Tribal Canoe Journey 2023 Protocol (aired August 2023)

The InterTribal Canoe Journey, otherwise referred to as “canoe journey” or “tribal journey” are a Coast Salish tribal event to bring back the ancestral cultural ways of using cedars canoes on the Salish Sea as a means to live in relation. Canoe journeys started in the 1980s and have grown over the years.   

Muckleshoot Tribe hosted Intertribal Canoe Journey 2023, welcoming 120 canoes to its shores.  Canoe families came from as far north as Juneau Alaska, British Columbia’s Campbell River and Ahousat areas, and as far south as Southern California. 

On August 6, the 2023 Intertribal Canoe Journey ended with protocol at Muckleshoot.  Listen to sounds and voices of the people there.

Producers: Yuko Kodama, Lucy Braginski and Widder Sessions – Special thanks to Maizy Brown Bear for help with this story

Photos: Widder Sessions and Maizy Brown Bear

Muckleshoot protocol

Line for dinner at Muckleshoot canoe journey protocol

Danny Stevenson – Muckleshoot tribal member

Jenel Hunter Muckleshoot tribal member

Stanley Jones Cowichan First Nations and Katrina “Alex” Johnson Ahousaht/Mowachaht First Nations (British Columbia)