Annual canoe journey comes to Jamestown coastline

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Canoes landed on Jamestown Beach on Friday, July 24 as part of the Canoe Journey 2026 Paddle to Medicine Creek Nisqually Potlatch.

As tradition, canoe families ask permission from the host tribe(s) to come ashore with Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe representatives welcoming the canoes.

The S’Klallam/Klallam tribes of Jamestown, Lower Elwha, and Port Gamble hosted canoes on Saturday, July 25 at Fort Worden Historical State Park.

The Nisqually Tribe serves as host of the Medicine Creek Potlatch Journey with its final landing scheduled at Sequalitchew Creek, now called DuPont, on Friday, July 31.

Canoe families will potlatch, i.e. share meals, songs and dances, speeches, and gifts, with the Nisqually Tribe in the days following the landing.

The journey honors the tradition of the tribes traveling on ancestral waterways by canoe to share with other tribes their cultural traditions.