Paddlers for cause launch canoes for Kettle Falls

Several canoes launched from the Crescent Bay boat launch near the Grand Coulee Dam Friday on an eight-day journey toward Kettle Falls.

The Inchelium Language and Culture Association, in association with River Warriors and the Upper Columbia United Tribes (UCUT), organized the event for the third year in a row.

A film crew from KSPS was present at the event, which included speakers from these various groups, the singing of a traditional song, and mingling between the paddlers and well-wishers who wanted to see them off.

Many of the paddlers are traveling in traditional dugout cedar canoes.

In addition to the paddlers leaving from Crescent Bay for Kettle Falls, another group will leave Castlegar, British Columbia, for Kettle Falls to arrive there at the same time on June 22, where an estimated 300 people will gather for a ceremony, including eating traditionally cooked salmon provided by the Colville Confederated Tribes.

Kettle Falls was a traditional fishing spot for thousands of years for local Native American tribes until the flooding caused by the Grand Coulee Dam placed the falls underwater, preventing salmon from swimming into the northern reaches of the Columbia River and its tributaries.

Members of the Colville Tribes, as well as other tribes associated with Kettle Falls, including the Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, and Kalispell, will participate in the journey and ceremonies.

The event is held largely to raise awareness of the efforts to bring salmon back above the Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams, as well as to show that tribal territories were in both the U.S. and Canada.

As of Monday, the canoes coming from Canada were crossing the border, while the canoes that left from Grand Coulee Dam were near Wilmont Falls, southwest of Fruitland.