The shovelnose dugout Indian canoe in the photograph below was prepared for its journey upriver by truck.  But it spent many years being navigated by pole by expert canoeists of the Stillaguamish Tribe.

Shovelnose Indian canoe on a special truck for returning the canoe upriver for the last time.

This flat bottom canoe sleekly moved across shallow waters up and down the Stillaguamish River in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  It had been found in the river possibly lost, sunken or washed away by a flood and was “rescued” by local resident in the 1960s. It was purchased by Mike and Penny Buse in an estate sale in the 1990s. Since then it was held at the Stanwood Area Historical Society, occasionally seen by visitors who had an interest, but mostly in storage.  
Today, Oct 26th, 2015 Shawn Yanity accepted the return of the canoe from the Stanwood Area Historical Society for his people.  It will be be on display soon at the Tribal Administration building.  He told a story remembering observing how swiftly a woman of his tribe was able to navigate the canoe – one of the last perhaps who had such a skill.

The canoe is 28 feet long and about 26 inches at the mid gunwale.  It was made before 1900 with a few improvements, repairs as well as cracks but no recent modernizations.  It is an important cultural artifact to the Stillaguamish people who were people of the river as their name suggests.  Men and women used these canoe to carry belongings up and down river highway for their own transportation needs as well as for new settlers coming into the Stillaguamish Valley.

We are happy that it has finally found its way home.

A similar shovelnose canoe being poled by men sorting shingle bolts for transport down river. John Ellingson is the man at the top of the canoe. The bridge is thought to be the Arlington railroad bridge. From the SAHS Photograph collection 2001.218.01.