First Mate’s LogJuly 25, 2008Walters Cove, Kyuquot Inlet West side, Vancouver Island

An historic First Nation's Treaty signing, and we were there


I hate to say it, but my mood is weather dependent. And what a difference a day makes.
Spirits were high in Walter’s Cove on Thursday July 24th, as that is the day the supply ship Uchuck III arives in Walters Cove. There is no road here, you either come by sea or by air. We also were fortunate to stumble upon and arrive on the day of a very important and historic treaty signing between the Canadian government and several West coast Vancouver Island tribes, or as they prefer, bands.
I had just got off AllyMar, and took the garbage to the dumpster and found that it was full, and had a wooden pallet on top to keep the lid closed, way too heavy for me to lift. “Now how am I going to do this,” I muttered to myself, when I heard a voice from behind offering to help me. Ken (another one!) was a burly stout very gregarious Canadian who talked to me from that moment on like he’d known me my whole life. And he was a fount of information, giving in non stop. He told me about “ a great and momentous celebration” that was occurring tonight, “and Mike De Jong is being flown in,” the Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation. Burly Ken was heading home on the Uchuck in the morning with his buddy Tom, the end of their kayak trip in the Islands. “But I see 3 kayaks,” I said. His other buddy had to be transported out because he burned his foot at their campfire. He towed in his friend’s Kayak. “Now he owes you,” I told him. Ken was so outgoing and engaging, I wondered what he did for a living. “I have a machine shop.” Such wasted talent, he could have been the Master of Ceremonies for this night’s event.
“All are invited to the ceremony,” we were told by the girl at the store, who had consulted her aunt. Even a couple of no nothing gringos , so we crossed the little cove to the res, and sat in the back of the room, trying to at least look Canadian . They had prepared a meal for all of us. We had already eaten and intended to miss the meal by arriving at 6:30, when the ceremony was scheduled to begin, but at 6:30 they hadn’t served dinner yet. We were each given a plate with ham, potato salad, pineapple salad and green beans.
The minister De Jong was easy to spot--one of the few guys with a dinner jacket on. He was a very effectual politician, playing to the crowd, making jokes when the kids were unruly and noisy. Ken introduced us to another Canadian, Glenn who owns a kayak guide business WestCoastAdventures.com. I asked him if he felt the Minister was sincere. He bit his lip and thought long and hard. “I think he gets it.”
There was drumming, singing and dancing, and then we actually witnessed the signing of 14 copies of an inches thick document, see photo of Witness Book. Thanks to Ken the kayaker pointing us out to him, I had a chance to ask Minister De Jong just what the treaty signified. “It gives back to the First Nations people the jurisdiction of their historic ancestral land, to manage as they see fit, within the context of Canadian law.” I suspected that they could have taken a cue from our forefathers, writing the Constitution on one page. Life gets complicated tho I guess, after so many years of exploitation, it takes a few trees worth of paper to make it all right.
Java the Hut
The Canadian kayaker women had told me about the one-of-a-kind drive up coffee kiosk at Walters Cove. It had even received front page billing earlier this month in a local paper. A kilometer by pathway, it was made for float by through, on the way out of the cove. A sodden path it was when I skirted the puddles on or last morning at Walters Cove. The previous day, it had been sunny, and Eric the owner, and a carpenter working with him, Ross, took a break to chat. Eric was a sweet an engaging man, former Jewish New Yorker who liked to teach the Native Americans (who were clearly fond of him) Yiddish. “they love Yiddish, it’s very similar to their own language.” Must be a Jewish-Native American connection somewhere…..
Ross’s wife was the nurse at the local medical outpost. Her contracted was for 8 weeks on, 8 weeks off, and she had to be within 15 minutes of the office 24/7, plus her regular 40 hours a week. “She’s been up all night with heart attack victims, has to medivac seriously injured out.” She took care of Ken the Kayaker’s friends’ third degree burn. I asked him about diabetes. “Oh ya sure, 60% of those people at the ceremony have diabetes. They love their chum-is, their native word for dessert, literally ‘sweet’. They’ll sit around after dinner for an hour and a half and then pile their plates high with cake and ice cream, and eat it all. It’s incredible.” He said that before the white man came, they used to eat fruit. So his wife is trying to get them to exchange chocolate cake for cherries. “It’s slow going.” They used to have apple trees on the island they lived on previously, but haven’t planted any at Walters Cove.
Here Rusty!
What’s chocolate, white and love all over? A chocolate lab named Rusty, who I had a major love fest with, see photo. “He’s not my dog, but he loves me, and follows me everywhere”, Eric said. I told Ken I was going to get a mellow chocolate lab when we return to land life. But for now, a snoring Rusty on my lap will have to do.