2023 New Years Day Peace Hike
Picnic Shelter behind the Yachats Commons at 4th-5th Street and Highway 101.
Given the ever-shifting impact of Covid and the absolute need to keep the Peace Hike activities safe, the Yachats Trails Team will continue having the format be a combination of live and virtual experiences. There will be no indoor ceremony but there are a number of ways to manifest and celebrate peace throughout the day, both outdoors and within one’s home or shelter.
The Peace Hike traditionally honors the memory of a blind Native American (Coos) woman named Amanda who was forcibly taken away from her daughter and marched 80 miles with other captives all barefoot through the rocky terrain to the Alsea Sub-agency prison camp in what is now Yachats in 1864.
To truly understand the government sponsored genocidal policies that led to the murder and suffering of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, Siuslaw and Alsea Peoples, watch a video narrated by Patricia Whereat Phillips, Miluk Coos, member of the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians (CTCLUSI) and Donald Slyter, Chief of the CTCLUSI. www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6D-wkqXGy0
Cedar is a sacred tree for many tribes of the Pacific Northwest. On January 1, anyone interested in exploring Cedar in prayers is invited to take a Cedar sprig from a basket outside the Commons at the Picnic Shelter or at the Bears’ Statue on the Amanda Trail. From there they can take the sprig and walk with it holding their vision of peace and what it means in one’s life.
On New Year’s Day (weather dependent) this year’s Yachats Trails Committee has composed a map of alternative trails that allow everyone to hike or walk where they are most comfortable in addition to those who want to hike to the Amanda Gathering Area. Committee members will be on hand to answer questions and provide maps and guidance at the Lions Picnic Shelter behind the Yachats Commons.
There will be two small ceremonial fires in which to place the Cedar sprigs – one near the picnic shelter and one at the Amanda Gathering Area for those who hike the Amanda Trail.
Original source can be found here
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