By Natasha Brennan | Tacoma News Tribune | June 28, 2021
Seattle’s newest waterfront attraction is a Native-owned, Native-designed voyage offering a narrated tour sharing the history of the city and its Indigenous people. Salish Sea Tours, located at Miner’s Landing on Pier 57, opened to the public Friday, June 25.
Various Native artists and leaders were involved in the creation of the company’s two 93-foot catamarans and its hour-long narrated tour of Elliott Bay. Owner Kyle Griffith, an enrolled member of the Chinook
Indian Nation, said the tour is a tangible representation of tribes coming together.
The Chinook Indian Nation, located less than 100
miles southwest of Olympia, and the Duwamish Tribe, native to the Seattle area, are not federally recognized. Griffith hopes the tour will
bring attention to the tribes’ fight for recognition.
“It’s not just a tour, it’s about being seen. This is the first tour in the city of Seattle that mentions the name of the Duwamish,” Jolene Haas, director of the Duwamish Longhouse, said at the tour’s maiden
voyage and launch party Thursday afternoon, June 24.
The event was held at the end of the pier, attended by Griffith’s friends and
family and Duwamish tribal members and leaders. It included a canoe
blessing by Tlingit dancers and drummers, food and live music. Attendees
had the chance to board and tour on Orca One, one of the two catamarans
featuring stadium seating on the bow and two full-service bars.
The Duwamish tribe presented Griffith with a beaded medallion and the
Tlingit members, Griffith’s parents and the artists with traditional
blankets. Skokomish artist John Edward Smith,
who created the boats’ black-and-red whale designs and company logo,
presented Griffith’s parents with hand-carved canoe paddles. The paddles
match a carved canoe Smith created to match the boats.
In addition to Smith’s exterior designs, hand-carved pieces by the
Henderson family — a group of traditional carvers in British Columbia,
Canada — decorate the interior. The historical part of the tour is
narrated by Ken Workman, a member of the Duwamish Tribe and descendant
of Chief Seattle.
“We want the boats and everything we do to be
real and authentic, not cheesy, like non-Native. So we’re including all
the local tribes. And that’s really the point of these boats — not being
divisive, being inclusive and helping each other.”
