Treaty Wars of the 1970s were
made up of the descendants of the
Medicine Creek treaty War. These warriors,
they all got together and they formed
a campaign,
they formed a
coalition, and then they created a
campaign -- a plan on how they're going to
get the federal government to
acknowledge
this promise, this statement that was
made that the opportunity to fish and
hunt and gather at our usual and accustomed
areas -- that's right in the treaty -- that's
a condition, that's what this was about.
This was
about upholding a promise. Our
livelihoods are be are are being
challenged again. Our identity is being
challenged again. Our rights are being
challenged
again. And so, once again, the descendants
of the first Treaty War are called to
action. Strong hearts to the
front.
We as Native people, we draw strength
from our ancestors when we
channel this
spirit, it's possible to overcome just
about anything. Challenges can be met and
obstacles can be
overcome via this
channeling. Asking our yəlʼ+√yəláb,
ancestors, for help for help to cross the
the Puget Sound, for help to carry those
canoes in land uh for help when our
backs and our shoulders and our arms are
and our hands are blistered and our our
backside is sore you know we can ask for
help. I think it's a really bold
statement that the younger generation
are taking and I'm really proud
of them for for what they're doing um by
uh
experiencing uh their culture and in
Remembering uh these Warriors
who who paid the ultimate
sacrifice. I think we're going to be
paddling around 300 nautical miles this
year um going to be about 11 days for us
on the water uh we're leaving on July
19th uh for seashell that's going to be
our first stop. When we started off back
in 2007 on on our first canoe Journey we
didn't really have any songs back home
we were borrowing songs from other
nations and we were able to find um I
think 16 recordings of my great-
great-grandfather in the Congressional
Museum and you know brought those
back to life and since then uh you know
we've been able to compose many songs
for our nation you know we've come a
long way since then.
There's a lot of new people in the in
the family this year. There are a lot of
people who are coming out here for the
first time, you know everybody comes from
their different places, but we all come
together and that's the
point. They get to see you in your
struggles and your power and you
experience all of those things with
other people you all stop and marvel at
the the your surroundings together and
really just get to know each other in a
deeper way than you would normally get
to know people. And you want to remain
strong for them, so you just keep going
and uh and then then you make
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
it. This
is Thomas williams of the
Snohomish people,
we're thankful for your guys' safe
arrival by water you guys's travel on
your beautiful canoe, you beautiful
Indian
people. We ask that you guys come ashore
and share a meal with us we raise our
hands to you as the host Tribe making
sure that everyone's welcomed and
joining in with the celebration we know
that you guys are
tired.
Please please come ashore we're
going to have some food ready for you
and we look forward to continuing the
celebration
[Music]
together. We started from Sinomish, and we
left about 5:20 this morning and then we
pulled all the way here to Tulalip Bay, and
it took us a little over 8 hours, and it
was about 28 miles I'm ready to lay down
and take a
nap. When when I'm on eagle spirit, when
I'm on the water that is my home that is
my church that is where I feel the most
at peace. So in those moments of
exhaustion I speak to my ancestors, ask
them to give me the strength I speak to
my brother in heaven and everything and
my grandpa and I'm just like I'm doing
this for you and that just gives me that
renewed
strength. These are our uh brother and
sister tribes very close with all of the
uh especially the ones Pacific Northwest
Tribes where we interact on everything
from protecting the sea to protecting
the salmon and the stream enhancement
and all of that but um very close
relations um. We all have relatives one
way or another on every different
reservation there is in the Northwest
[Music]
so. Language is certainly um a holistic
part of the canoe Journey experience um
you won't make one stop and not hear the
language um being spoken. Like many of our
elders say you can't have culture
without language and you can't have our
language without our culture. For so long
people tried to strip our ancestors of
our language. When you're pulling into
other Tribes and you're arriving people
on the canoe stand up and ask for
permission to come ashore many of them
will ask in their language and a lot of
the songs that you'll hear at protocols
will have the Tribes' Native languages in them
too. This year we'll be coming full
circle uh from when Walter pushed really
hard to talk to leadership and convince
leadership um that we needed to buy this
canoe. The canoe was very near and dear
to his heart. And I feel that he is with
us often. His services were so large that
they had to be hosted outside. It's like
I saw him out there and he was he was
dancing. He was doing an eagle dance and
some of these songs that I hear um it's
like I see him out there
still. My name is Walter Pacheco. I'm a Muckleshoot
Tribal
member. I've seen a lot uh I've watched
the tribe grow uh
significantly. The paddle to Seattle was
the first official canoe Journey that
was set up and there were Tribes of all
as far as Canada that came and there was
like 18 canoes that went through -- that
Muckleshoot was one of them -- that was the
start that was the beginning of the
annual canoe Journey. It became quite
clear that we had to get back to having
our gatherings and traveling with each
other, having potlatches. Because that
was our history that was our tradition
and culture and it became more
formal it became more of a wellness-type
situation we had to get back to our
spiritual ways that really brought us
closer to who we were as a people
and where we needed to
be. Started in 1976 the annual
celebration the Muckleshoot had was a Powwow,
and that was the main event for the
Tribe, that was an annual event. And
during that time that was the culture we
practiced but in reality we had a
different culture. Cuz being together out
on the water that was where we spent our
time, that was where we found our songs,
that's where we found our spiritual
strengths, and brought us back to a place
that made us feel stronger more
connected with not only our people but
all the people that we came across. And
so after gathering with the canoe tribes
and learning about the canoe Journeys we
undertook a project to get our own canoe.
I learned from one of the canoe families
that there was a a canoe up in in Tofino,
British Columbia that was for sale. I had
to approach our travel Council to find
out where we could find the money for
this canoe. It took about 6 months before
we actually identified available funding
within the Tribe to buy this
canoe. We had that Coast Salish culture
that we never practiced because our
people they were living in a in a
society that didn't accept us. They were
penalized for practicing their culture
they couldn't speak their language or
they would be punished. But it didn't
stop them. They continued to talk the
language, but they had to do it away from
contemporary
society. We had to assimilate that really
did some
harm. This is who we are, this is where we
belong, we need to continue to do this
not only for myself but for my people
and future generations. Because it's
bringing us back to a place before we
became lost. We never forgot who we were,
we never gave up, and that was very
important to us. We think of how
much value it has in sustaining us as a
Tribe and our
people. My name is Sierra Pacheco, I'm the
daughter of Walter Pacho and Lori Oliver.
I followed him everywhere, anywhere he
went I was right beside him and I really
feel like my dad succeeded in what his
dreams were for our people. His first
intentions were our youth. What can we do
to get our youth out on those canoes
what can we do to keep them from gang
violence and drugs and alcohol because
that's what's killing our people. And
that's the generational trauma that is
affecting us. This is so important for us
to learn our language and sing our songs
and practice our song and dances because
that was taken from us. Because without
that we're lost. Our elders and all of
our ancestors fought fought for their
lives to make it happen. It's just
beautiful to see. Like I myself am
emotional to see it all happen.
And know that he's not here but he's
here in spirit to see it.
Yeah I'm the hereditary chief of the
La Push Quileutes, and I kind of started this just
me and my friends in the 70s we were
from different
reservations uh we took off from uh
La Push and we did everything the old way
back then. We didn't have even life vests. We
didn't have a support boat following us.
We had just all from our families and
and we did everything from our heart. So
it's kind of like today canoes are coming
from different countries even or travel
in our traditional ancestral highways,
and we're all going to
Muckleshoot. It just gets bigger and bigger
every
year it makes my heart soar like an
eagle, to see all of these Tribes come to
our homeland. It's healing to us it's
healing to our heart. This journey is
part of our legacy and sharing our rich
history and culture helps us remember
who we are as a
[Music]
people. Gift-giving is a way of keeping
culture alive and tonight we are getting
gifts ready for the canoe
journey. We'll give gifts to all visitors
all Nations' canoe families. We're making
cedar hats, painting rattles, beading. We
will also be doing regalia making that
people will wear in our
protocol. These are handmade by Tribal
members, community members, and it's
something that they do take great pride
in. And when they give it to them it
gives them a sense of joy. So these are
the people that are keeping our culture
going. I was approached about a year ago
now this month to come down and help
Muckleshoot get ready for a paddle this
year I was asked to compose the anthem.
And it explains their ancestral
territories and where they hunted,
gathered, fished. It's almost like paying
respects to the old
[Music]
ways. The gifts that we are given have a
connection to the land. The cedar is
harvested from our own forest so
essentially a piece of our land is being
given to
people. Muckleshoot people, as well as
many Indigenous people have gone through
historical trauma. And culture is a way
to heal people from those traumas. So
canoe journey is actually healing
people. The canoe family, it helped me get
into the culture it's where I go out and
release some of my prayers into the
water and let the water take it away.
When you're pulling in the journey I
think it brings culture to life,
experiencing the water when you pull.
We all have the same destination,
we're all going to experience different
things, and I can't thank my son enough
for joining so that we could experience
it together. People get to share this
with many canoe families and it's a time
of gathering it's a time when people
celebrate
together. We have people coming from
Alaska and as far south as California.
We've even had tribes from Arizona call
us and want to be a part of
this. As our ancestors have done, we will
welcome people at Alki Point on July
30th over 55 canoe families and over 120
canoes and we'll welcome them on our
ancestral
land.
After we get back from welcoming ashore
we'll go to the reservation, we'll get
everybody settled in there's going to be
some large camp areas there's going to
be large dining
areas. So I'm grandma to a lot of
people. On in the
door right now they're putting out six,
7,000 dinner plates every night. What's
on the menu? Um tonight they're cooking
steaks, hamburgers, and hot dogs. Tomorrow
they're going to be cooking salmon in
here tomorrow. Down here they're chopping
onions to go in chili in the soup. So out
here we have two mobile kitchens we have
five trucks that have storage that are
refrigeration units. Here they have six
ovens that they're utilizing and then
they're making fry bread and stuff
here. Lot of coordination effort a lot of
good teamwork
so. We're expecting thousands of people.
If you have uh 100 canoes and the number
of people that it takes to support that
with ground crew and cooks and people
who are driving and towing trailers you
know you could be 20,000 people at
Muckleshoot.
We'll start protocol, and that's
going to run for 24 hours a day all the
way through the end of 6 days. During
protocol, the Tribes will come out onto
the floor, they'll sing their songs,
they'll dance, they have the opportunity
to speak and share their experiences
along the journey then after they're
finished the next family will come in
and it goes on
24-7. Participating in canoe Journey has
been an honor and a privilege. It's
really touched me and moved me
personally as an Indigenous person from
the Muckleshoot Tribe. It's very powerful very
moving. And you can feel that
revitalization of our culture. It's been
several years since we've been able to
have a canoe Journey because of covid. And
so a lot of the people that are coming
in they have lost family members. So
we're really here healing. It's a
spiritual uh experience as
well. Please welcome the Muckleshoot canoe
family
of
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
2023.
[Music]
Our people are watching today uh both
figuratively and
literally. Um but I know our ancestors
are with us as well and that
they're watching and uh today is a
joyous day for all involved. Our hands
are raised to you our our relatives
thank you for being here. Please
accept this gift on behalf of our people
and uh we raise our hands to each and
every one of
[Music]
[Applause]
you. Thank you my voice is really
scratchy because I'm very emotional for
what you guys have done here. Warren I
want to raise my hands to you I want to
acknowledge Muckleshoot Tribe and you guys have
set the bar so high for all of us let's
hear it for Muckle
shoot!
We couldn't ask for a better
gift. We thank you so much for
celebrating the return to Journey with
with Muckleshoot. And that's incredibly
powerful after a history of colonization
of 600 plus years where every policy was
designed to destroy or kill or change us
as Indian people.
We're here today with our hands in the
air saying that we're still
here. We're practicing our
traditions. We're sharing our culture. And
we're each a living representative of
that. Thank you very much hands are
raised, Tribal Journey 2023 thank
you.
You have uh permission to untie until
leave our shores.
[Music]
SC
[Music]