"It's not easy doing things the Indian way.

This dawned on me about 20 minutes into paddling a 26-foot homemade cedar canoe across Puget Sound. It was 7 a.m., and already I'd done the hardest, fastest paddling of my life.

Then the skipper, a Quileute Indian named Liz Ward, inquired sweetly if the crew might be warmed up yet and ready to actually start pulling hard.

Ten hours later, our canoe the Tatakwit, minus two of its crew who succumbed to severe muscle cramps, beached wearily at Sand Point on Lake Washington with about 60 other Native canoes from around the Northwest and Canada.

"What do they call it when they go to Mecca every year? That's what this is � the Indian pilgrimage," said Guy Capoeman, a Quinault Indian who had paddled 300 miles to reach Seattle, some of it in the open Pacific Ocean."

Get the Story:
Danny Westneat: "Indian pilgrimage" reaches beach in triumph and tiredness (The Seattle Times 8/1)

Relevant Links:
Tribal Journeys blog - http://tribaljourneys.wordpress.com
Paddle Journey - http://community-2.webtv.net/bensuecharles/
PADDLEJOURNEY2001/index.html

Related Stories:
First Nations chief dies in canoe journey accident (7/27)
Tribal canoe journey continues in Washington (7/26)
Muckleshoot Tribe hosts annual canoe journey (7/25)
Canoes arrive in Washington for annual journey (7/24)
Day Trip: Learning to paddle a First Nations canoe (08/11)
More than 60 canoes arrive for annual celebration (8/2)
Weeklong celebration set for Tribal Canoe Journey (8/1)
Tribes begin to arrive for 2005 Canoe Journey (7/28)
Tribe gets ready to host 8,000 for Canoe Journey (05/02)
Thousands expected for 2005 Canoe Journey (04/13)
2005 Paddle Journey to end at Tse-whit-zen village (03/15)