Salmon, Come Home -- Festival Salutes The Fabled Fish's Northwest Runs

The salmon has always meant more than food for the Indian people.

"The salmon must survive for all of us, not just Indians, to survive," says Steve Robinson at the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. "Its habitat is critical to the quality of our life, as well as its own.

"That's why each year, we celebrate its return."

This weekend's Salmon Homecoming Celebration at the Seattle Aquarium and nearby waterfront is the fourth year Northwest Indian tribes and the local community have celebrated salmon's return to the Aquarium, where runs of chum, coho and chinook are spawned and released each year. It also salutes salmon runs throughout the Northwest.

The free festival, which began Thursday and continues through tomorrow, is a colorful whirl of Indian dancing, drumming, art and food. (In case of rain, most booths and displays are sheltered by tents, though the large carpeted pow-wow dance area is open to the elements.)

The fun begins at 10 a.m. today outside the Aquarium, where a 25-foot fiberglass salmon, the Wild Olympic Salmon, awaits curious children.

Activity in Waterfront Park begins at 11 a.m., when the aroma of barbecued salmon fills the air. The park has a delightful meandering mini-forest and beach called Pathways to Salmon, showing migration of the salmon through displays, children's activities and sculptures. Artists in action include totem carvers.

Musicians, storytellers and dancers are on the park's Salmon Stage both days, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Inside the Aquarium (where admission is charged), children can make Coast Salish art from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Pow wows, crafts and food vendors are on Piers 62/63 both days, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Today Vi Hilbert, an Upper Skagit elder, storyteller and historian, performs the Traditional Native American Salmon Ritual at noon on the Pow Wow Stage.

Tomorrow at 10 a.m. is the 3.5-mile Run Salmon Run and Waterfront Walk. Registration ($20) opens at 8 a.m. at the Aquarium.

The Canoe Ceremony opens tomorrow's events. Paddlers bring their cedar craft down the waterfront to Waterfront Park at noon.

There are colorful pow wows today, 2 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m., and tomorrow, 1 to 9 p.m.

Pow wows are a time for Native American peoples to come together to share, honor and pass on the rituals of their ancestors. Participants come from the Nisqually, Puyallup, S'Kalallam, Coast Salish, Lummi, Skagit, Skokomish, Nooksack and many other tribes.

Each pow wow opens with a Grand Entry or parade where costumed dancers march in with flags, songs and chants.

Then come Inter-Tribal dances, where anyone can move to the music, and the more ritualistic Contest Dancing. Contests include men's traditional, grass and fancy dances, and women's traditional, jingle and fancy shawl dances.

Costumes and headpieces are elaborate. Many represent methods handed down for centuries. They are decorated with feathers, beads, quills, shells, buttons, and fabrics.

Costumery, musical instruments and other native crafts can be purchased from vendors at the festival. For example, Jim Marable of Spanaway has deerskin drums, dreamcatchers and shimmery feather fans, starting at about $15.

The fans, which are used by pow wow dancers, once were made of eagle feathers, says Marable. "Today we use turkey feathers, some wild, some domesticated. Like everything else, it's a symbol of how life has changed for the peoples of the Northwest."

Life has changed, which is really the point of Salmon Homecoming.

Through the years, industry and development have threatened salmon habitat. Saving the salmon, says Galen Motin Goff, a festival coordinator and Aquarium staffer, means preservation and restoration of rivers, lakes and wildlands.

The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, which works with tribal hatcheries to release about 50 million fish each year, the Aquarium and Northwest tribes have worked to make the Salmon Homecoming Celebration a time to come together.

"The more we share and understand each other's cultures and heritage, the more we respect each other," says Goff. "If we work together, we can save the salmon, and save our environment."

And that's the theme of the more serious part of the festival. The Forum on Sustainable Fisheries, both days at the Seattle International Trade Center, brings together tribes, government agencies and elected officials, private industry and others concerned with finding workable solutions for the future. (Most participants have preregistered; if you'd like to attend, it costs $75.)

This year's Salmon Homecoming is sponsored by The Seattle Times. -----------------------------------------------------------------

If you go:

Salmon Homecoming Celebration, main events 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. today and tomorrow.

Admission: Festivities in Waterfront Park, on Piers 62/63 and outside the Seattle Aquarium are free. Admission to the Aquarium, where there are Native American arts projects, is reduced: With each full-paying adult, one child 12 or under is free. Or save $2 for a second adult or $1 for a youth. Regular adult admission, $7.15; seniors, $5.70; youths 6-18, $4.70; youths 3-5, $2.45, under 3 free. Information: 386-4320.

Parking: Parking is limited on the waterfront. Consider parking in downtown Seattle, Pike Place Market, the International District or near Seattle Center and walk or ride Metro to the festival.