We camped at Olympic National Park and followed the Native American tribes who were beach camping, waiting for the teens and adult men traveling on their artisan-made canoes.
The Visitor’s Center assumed that I was Native American and advised me they were 40 miles away. My adventurous #hubby @enriquedlz went along. We had to ask 2 gas station attendants until one gave us precise directions on which beach and which highway to be in.
I was so happy when we found them. The tribes had set up a festival with booths and a program featuring all the tribes inside a community center.
Outside, I talked to a family and asked what was going on. I pointed to the little girl and asked what she was doing. I joined her and she taught me how to dance. She was barely 3 years old. I recall having the purest feeling of joy.
I went back to the beach campground and cooked dinner of fine steak that night, complete with merlot and balsamic being reduced as sauce.
Hubby even got supplied with free campfire wood while our neighbors had the biggest campfire, about several feet high. They told us that’s how they build it to warm up the bodies of several families.
The next morning, they had a volunteer crew with trash bags picking up all the trash and litter. There was no trace of garbage left on the beach.
Later, we looked at the displays of canoes paraded for judging in a competition.
The story goes: they hold this canoeing festival yearly, where hundreds of teens are mentored by older men on how to build waterproof and sturdy canoes.
They sail the ocean waters and stop at each community cluster, fed by the hosting families. It is their way of connecting and renewing their culture, but most importantly, it was their way of keeping their teenagers away from alcohol, drugs, and other addictions. Usually, 200 folks join in.
No one is allowed to sail unless they have helped build the canoe, and no one gets to journey in the canoe if they have imbibed alcohol or drugs. They have standards, rituals, and chants to call on their ancestors to join them in this ocean journey. It takes a whole year of building, journeying, and reflection after.