Stillaguamish River Canoe Ceremony

Yesterday we attended the completion ceremony for the river canoe that Felix Solomon created from a 400 year old cedar for the Stillaguamish Tribe. The ceremony began with music, a native flute song and a sung invocation. There were gifts to the many who helped Felix with the project. The canoe was unveiled and presented to the leader of the Stillaguamish council. He was the one who came up with the idea of creating a new canoe after 100 years without one. He commissioned Felix Solomon, renowned Lummi carver, to carve the canoe. The tree used was an ancient cedar that was 300 years old when it was felled and used as part of a logging road. It stayed there for 100 years before its discovery and acquisition by the tribe. So a tree that stood while the ancestors of both the Lummi and the Stillaguamish were living near it gained new life as a river canoe. This was a celebration of that new life.