Each year my family participates in the annual Native American Canoe Journey. My dad, Brian Cladoosby, purchased a 14-person canoe — the Salmon Dancer — so that we could attend each year. How long we will travel depends on the tribe that hosts.
My husband, Tyler, and our kids have attended:
2010: Paddle to Makah
2011: Paddle to Swinomish
2012: Paddle to Squaxin
2016: Paddle to Nisqually
2017: Paddle to We Wai Kai and Wei Wai Kum (Campbell River, British Columbia)
2018: Paddle to Puyallup
2019: Paddle to Lummi
2023: Paddle to Muckleshoot
We are getting ready to start Paddle to Puyallup Youth Canoe Journey 2024. It’s important for Tyler and I to involve our kids in Coast Salish culture and get to know our large extended family. The Canoe Journey is a place for my kids to understand ceremony, traditions and cultural identity. I want them to understand and appreciate the Coast Salish culture that has sustained my people for countless centuries.
Through the years, we have had exciting experiences and difficulties at this annual drug/alcohol-free traditional event. Whether it’s canoeing for many days or driving as ground crew to set up camp, it’s long days in the summer sunshine. But, we get to visit our Coast Salish people, spend time with family, experience our unique culture, sing, dance, eat, laugh, pray and shop Indigenous artists.
The Canoe Journey is a lot like faith — and I’ve been thinking about how this experience mirrors faith development in three specific ways: community, navigation and endurance.
Community
When you’re with your canoe family for two weeks or more, paddling and camping, it takes a great effort, trust and support. This community building gives us strength — more than we thought we had. That’s a lot like a faith community. We need each other in this faith journey.
Gal. 6:2 tells us, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
Navigation
I usually help my mom, Nina Cladoosby, on the ground crew, driving the miles with camping gear and food. For me, navigating the roads is much simpler than navigating the waters, but we all need good navigation to get us to our destination. Similarly, we all need guidance and support from mentors and scriptures to help us navigate our faith journey. We cannot do it alone. Good navigation gives us clear direction.
Prov. 3:5 tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”
Endurance
Paddling 10 or more hours each day requires persistence and endurance. There are a few days when I will get on the canoe and those are the two- to four-hour legs of the journey. It’s hard work to paddle in the Salish Sea. Maintaining your faith journey — especially in difficult times — requires endurance as well. You must paddle hard through those rough waters — in the Canoe Journey and your faith journey.
James 1:2–4 tells us, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
The time spent paddling on the water, gives you quiet, peaceful time to reflect spiritually. Whether it’s the importance of community, clear navigation or endurance to push through — it’s all a journey. We just need to stay on course and keep the faith. These are the things I am learning through the Canoe Journey — and that I am teaching my kids. We need community, navigation and endurance to reach our goal.
Paddling 10 or more hours each day requires persistence and endurance.
The Canoe Journey is a place and time to understand ceremony, traditions and cultural identity.
This year marks the ninth Canoe Journey the Long family has participated in.
Each year, LaVonne Long and her family embark on the Native American Canoe Journey in the Salmon Dancer, a 14-person canoe.
