SEATTLE — Paddling side by side, Makah canoeists on Many Hands and Hummingbird somberly sailed to shore Monday on Lake Washington.
The two canoes were the last to arrive out of about 75 from tribes in Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Canada to end the 2006 Inter-Tribal Canoe Journey at Sand Point.
The perseverance of the two crews to push on after Wednesday’s fatal capsizing of Hummingbird near of Dungeness Spit brought healing to all pullers and others affected by the accident, said Makah tribal member Theron Parker, who was aboard Many Hands.
Before Parker asked for permission to come ashore, he sang a song of prayer while holding aloft the paddle of Joseph Andrew “Jerry” Jack, a hereditary chief of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht tribe of Gold River on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island.
Jack was killed when the canoe overturned in rough waters late Wednesday afternoon.
Five other pullers escaped serious injury, although three were taken to a hospital for treatment of hypothermia from the 54-degree water.
Parker, whose crew on Wednesday beached Many Hands to try to help those on Hummingbird, was asked by Jack’s family to continue the journey and carry the chief’s paddle across Puget Sound to Seattle.
Canoeists recognized
Two of the three Makah canoeists treated at the hospital were Sarah and Angel Parker, who were on Hummingbird when it arrived at Sand Point.
Parker asked them and a third canoeist to stand before coming ashore so they could be recognized for their courage to continue.
The prayer song Parker sang was composed by First Nations Kelthsmaht Tribal Chief Edgar Charlie prior to the accident.
Charlie was a friend of Jack’s and paddled with him along the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Neah Bay to Pillar Point on another Makah canoe the day before the capsizing.
The prayer song — which contains the phrase, “I thank you, Creator, for helping me through storms in my life” — felt like a fitting way to end the journey, Charlie said.
Carried out of the water
Once the two canoes were carried out of the water and into the parking lot at the site of the former Sand Point Naval Air Station-turned-Seattle city park, Parker handed Jack’s paddle and belongings to his longtime friend, Ray Fryberg of the Tulalip tribe.
“You brought him all the way,” Fryberg said while the crews of Hummingbird and Many Hands circled around Jack’s belongings and sang another song of prayer.
Fryberg was supposed to officiate over the marriage of Jack to his fiancé, Fran Prest, of British Columbia on Sunday at the Suquamish village in Poulsbo.
Prest and the rest of Jack’s family could not attend Monday’s finale of the Canoe Journey, as they were traveling to the Mowachat/Muchalaht reservation on Vancouver Island’s west coast for Jack’s funeral.
However, the family is expected to meet up this week with those who completed the journey on the Muckleshoot reservation in Auburn for a weeklong potlatch, said Colleen Pendleton, Jack’s eldest daughter.
The Muckleshoot tribe is the host of this year’s Canoe Journey, and said it would help honor the memory of Jack when welcoming the crews of Many Hands and Hummingbird ashore.
