Saturday, 11 June 2022
Today is the indigenous celebration parade in downtown Juneau. We left the campsite at zero 730 to travel to a parking lot downtown that is big enough to board Bigfoot and Elkhorn.
We took our folding chairs with us and asked the cop for the direction of the parade. When we got to City Hall, we thought that there would be the review platform with television cameras. We placed our chairs on the side walk which happen to be under the roof overhang at the City Hall building to help keep us dry. Remember, it rains a lot here, and today is no exception.
We are right across the street from a couple of the cruise ships that were in port that day. There were thousands of tourists meandering the street and because we were sitting in our chairs they were asking us questions considering us locals. So we played the part…
The parade started at 11 AM and the lineup of all the clans was beginning as we were watching all these people dressed in their traditional regalia walking to their staging areas.
When all of a sudden who do we see? Maryann Rainey and her daughters. We hugged and Ann Marie got a picture with her!
The parade was full of indigenous pride and enthusiasm. Each clan had a banner identifing where they were from and as each clan passed by, there were drums, chanting, and dancing .
Old and young, tall and short, male and female, they were all wearing brightly colored vests, robes and woven blankets bearing icons of bears, beavers, eagles, ravens, killer whales, thunderbirds, coho salmon and frogs.
Methodical drum-pounding and call-and-response bellows back-and-forth of “Hee-HAA” sounded as playful as they did martial, like the home team was about to take the field.
It was a very cool parade, and the first parade I have ever seen that did not have any wheeled vehicles in it. As a Shriner, you know we Love Parades, and I sure enjoyed riding my go cart and miss my brothers in Augusta.
