On the surface, there were a lot of familiar elements in this year’s Canoe Journey: the soulful sound of songs coming across the water as canoes approached. The requests for permission to land and the welcomes in each territory, spoken in languages as old as the wind that carried the words. Evening dances and songs offered on sacred ground, where ancestors once danced and sang.
But below the surface, there was something new – a melding of the oldest technology on the sea with some of the newest technology. And the data collected from this partnership could provide a more complete picture of the health of the region’s waters.
Connected to five canoes were underwater probes that collected water quality data every 10 seconds. The data was transmitted to a data logger on board the canoe, and the latitude and longitude were automatically recorded via GPS.
The probes collected information regarding temperature, salinity, pH levels, dissolved oxygen and turbidity, according to Eric Grossman, research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. At journey’s end, the data will be processed and mapped, and researchers will look for patterns and trends in sea conditions.
Each stainless steel probe is 2 feet long and 2.5 inches in diameter, and trails the canoe at a depth of 6 feet, USGS spokesman John Clemens said. Sensors are on the trailing edge of the probe.
This is the first year of the project, and what the information may reveal and how it may be used is an overwhelming prospect. But Grossman said the information could help identify signs of climate change, impacts from development, and changes in the levels and types of nutrients and pollutants washing into the sea.
That information could help scientists solve such mysteries as the loss of eelgrass, which provides habitat for fish on which salmon prey. And some scientists, like those at the Center for Whale Research on San Juan Island, believe pollution could be a reason for the decline in the local orca pods, which have been declared an endangered species.
”Over the last 100 years, people have looked at our most sacred site – the Salish Sea – as a dump site,” Swinomish Chairman Brian Cladoosby said in an announcement about the project.
”You have everything – heavy metals, toxins, farm runoff, nonpoint pollution – and it ends up in the Salish Sea. It’s up to this generation and future generations to make everyone aware of the conditions. We as Coast Salish have decided ‘no more,’ and we are stepping forward to restore and protect our most precious waters of the Salish Sea.”
The project is funded by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Northwest Straits Commission and the Potlatch Fund.
Probes were connected to canoes belonging to the Homalco and Stolo First Nations in British Columbia, the Makah Indian Nation at Neah Bay, the Squaxin Island Tribe in south Puget Sound and the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community near La Conner.
Swinomish canoe captain Eric Day said he hopes the information will help lead to solutions. ”There’s no easy fix. But hopefully we can do something to turn things around.”
The journey began for the northernmost First Nations on July 7. The canoes carrying the probes got under way beginning July 14. The final destination was at Cowichan First Nation on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, with all canoes arriving July 28.
USGS spokesman John Clemens said the project, called the Canoe Journey Water Quality Project, evolved from a lot of thought and discussion. The Canoe Journey was viewed by many as an ideal way to collect information about the sea. This year, some 100 canoes traveled the ancestral marine highways of Puget Sound and the Georgia Basin for the Canoe Journey.
Clemens said the data gathering is ideally done with a canoe because there is no boat engine or exhaust disturbance that interferes with data collection and quality.
”This is a blending of traditional knowledge with science knowledge,” he said.
The Canoe Journey is a cultural connection like no other: with the cedar, which for millennia has provided material for art, canoes, clothing, fishing nets and houses; with the water, the marine highway for coastal peoples since time immemorial; and with extended families across the Northwest Coast.
It’s also an intense athletic event, as some canoes travel for hundreds of miles to get to the final destination; and each puller has to be mentally, physically and spiritually disciplined.
At each stop along the Canoe Journey, the public can watch the colorful, soulful arrival of the canoes: colorful, because each canoe and paddle is an elaborately carved work of art; and soulful, because many of the canoe families keep time to songs, which often come to them on the water.
On the shore, in keeping with tradition, canoe families ask permission – often in their own languages – to enter and leave each territory.
Each year, the journey is hosted by a different nation; Suquamish hosts in 2009, Makah in 2010.
For the second time in four years, the San Juan Islands were on the route, July 23 – 26. Nonprofits and individual volunteers coordinated community welcome dinners; at night, islanders were given an opportunity to pull in a canoe, listen to traditional songs and witness honoring ceremonies.
At least 250 canoe family members from Chinook/Grande Ronde, Lummi, Nooksack, Steilacoom, Suquamish, Swinomish and Tulalip camped on tiny Shaw Island July 23, more than doubling the island’s population. Many of the canoe pullers have ancestral ties to the San Juans. The visit to Roche Harbor was particularly moving, as the resort town is located not far from the Lummi people’s point of origin.
The Canoe Journey ended August 1, followed by the North American Indigenous Games from August 3 – 10. More than 7,000 athletes were expected to compete in 16 sports. In addition, the games were expected to involve 2,000 cultural performers and more than 3,000 volunteers.
Cowichan officials expected more than 20,000 participants and spectators at the opening and closing ceremonies. They expect the games will contribute more than $30 million to the local economy.
Indian Country Today correspondent Richard Walker covered the Canoe Journey in Washington state’s San Juan Islands and served on a support boat that followed the canoes from San Juan Island to East Saanich, British Columbia, home of the Tsawout First Nation.?
