Tribes’ canoe journey includes paddling part of the Columbia River in Canada

Part of local tribes’ canoe journey to Kettle Falls started north of the Canadian border.

A contingent of paddlers from the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation launched a dugout canoe near Castlegar, British Columbia, Tuesday morning. They paddled through the locks at Keenlyside Dam on the Columbia River in the aboriginal territory of the tribe’s Arrow Lakes Band.

The paddlers will be joined by canoes from the Kalispel and Kootenai Tribe of Idaho near Northport, Washington, later this week for the final stretch of the journey, said D.R. Michel, executive director of the Upper Columbia United Tribes.

Members of five tribes will gather Friday at Kettle Falls, which was a prolific salmon fishing site before the construction of Grand Coulee Dam. Members of the tribes will present gifts to each other and do some trading, recalling Kettle Falls’ importance as a cultural and economic center.

“The people who lived there were considered very rich, because they controlled the trading area,” said Dan Nanamkin, a member of the Colville Tribe.