The Suquamish Tribe celebrated 27 graduates and introduced a new tradition during the Class of 2026 Graduate Honoring at Kiana Lodge on July 8.

Among the evening’s highlights was the presentation of the first Paddle of Honors to Washington State University graduate Shyan Zaiss. Created to recognize a graduate who has gone above and beyond in academics, personal growth, and service to the community, the specially designed paddle was crafted by Suquamish tribal member Ian Lawrence and decorated by artist Brenda Solis.

Higher Education Program Manager Kali Chargualaf hosted the honoring, which recognized 21 high school graduates and six graduates from colleges and universities.

“Today marks not just the end of one chapter, but the exciting beginning of another,” Chargualaf told the graduates. “Your hard work, resilience, and dedication have brought you to this proud moment, and we are here to applaud and recognize everything you’ve accomplished.”

Rather than featuring a keynote speaker, this year’s program devoted more time to sharing each graduate’s achievements, future goals, dreams, and advice for others.

Each high school graduate received a canoe paddle handcrafted by Lawrence, a skipper with the Suquamish Canoe Family. Designed in the shape of an orca’s pectoral fin, the paddles were made for use on the water and symbolize the strength graduates will need to navigate challenges throughout their lives.

Higher education graduates were wrapped in Eighth Generation blankets. Cedar caps were made by Suquamish Tribal Elder Barbara Lawrence.

Paddle of Honors

Paddle of Honors recipient Shyan Zaiss earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with a major in marketing from Washington State University. Chargualaf

praised her academic success, scholarship work, advocacy, kindness, and longstanding dedication to the Suquamish community.

“Shyan has continuously demonstrated her outstanding academic achievements, she is a true advocate and representative of our Suquamish people, she listens and communicates with kindness and respect,” Chargualaf said. “If you have known Shyan since she was young, then you know that her heart has always been in community,” Chargualaf said.

Zaiss was accepted into several honor societies and served as a Native Youth Grantmaker with Native Americans in Philanthropy’s 2026 cohort. Her success in securing outside scholarships also saved the Suquamish Tribe thousands of dollars in higher education funding.

“I could not have done this without my family and my community,” Zaiss said. “To all the other graduates, be proud of yourself, and never give up on yourself or your dreams.”

Made for the Journey: A Paddle’s Message to Graduates

Suquamish tribal member Ian Lawrence was paddling in a canoe before he could ride a bike.

Now a skipper of one of the Suquamish Tribe’s canoes, he also crafts many of the paddles used throughout the tribe.

Each of this year’s high school graduates received one of Lawrence’s paddles as a gift. Here is his message to them:

The design of these paddles is a traditional Suquamish design. The blade of the paddle is the shape of an orca’s pectoral fin. This shape is intended to be hydrodynamic, meaning that it works with the flow of the water and the design maximizes your energy.

These paddles are intended for you, on your journey. Life will present challenges and this paddle is designed to be strong enough to carry you through those tough times. We are not in control of what happens to us, only what we do about it. These paddles provide you with the degree to pull through it.

It is our teaching that paddles have their own spirit and to protect the paddle’s spirit we always hold it and store the paddle with the blade pointed up and the handle pointed down, unless we are in the water.

We are taught that the spirit drains out of the blade when it’s pointed down.

These paddles are ready for the saltwater and they are pretty enough to hang on your wall. However, we encourage you to use them!

Under a warm summer evening sky, families, Tribal Elders, teachers, and staff gathered in late July on the lawn at the House of Awakened Culture to celebrate graduates from the Eagle, Bear, and Bee classrooms of the Marion Forsman-Boushie Early Learning Center.

With a theme inspired by Indigenous Hawaiian “Aloha spirit” and the shared Suquamish values of love, kindness, respect, compassion, and gratitude, the evening recognized the preschoolers’ accomplishments while honoring the families, culture, and community that have supported them on their journey toward kindergarten.

Assistant Director James Alber served as master of ceremonies, while the Sacred Water Canoe Family opened the celebration with traditional songs. Classroom teachers later called graduates forward to receive certificates as proud families applauded and captured the milestone with photos.

Early Learning Center Director Kayla Wakefield reminded families that the evening celebrated not only the children’s academic growth, but also the values and relationships that will continue to guide them.

“Today we celebrate not only where our children are going, but also where they come from,” Wakefield said. “Each of our graduates carries the strength, love and wisdom of their families, communities and ancestors.”

Throughout the school year, she said, the children learned far more than letters and numbers. They learned to share, solve problems, ask questions, build friendships, and develop confidence while discovering that they belong to families, the Suquamish Tribe, and a community that supports them.

Comparing the graduates to voyagers beginning a new journey, Wakefield encouraged them to keep learning, exploring, asking questions, and sharing their smiles with the world. She reminded them that, wherever their paths lead, they will always have the support of their families, teachers, tribe, and community.

Wakefield also thanked parents and caregivers for their partnership throughout the year and praised the dedication of teachers and staff whose patience and care helped prepare the children for their next step.

Following the ceremony, Tribal Elder Dolores Mills offered a blessing before everyone gathered indoors for Hawaiian barbecue, continuing the evening’s island-inspired

celebration. Families, teachers, and staff then shared one final meal together as the graduates marked the close of their preschool years and looked ahead to kindergarten.

Tribal Canoe Journey brings thousands of people together on the water and ashore, each playing a part in carrying the Journey forward. For those experiencing it for the first time — or looking for a refresher — here’s what to know about canoe families, host communities, landings and protocol.

What is the Tribal Canoe Journey?

Tribal Journey is an annual event where canoes from across the region and beyond come together to share their cultures on the water and ashore. Tribes travel between communities until they reach the final host tribe. Once all the canoe families arrive at the final destination, tribal members engage in culturally rich activities, including protocol ceremonies where stories, songs, and gifts are shared. The hosting activities last for several days.

What is a canoe family?

A group of people who travel together via canoe, support boat, and/or ground support team. Some are tribal canoes, others are family canoes and some are intertribal canoes. They include community members of all ages.

Who participates?

Canoes have provided transportation for many Indigenous communities around the world. The Tribal Canoe Journey takes place annually across inland seas of the Coast Salish territories, and often reaches into the Northern Coastal regions, including tribal communities in Alaska and British Columbia, as well as along the coasts of Washington and California. Canoe families from as far as New Zealand and Hawaii have also joined in.

What are the responsibilities of host tribes?

As canoes travel to their final destination, they stop along the way to rest and recharge. Typically, host tribes along the route provide camping facilities and meals, as well as activities for the participants to come together and share.

As the journey progresses, more and more canoe families join in.

Support Boats

It is common for canoes to be on the water for 6-8 hours a day, or even more. They can range from simple fishing or sail boats to bigger vessels, but all support boats share one thing in common: they are always appreciated. Pulling alongside a support boat every few hours to switch out weary pullers, refill water bottles, take bathroom breaks, or grab a bite to eat is almost always a welcome break.

Landings

Once they’ve landed at their final destination, the event continues with shared meals and protocol ceremonies.

What’s happening when canoes come ashore?

Canoes will place “paddles up” as they approach the shore as a sign they are coming in peace, followed by someone from their canoe formally asking permission to come to shore.

A member of the hosting tribe – often Tribal Council members, youth royalty, and Elders – will grant the canoe permission to come ashore.

The canoe then will pull back out, circle around and come in backwards, as another sign of coming peacefully.

Here in Suquamish, canoes are then carried up our boat ramp and onto the lawn in front of the House of Awakened Culture. This is hard work and can be dangerous. Please stay out of the way.

In some locations, particularly when arriving to the final host of that year’s journey, canoes will request to come ashore in a specific order based on the distance from the hosting community.

Can I take photos? What about drones?

Feel free to photograph and video arriving canoe families and protocol ceremonies, unless an announcement is made to refrain from photography. When photographing individuals or specific items of regalia, it’s always polite to ask permission first.

Flying drones of any kind is not permitted in Suquamish during our hosting without specific permission from Suquamish Tribal Council or their designated representatives.

The Water Road to 2029
Suquamish set to host 40th anniversary of modern Tribal Canoe Journey

Four decades after Suquamish helped launch the modern Tribal Canoe Journey movement, canoes from across the region will once again come ashore here for a historic anniversary gathering.

The Suquamish Tribe committed in 2025 to host the 2029 Tribal Canoe Journey, marking 40 years since the 1989 Paddle to Seattle. Suquamish was the launching point for that first journey, which helped launch a revival of canoe culture and inspired the annual gatherings that now connect Indigenous nations throughout the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia and Alaska.

For Suquamish Tribe’s Cultural Resources Director Kate Ahvakana, the anniversary is about much more than a chance to commemorate a single event. It is an opportunity to honor the cultural resurgence that Tribal Journeys have helped carry forward from one generation to the next.

“The Tribal Canoe Journeys and the canoes themselves have brought back so many traditions and cultural teachings to us and to many different communities, wide and far,” Ahvakana said. “We want to honor those teachings and those cultural knowledge systems that have been building — food sovereignty, traditional weaving, our language, our practices on the water and our potlatch practices.”

A growing wave

She described that resurgence as a growing wave that continues to carry more and more renewed teaching and cultural strengthening.

“One thing is always connected to another, “she said. “It uplifts our community. It helps our community do things culturally and traditionally.”

Suquamish hosted the 20th anniversary Canoe Journey in 2009, welcoming about 6,000 guests as more than 80 canoes landed on Suquamish shores. The tribe built the House of Awakened Culture in preparation for that gathering, creating a cultural home modeled after Chief Seattle’s longhouse that once stood a short walk down the beach.

In the years since, the House of Awakened Culture has become a place for songs, ceremonies, weddings, funerals, celebrations and community gatherings — an enduring legacy of hosting.

“That was because we hosted Tribal Journey,” Ahvakana said. “So, we’re really looking forward to hosting again to create something that is going to benefit our community in similar ways. Our community will be enriched by this.”

Planning already underway

Indeed, planning for 2029 is already beginning, though the work will become more visible later this year. Ahvakana said community meetings and other opportunities to participate are expected to begin toward the end of 2026 as preparations grow.

Some hands-on work, however, is already underway. Tribal Elder Patty Medina has already been seen hard at work in her commitment to make 1,000 necklaces for giveaway items in 2029.

Meanwhile, the journey will continue across ancestral water highways over the next two years. The tribal community in Ketchikan, Alaska, is scheduled to host next summer in what promises to be an epic journey for participating canoe families. In 2028, the We Wai Kai and Wei Wai Kum First Nations in Campbell River, British Columbia are set to host.

But first this year’s Paddle to Medicine Creek Potlach will conclude with the Nisqually Tribe, where gathering canoe families will honor Billy Frank Jr., the Medicine Creek Treaty, and the long struggle to uphold treaty fishing rights. Ahvakana said visiting Nisqually brings renewed attention to sovereignty, salmon habitat, and the legal battles that continue to protect tribal fisheries.

Looking ahead to 2029, Ahvakana said the anniversary carries a powerful reminder of how far the movement has come.

“Since the revitalization of the Tribal Canoe Journey, our children will never know life without canoes and culture,” she said. “We have children now who have never known a different way. And that’s beautiful.”

The newest exhibit at the Suquamish Museum invites visitors to do more than look at history — it encourages them to touch it, hear it, feel it and see themselves reflected in it.

“Carrying It On: Suquamish Youth, Past and Present” opened to the public June 12, offering an interactive exploration of what it means to grow up Suquamish. Co-curated by Museum Curator and Archivist Marta Belmont and Anna Mirzayan, the exhibit follows the journey of Suquamish youth from early childhood through ultimately becoming a revered Elder, examining the traditions, relationships and responsibilities that help shape identity.

“What family will they become part of?” Belmont asks. “Will they be a puller, a dancer, a drummer, a leader?”

The exhibit arrives as Belmont celebrates her first anniversary as curator, a role that has become deeply personal. Although her father served as Suquamish Tribal Chairman before she was born and when she was an infant, Belmont was raised in Bremerton and had limited exposure to Suquamish culture and community while growing up.

“It’s why I love this job so much — because I didn’t get it when I was younger,” she said.

Like many people, Belmont’s cultural journey didn’t begin in childhood. It began decades later. “I didn’t join my canoe family until I was in my 40s,” she said. “I started researching my heritage when I became a mom and I wanted to know about my culture and find my place in community.”

Part of that journey began when Suquamish Canoe Family Skipper Nigel Lawrence encouraged her to get involved with the canoe family. “It’s your birthright!” he told her.

Belmont eventually joined the canoe family, becoming the first Belmont to pull in a Suquamish canoe in recent memory. What began as a search for connection grew into a deeper understanding of family, community and identity.

Today, she says she belongs to multiple families within the community.

“I spend more time with my canoe family and my firework family,” she said. “Those are the people I go to and the people I celebrate with.”

That sense of belonging is woven throughout the exhibit. Visitors encounter stories and photographs that highlight the many paths Suquamish youth can take as they grow into their roles within the community.

A central theme of the exhibit is resiliency. Historic photographs of Tribal Elders during their youth are paired with contemporary images of today’s young people participating in the same activities decades later.

“We’re still doing it,” Belmont said with a smile.

Across the room, visitors can spot striking parallels between generations — a young person learning cultural practices today mirrored by an Elder who once stood in their shoes many years ago.

“You can look at a contemporary picture and across the room find another generation doing the same thing, decades apart,” Belmont said.

The exhibit also challenges traditional museum expectations. Rather than a collection of artifacts tucked safely behind glass, Carrying It On encourages hands-on exploration.

“Museums have always been ‘look but don’t touch,’” Belmont said. “That’s not how many people learn.”

Interactive stations invite visitors to engage their senses by touching cedar, twirling a replica jingle dress, shaking a red cedar rattle and experiencing cultural items in motion.

“Feel it, hear it, see it in action,” Belmont said.

For Belmont, the exhibit carries a message that extends beyond the walls of the museum.

“It’s never too late to get yourself into your community and your culture,” she said.

She hopes visitors leave inspired to think about the traditions that shaped their own lives — whether those traditions come from Suquamish culture or another heritage entirely. And, there is a dedicated display board designed to celebrate them.

“Take time to think about your own culture and appreciate that thing and person you learned it from,” she said. “I want to see this board overflowing from people with traditions from all over the world.”

Just as she was encouraged to explore her own place in Suquamish culture, Belmont hopes others recognize that understanding where they come from is something everyone deserves.

“I think everyone should see themselves in community because they are part of community.”

Suquamish Tribe Chairman Leonard Forsman joined Seattle-area leaders June 4 to formally reopen the Myrtle Edwards and Centennial Parks to the community.

The two parks provide 16 acres of public space extending for more than a mile along the Elliott Bay shoreline. A three-year restoration and revitalization effort has created a new greenway providing more access to water and other amenities.

“The Suquamish Tribe is happy to take part in celebrating the re-opening of Myrtle Edwards and Centennial Parks and appreciate being part of the design process. Our tribe’s Culture Committee suggested the name haʔłali for the new park building which means ‘the good place’ in Lushootseed, the mother language of Suquamish,” said Forsman, referring to a new parks’ facility offering food and beverage vendors, as well as restrooms.

“This transformation of the waterfront has indeed made it a good place for reflection, recreation, and learning more about our ancestral waters,” added Forsman.

Some 74,000 new plants – including more than 1,000 trees – now line the greenway. Existing beaches have expanded and access improved.

Bike trails and pedestrian paths have also gotten a glow-up, including lighting on the bike trail, pavement repairs, regrading and new maps and wayfinding. Children of all ages will be thrilled to find a new exploration area, as well as natural wood seating and picnic tables throughout.