Eight veterans participated during the first canoe journey in 2016. This year, there were 28.Paddlers in the veterans’ canoe (forefront) wait to land in downtown Juneau on June 4, 2024. (Colette Czarnecki/KSTK)
About 70 people in six canoes paddled north from Wrangell to Juneau last month for Celebration, a biennial cultural gathering that celebrates Southeast Alaska tribes.
The canoe journey to the event took a week, and veterans of war paddled one of the canoes. Many of the vets found solace during the expedition, where they were able to be together.
By Tracy Arm, a fjord about 70 miles north of Petersburg, flames crackled while a large group of paddlers sat around a campfire. People said gunalchéesh and dedicated songs to the veterans, who introduced themselves and briefly spoke about their position in the military.
Dennis Jack, one of the founders and a previous president of Xheighaa Warrior Veteran Canoe Journey Inc., was one of the vets who spoke.He said the organization started back in 2015 when he visited his friend, Doug Chilton, who organizes canoe journeys with the One People Canoe Society.
Jack asked him if there was any representation with the veterans during the journeys, and Chilton replied no. He encouraged him to start an organization.
“It was three months later where I posted on Facebook that we have a veteran canoe journey taking place from Angoon to Juneau, and we’re looking for paddlers,” Jack said. “Maybe 20 minutes later, after it was posted, phone calls started coming in.”
Eight veterans participated during the first canoe journey in 2016. Two years later, there were 27.
“The purpose of the veteran canoe journey was so that we can help other combat veterans cope with PTSD and suicide, because we had been losing one veteran every 22 minutes to suicide,” Jack said.
He said the canoe journey is what they call a healing journey, where participants get in touch with their culture, ancestry and process personal concerns.
This year, 28 veterans paddled.
Dennis and Roberta Jack at the soft landing in Thane on June 3, 2024. (Colette Czarnecki/KSTK)
“There are others that are paddling in memory of one of their brothers or sisters or auntie or uncle who were killed in action, either in Iraq, Afghanistan, or even Vietnam,” Jack said.
Jack said that the journey has helped him deal with his own PTSD from when he was deployed to Iraq.
“I have a hard time on July 4 because of all the fireworks, and a lot of the really loud fireworks,” he said. “It sounds like a cannon or a mortar that’s going off.”
To him, it sounds like war. He said there were several times in Iraq where he’d be in the middle of a firefight, and his seven man recon unit would have to split up and meet at a rally point.
“There were times where….I’m sorry,” Jack said as he choked back tears. “There were times where our buddies wouldn’t make it and so we’d pack them out.”
“He would have loved to be on this journey”
His wife, Roberta, has witnessed his PTSD and helps him deal with it. She joined him on this year’s journey.
“He’s been asking me to come, how many years? And I kept telling him no,” she said. “I don’t know what it was about this year. I finally told him okay, I’ll go. This is all pretty amazing.”
Roberta said it won’t be her last — she has two brothers who fought in Vietnam. One lives in Angoon, and they lost the other in 2015. She said he never got the help he needed.
“He just drank and drank and drank,” she said. “His last couple of months or so, he started talking to us about what he went through.”
She said she’s thinking of him while on this journey.
“I know if he was here, he would have been on this. He would,” Roberta said. “He would have loved to be on this journey.”
Paddling with other veterans helps her feel less alone
Another veteran, Bethany Remi Onibokun served in Afghanistan and lives in Juneau. This is Onibokun’s third canoe journey to Celebration. She said paddling with other veterans lets her realize that she’s not alone, and other people are going through tough times like her.
“Things progress, and sometimes healing takes a long time,” she said. “I feel like every time I get on the water is like something gets a little bit better.”
Val Cooday (left) with her daughter, Bethany Remi Onibokun, in downtown Juneau on June 4, 2024 for the canoe landing before Celebration. (Colette Czarnecki/KSTK)
The journey helps her take focus off her troubles. She said her mom, Val Cooday, heard about the journey through Southeast Alaska Native Veterans.
“She thought it might be good for my PTSD and my other issues that I was going through, like my legal problems and my mental health issues and my help with my physical home,” Onibokun said. “They thought that it would be a good way to get me back outdoors.”
“It’s a spiritual, cultural, reawakening back to the culture”
Val Cooday served in Vietnam with the U.S. Army and also lives in Juneau. She joined her daughter on this year’s canoe journey, which is the second one she’s participated in. Her first one was in 2018.
Cooday said it’s inspirational — where the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people are going back to the canoe.
“It’s the culture, the songs, the stories, the people, the humor, everything,” she said. “It’s a spiritual, cultural, reawakening back to the culture.”
As for the weather? It rained for most of the trip, with little spurts of sunshine sprinkled in. But it didn’t discouraged Cooday.
“The weather hasn’t been great, but that’s okay. It’s beautiful,” she said. “The area’s spectacular. The sights are spectacular. So it’s a beautiful journey, really. And for those of us, we grew up here in Southeast. We are used to the rain, so I’m not traumatized by rain.”
Sobriety in the canoe
The captain of the veteran’s canoe, Ketchikan resident Tim Flanery, served three years as an electrical mechanic in the military during peacetime, between 1998 and 2001.
“Gaaná aya yáada yóo duwasáakw. Yeíl naax xat sit.ee, Gaanax.adi xat sit.ee, Teikweidi yadi aya xat, L’awaa kwaani aya xat,” he said. “That means Tim Flanery in Tlingit.”
(I am of the Raven moiety, I belong to the Gaanax.adi clan, my Grandfather was Teikweidi, I am from Klawock.)
Tim Flanery on June 3, 2024 in Thane, where canoes soft landed. (Colette Czarnecki/KSTK)
This was his fourth Paddle to Celebration as a skipper — or captain. He said he didn’t have a reason — or a purpose — to paddle the first time he was invited to. He wasn’t sober before that first journey, but that changed.
“They said it’s a sobriety event, and I was looking for something different,” Flanery said. “I just really love it. How it brings all the people together — Native, non-Native, people who are interested in a different way of life.
He said his spirits are up and they’ve got a good crew this year.
“It’s an amazing event that brings us together and allows me to feel more connected to my ancestors,” Flanery said. “The way of life that they lived, you know, camping along the side of the beach.”
The group wasn’t able to paddle every day because of rough weather, but Flanery said he loves seeing all the wildlife, like killer whales, seals and eagles anyway.
“It’s a nice break away from civilization,” he said. “But I think I’m missing a shower now.”
He said no one’s complained, so he thinks he’s O.K.
When he and the other veterans got to Celebration in Juneau, they joined each other with song and dance on stage.