Update: Mayor McGinn joins tribal-canoe welcoming at Alki

| Seen at sea | West Seattle news

(Photos by Nick Adams for WSB)
An unannounced Alki visit for Mayor Mike McGinn this afternoon on Alki Beach, as the tribal canoes participating in Paddle to Squaxin continued to arrive (our first report is here). He joined tribal leaders on the beach. (The mayor is scheduled to be back on Alki this Wednesday afternoon, to talk with Southwest Precinct commander Capt. Steve Paulsen about summer “hot spots.”) WSB contributing photojournalist Nick Adams was at the beach to continue covering the arrivals, as even more canoes continued to land:

Each one was hoisted and carried up to the beach:

That meant one more job for the crews who had spent hours paddling from points north:

The canoes are from all over the region. The OS-Chuck-A-Bick canoe family is from the Quileute Nation, based at LaPush on the northwestern Washington seacoast:

Some brought smaller canoes, some larger:

But all were large in spirit and unity:

There are gatherings and celebrations tonight, hosted by the Muckleshoot Tribe, while the canoes remain, guarded, on Alki. This map shows where the participants have come from, and when they left; some from British Columbia have been on the journey for more than a month. The multi-tribe canoe journey is a relatively new tradition, started in 1989 as the “Paddle to Seattle,” with Alki the final destination that year; this year it is a stop along the way to the potlatch hosted by the Squaxin Island Tribe (who no longer live on their namesake island, but will first welcome the arrivals on the shore in Olympia).

onion July 23, 2012 (10:10 pm)

If this were the West Seattle Onion I’d say the mayor was here to announce the latest West Seattle commute option.

ss July 23, 2012 (10:33 pm)

Very nice coverage. I care more about the tribe than the mayor.

Deanie Schwarz July 23, 2012 (10:56 pm)

The woman wearing the cedar hat, to the Mayor’s right, is Muckleshoot Chairperson Virginia Cross; the woman in the festive red stole is Kelly Marquez, one of the Muckleshoot Council members.

Beautiful shots Nick. This is one of my favorite summer events – just to see the canoes! On August 18, an Indigenous Cultures celebration is scheduled at the Seattle Center. Gorgeous posters are now up around WS locations with more details.

cj July 24, 2012 (12:09 am)

Nice! I bet they were thinking, why are all these rocks here?

JoAnne July 24, 2012 (5:36 pm)

Politicians are always exploiting community events to buff up their image. Practically every event covered by the WS blog has some creepy politician who has nothing to do with the event but inserted himself in there for free publicity.

WSB July 24, 2012 (5:45 pm)

JoAnne, if that were so, this was a pretty bad choice by the mayor in terms of trying to get publicity. I barely found out about the canoe landing in time to (a) get myself there and (b) ask Nick if he was available so we could get pictures better than the very basic ones I take via iPhone. The mayor’s office did not announce this, did not mention this, and I had no idea he was there till Nick (a new arrival in the area) sent me his photos later, long after I had gone back home (to this writing, I have no idea when exactly he was there). There was no other media there, and as far as I can tell from Google News and other searches, we remain the only media that has so much as mentioned the canoes’ presence here! Now TOMORROW, when the mayor comes to meet with police leadership on Alki, yes, THAT is a media opportunity … TR

Sorry, comment time is over.