By Bill Reynolds
La Conner Community News

The two local tribes will be overnight hosts for Native canoe families participating in the 2026 Paddle to Nisqually, an event that celebrates past generations when dugout canoes and Salish Sea waterways were akin to today’s autos and paved freeways.

Canoes pulled by members of tribes from throughout the Pacific Northwest are tentatively scheduled to land at Fidalgo Bay Resort, site of the Samish reception, during the mid- to late afternoon of July 24.

The Samish Nation will serve dinner around 3 p.m. or as soon as the canoes arrive. A 20-passenger shuttle has also been lined up to transport those wishing to camp that night at John K. Bob Ballpark at Swinomish Village, according to an itinerary posted on social media by the Samish Chelangen Department.

It is anticipated that canoes will set off from Fidalgo Bay for Swinomish on the morning of July 25, with the flotilla’s landing times later that day at swәdәbš Park across from the La Conner waterfront to be determined.

Samish and Swinomish are among the regional stops scheduled for canoe families enroute to Nisqually. The arrival of canoes on Swinomish Channel is always much-anticipated, drawing many onlookers to both shorelines.

From Swinomish, the canoe families are slated on July 26 to continue south to Tulalip.

The Paddle to Nisqually is the latest edition of the traditional canoe journey experience, a major indigenous cultural gathering during which tribes from Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon travel along ancestral waterways by pulling colorfully decorated canoes.

The modern canoe journey was launched in 1989 as The Paddle to Seattle, part of Washington’s centennial celebration. It was organized by the late Quinault educator Emmett Oliver, who was a member of the state’s centennial planning committee.

Each year, a different Native Nation welcomes the Canoe Journey to its lands, providing food and lodging to the canoe pullers and their support teams. The Paddle to Swinomish took place in 2011, highlighted in large measure by Gov. Christine Gregoire serving as a puller in Tribal Chairman Brian Cladoosby’s canoe.

This year, canoe families plan to arrive in Nisqually, at the base of the Sequalitchew Creek in DuPont southwest of Tacoma, on July 31 for a week of festivities.

The 2026 canoe journey began July 16 at Lund on the northern end of British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast.

Bill Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.