“This is probably the biggest potlatch that the Nisqually Tribe has ever hosted,” said Farron McCloud, Nisqually Tribe Chairman. During the last week of July 2016, a flotilla of approximately 100 canoes landed at Olympia’s Swantown Marina. Some had travelled nearly three hundred miles. They came for a multiday celebration with meals, songs, dances, stories, gifts, as well as discussions of matters important to different nations, all hosted by the Nisqually Tribe along the Nisqually River. Watch this video depicting a small segment of how the Tribal Canoe Journey that began as an experiment to revive indigenous maritime traditions, evolved into its current role as part of the renaissance among indigenous peoples’ reclaiming their cultures after centuries of forced removal, forced assimilation, and genocide. “It’s a traditional, spiritual, cultural event,” stated Nisqually Tribe Chairman McCloud. First aired in October, 2016.
