Reminder – Walk with us in Seattle or wherever you are!

We’re giving thanks, walking together, and inviting you to come along!

Walkers at Waterway 15 in previous years

Walk with us on Thanksgiving, November 28,  along and around Lake Union in Seattle or wherever you are in gratitude for our communities  and for the Native people on whose land we walk. Wherever you walk, think of of us  — a wide-spread mesh of people, dispersed but walking together. We need each other more than ever. Drop me an email or add a comment here with a note or photo telling where you are.

(Please see the previous post here for more history and background.)

For Lake Union walkers

If you’re walking with us at Seattle’s Lake Union, we will start at 11:00 am at the Center for Wooden Boats at the south end of the lake. (Parking is right there.) Once gathered, we will walk counterclockwise along the east side of the lake. Please RSVP by email or by adding a comment here to let me know you’re coming so we’ll know to expect you.

Waterway 15— a second “official” place to gather this year

Waterway 15 is an artist -designed park located on Lake Union at its north end. We’re planning to arrive at Waterway 15 between 12:30 and 12:45.  If you get there first, please wait for us. Or feel free to join us there if you want a later start. (More about how to find Waterway 15 is below.)

In most of the past 14 years we’ve been making this walk, we’ve stopped here for a “photo op.”  See above for  sample photo ops from 2014, 2018, and 2019. This year I decided to learn more about where we’d been standing all these years. Waterway 15 was designed in 192 by artist Elizabeth Conner with landscape architect Cliff Willwerth to honor the layers of history at this site. You can learn more here.

Seeing inside Waterway 15

A highlight of the park from the beginning is a beautiful curved wooden bench fabricated at the Center for Wooden Boats that has often been the backdrop for our photos. You can see it peeking out from behind some of the walkers in the photos above. I visited the park recently and was disappointed not to see the bench. Apparently it is currently being restored. It may be back when we walk. The park is also full of small discoveries – recycled bricks carrying messages and ceramic tiles with historic photos, including one  tile with a photo of the guiding spirits of our walk, Tleebuleetsa and Cheshiahud, purportedly the last of the Duwamish people to live by the lake. (See the previous post here  for more information about them.)

Tleebuleetsa and Cheshiahud

Please join us!

P.S. Finding Waterway 15
In recent walks, Waterway 15 has proven hard to find. Here’s a map and instructions and  photographs that might help:

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you miss the first way down, try this:



 

Walking together in community – Thanksgiving 2024

You’re invited to . . . 

Walk with friends and family on Thanksgiving, November23. Join us in Seattle as we walk around our urban Lake Union. Or join us in spirit and walk wherever you are.

Since 2010, friends and I have walked around Lake Union, and since the pandemic, we’ve been joined by others  in “dispersed-unity” wherever they were—from Louisville and Brooklyn to Turkey and the Japanese American Exclusion Monument on Bainbridge Island.

I don’t know about you, but I need the community more than ever this year. I hope you can come along

Anne

The details

To walk with us around Lake Union
Meet at 
11am on Thanksgiving Day at South Lake Union Park in the parking lot by the Center for Wooden Boats. From there we’ll walk counterclockwise. The whole route is 7 miles, and we walk rain or shine. Join us for all or only part of i. Please let me know if you’re joining us at Lake Union so we’ll know to watch for you. Drop me a note at AnneFocke at gmail.com.

To walk wherever you are
Choose your own route and time. Walk by yourself or with friends and family  If you are tied to the kitchen or otherwise not easily mobile, a walk around the block or the table will do. Just think of us all as you go. Send me a photo or or a short note from your journey at AnneFocke at gmail.com.

The land and people who came before

The Native land you walk on
You can learn about the Native people who long ago walked the land you walk on by going toNative Land Digital. The Canadian site is run and continually updated by Native people. Use their how-it-works page to learn more about each territory.

The map above shows the Native lands we’ll be walking on around Lake Union (under the star) —Duwamish, Muckleshoot, and Suquamish, presented as differently colored screens along with territories of other nearby nations. For the most part their lands didn’t have hard boundaries.

And this map shows some of the larger Native territories across the continental U.S.

Guiding spirits of the Lake Union walk
The guiding spirits of this walk are Cheshiahud and his wife Tleebuleetsa, who are said to be the last Duwamish people to live a traditional, independent lifestyle near Lake Union. The path we follow most of the way is named the Cheshiahud Trail, and we honor the Duwamish people as well as the Muckleshoot and Suquamish, as we walk. For me, knowing of their history shifts the meaning of a day reserved for thanks.

You can read more about them here and watch a video story told by a descendent of Chesiahud, Jacquelin Swanson,  here.

I hope you’ll walk with us!