Coos Tribe Dugout

I had a great opportunity today of seeing a hand carved Indian dugout! The Coos tribe launched a dugout from our boat ramp and I was able to speak with some tribe members about the dugout. 

The Coos tribe did not have a cedar log large enough for the dugout so the Quinault tribe in Washington offered them one. Although I failed to ask about size, I did find out the dugout weighs about 1200 lbs. This was a training exercise with a tribal elder instructing everyone on how to work together to propel and navigate the vessel.  Before launch, they used burning sage smoke to cleanse all participants of bad spirits. I envy them in that they have a culture and history going back centuries where as I only know of my own family history for the last two previous generations. That is when my grandparents arrived from Europe as children.