A group of canoes from several different communities embarked from Petersburg on May 24 to paddle together to Juneau, camping and visiting villages along the way. It’s a tradition known as Journey.
Kéet yaakw — a hand-painted, 39-foot, Tlingit-style fiberglass canoe — is Petersburg’s first in over a century. The local tribe says launching the canoe Journey from the island town is a historic event; it’s believed to be the community’s first official launch of this kind in recorded memory.
Skies were clear and seas were calm when the fog lifted on the morning of the launch. That was a welcome relief for the pullers set to paddle in Petersburg’s canoe, who agreed almost unanimously that the everchanging weather in Southeast Alaska was their biggest concern for the trip.
ShaaL’aanee Brandon Ware, the local tribal council’s vice president, was busy with final preparations on the morning of the launch. Cases of water bottles were packed throughout the canoe for extra weight. That’s because just nine people will be in the canoe at a time, instead of a dozen like originally planned.
“We make do with nine. We figured out we could actually move this thing with about five people,” Ware said, loading supplies onto the canoe.
Among the group of pullers are Ware’s two brothers.
Gearing up at his seat near the canoe’s bow, Ságooch Billy Ware said he was excited.
“This is a big, big thing. We’ve waited over a hundred-something years for this now,” he said. “It’s the culmination of everything our ancestors have put before us … we are just trying to do the best with what they gave us, and they gave us a great foundation.”
Kaatoosaa Adam Ware said he was looking forward to going on this Journey to take part in their culture’s revitalization — a reason many pullers in the group expressly had in common.
“Just kind of feels more surreal right now,” he said. “All this planning we’ve put into it … it’s just surreal to me that we’re actually launching today.”
Dockside anticipation
It takes over a week to paddle more than 100 miles from Petersburg to Juneau for the biennial Celebration festival, a big event where thousands of people gather to honor and uplift Indigenous culture; some travel for the occasion by canoe.
This is the first canoe Journey for many of Petersburg’s pullers. And paddling for days on end can be physically taxing.
Chanaat Tlaa Cina Martinez said she woke up with a lot of anxiety the day of the launch. But her nervousness subsided once the group of pullers arrived at the harbor. She said she’s grateful to be having this experience with her family.
“The last few years I started getting into my culture a little bit more,” said Martinez. “I think this is going to be very good for embracing my culture and seeing how my elders and ancestors did back in the day, and just reconnecting with our tribe and all of our family.”
For many of Petersburg’s pullers, it will also be their first time attending the Celebration festival.
Gooch tláa Victoria Moore last went to Celebration in 2004. This year will be the first for her son, Đat xá a gutch Alex.
“There is risk in this whole adventure, but I’m just thinking about all of us coming together, you know, and helping my son connect with a culture,” Moore said. “Everybody’s been so good about inclusion for him. He has autism. He has a different language than we do … So I’m just excited to see the joy in Alex in this, and for us to just create these memories together, for the first time.”
Launching from Séet Ká Kwáan
Dozens of people gathered in Petersburg’s South Harbor to witness the inaugural launch.
Friends and family gave the pullers goodbye hugs, gifts and well wishes from the dock.
Ch’aak Tlaa Nicole Hallingstad — granddaughter of late civil rights activist Amy Hallingstad — wore a shoe lace necklace strung with lifesaver candy. She shared excitement for her first journey out on the same waters her grandmother traveled while advocating for access and equal rights.
Hallingstad carries on her grandmother’s torch. She grew up in Petersburg, or Séet Ká Kwáan in Lingít, and said she’s paddling to raise awareness about her hometown because Petersburg is one of five landless communities.
“Which means when the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act passed in 1971, and over 200 communities got their parcel of land under ANCSA, we did not,” Hallingstad said. “It’s 55 years later, and we still don’t have that land. It takes a piece of legislation for a bill to get approved by Congress, so that’s what we’re fighting for.”
Three traditional canoes from other communities untied from a nearby safety vessel and floated into the harbor just behind Hallingstad.
“Other communities came to Séet Ká Kwáan, to launch here with us, rather than launching from their hometowns, to show that strength of unity and that beauty of collective action in our Native communities. And I just think that it’s so powerful and so meaningful that they would do that,” she said.
Petersburg’s group pulls kéet yaakw into the middle of the harbor, joining the canoes that came to town for the official launch. The groups all float side-by-side as their Journey is blessed with a prayer.
“In our language, we call God, Haa Shageinyaa — or Deki-ankawu, the great one,” said Lgeik’l Eesh Will Ware, the híts’aatí, or house master, for the Freshwater Mark Sockeye house of the T’akdeintaan clan. “Haa Shageinyaa, Gunalchéesh! … We pray primarily for safety and protection, and for smooth rowing.”
A number of pullers shouted “Gunalchéesh,” the Lingít word for thank you, and a loud rally call echoed across the water as the pullers prepare to launch.
Brandon Ware, the skipper on Petersburg’s canoe, shouted directions to the group.
“Kéet yaakw, pull off!” he said.
Kéet yaakw glided out first from the cluster, and the pullers paddled out of the harbor. Attendees at the launch cheered and beat hand-held drums from the shoreline, and pullers in the companion canoes followed kéet yaakw, singing songs.
Together, the canoes traveled up the Wrangell Narrows.
Bystanders miles away from South Harbor could hear the pullers singing as they paddled through the waters, growing distant from Mitkof Island as the Journey began.
Canoe landing protocols are scheduled for June 2 in Juneau. Celebration festivities kick off June 3.
