On Monday, July 31, through Friday, August 4, Kalispel and regional tribal members and the River Warrior Society are holding the annual Remember the Water Kalispel Powwow canoe journey [1, 2].  The paddle usually voyages from Lake Pend Oreille and Qpqpe (Sandpoint), Idaho, to the Qlispe (Kalispel) Village in Cusick, Washington, during the week before the yearly Kalispel Powwow and around the time of the Festival at Sandpoint music concerts.  In this cultural journey, families and friends are again paddling in traditional, dugout, wooden and sturgeon nose canoes, like their ancestors did for travel, fishing, and fun, over 50 miles through their home lands and waters among the tributaries, lake, and river of the Pend Oreille watershed.

While oil and gas pipeline expansions and fossil fuels pipeline-on-rails infrastructure and transportation impose and risk further harms to indigenous people and places locally and across Turtle Island (North America), Native neighbors continue to revive, uphold, and practice their ancient cultures and sustainable ways, through admirable endeavors like this canoe journey and culminating powwow.  Paddle organizers invite and encourage tribal allies and everyone to join in this joyful resurgence at various route locations, as they accommodate as many participants and observers as they can.

The canoe journey tentatively begins on Monday, July 31, with setting up camp at Sam Owen Campground off Hope Peninsula Road near Hope, Idaho, before paddling to the Bear Paw petroglyphs and back.  On Tuesday, August 1, participants plan to put in, paddle, and take out on the Pack River, and later stay at Sam Owen or the Best Western Edgewater Resort in Sandpoint.  Like during previous years, and as depicted in linked photos and articles about prior journeys, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) activists and area groups intend to welcome the paddlers at Sandpoint, during their arrival and/or departure on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, August 1 and 2 [2].

The voyage will re-start on Wednesday, August 2, from the boat ramp on the south side of City Beach Park at 58 Bridge Street in Sandpoint, and break for lunch at the Dover, Idaho, docks.  After 12 miles, another portage may occur at the Morton Slough boat launch in Sagle, Idaho, before camping on Kalispel tribal lands at the Carey Creek Game Management Area, on the north side of Dufort Road, near Hayden Ranch Road and Priest River, Idaho.  On Thursday, August 3, paddlers will push toward Indian Island and camp there, close to the Sandy Shores boat launch at the end of Sandy Shores Road, downstream of Newport, Washington.  And on Friday, August 4, they will travel and land at their destination of the Kalispel Powwow Grounds, at 1981 Le Clerc Road North on the Kalispel Reservation near Cusick, Washington.

Please see the linked itinerary and join WIRT in supporting this adventure [1].  If you would like further information about logistics and ways to help, or if you hope to paddle, serve as ground crew, share a prayer or song, or feed participants breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and/or drinks, please contact the Piengkhams by calling or texting or facebook messaging Warren (509-589-1665), Nathan (509-995-5396), and/or BettyJo (509-671-2837).

[1] Come Be on Kalispel Land…, July 27, 2023 Warren Piengkham

[2] Sixth Kalispel Remember the Water Canoe Journey, August 2, 2022 Wild Idaho Rising Tide