Members of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe lined the shore of City Beach, searching the horizon for Warch, the canoe. All at once, people started murmuring to one another and pointing — the shovel-nosed canoe had just turned the corner around Tubbs Hill. As the canoe pulled up to shore, a team ran out to greet it, turning it sideways so the people inside could disembark.

The canoe’s crew walked up the beach, greeted by other tribal members dressed in traditional regalia. Only a few hours before, members of the Tribe had been drumming and dancing at City Park, celebrating the awakening of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and its return to the water by way of canoe.

“We get so involved with the hustle and bustle of work, and sometimes we forget about what’s really important. I was telling people yesterday, this is what men and women do, they take their culture and they pass it on,” said Coeur d’Alene Tribe Chairman Chief Allan. “You see all the men and women when they come in (from the canoe) and you see their smiling faces and that’s worth more than a million dollars to me.”

Last summer, the Upper Columbia United Tribes started a project that invited all five tribes — the Kalispell Tribe of Indians, the Spokane Tribe of Indians, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe — to build their own dug-out canoes.

Each tribe received an old-growth cedar tree to carve out. The process to make a canoe is very involved and took the Coeur d’Alenes about 10 months to complete. However, Vince Peone — a lead wildlife technician for the Tribe who took a leadership role in building the canoe — said the canoe will never really be finished.

“It’s a work in progress. A cedar canoe, you have to be taking care of it constantly,” he said. “We have to keep it out of the sun and in the water and fix any problems that occur.”

All the tribes agreed to paddle their hand-carved canoes to Kettle Falls, Wash. They will meet July 17 and have a reception and celebration. The next day they will perform a traditional salmon ceremony.

The Tribe launched Warch on Tuesday at Benewah Lake after an opening ceremony by the chairman and prominent elders.

The canoe — named for the word for “frog” in the Coeur d’Alene language because a frog hung around the cedar log while it was being carved out — had already been on the water before Tuesday for practice runs.

From Benewah Lake, tribal members paddled the canoe to Camp Larson, where they were greeted by family and friends, all excited for the revitalization of the Coeur d’Alenes as water people.

“When we finally made it into camp, there were so many people waiting for us,” Peone said. “It was super spiritual and very moving to have all the tribal council there and friends and family. It was really, super moving to take out that boat.”

The Tribe paddled the canoe from Camp Larson to City Beach in Coeur d’Alene Wednesday.

Warch is paddled by seven people and a coxswain. The front seat is reserved for the Tribe’s ancestors. It is covered in a blanket and cedar branches. Peone said no one sits in that seat, but one day in the future, he will.

The shovel-nosed canoe is accompanied by other, smaller, sturgeon-nosed canoes, made by different families within the Tribe.

Lovina Louie’s family made one of those sturgeon-nosed canoes. The whole family went to the water Monday night before the launching ceremony the next day to do their own family blessing.

“I just started crying. We haven’t had those canoes in our waters for so many years. In the canoe, you are sitting on the water, you’re wet and you can feel our ancestors in the water,” she said. “When you’re in the canoe, you smell the wood. You worked on it, you carved it — your blood, sweat and tears are in it. And that’s why I think I started crying when my dad started singing, because all the work we put into it and then to hear our songs with the canoe, it was so beautiful. It felt like we were home.”

Louie and her daughter, North Star, were at City Park Wednesday to participate in the dancing and to welcome the canoe to Coeur d’Alene, a historically significant place for the Tribe.

The mother and daughter joined many other tribal members dressing in traditional regalia —

buckskin dresses and moccasins covered in beautiful, intricate beading. Some of the dresses were more than 100 years old, saved by their ancestors to carry on tradition. The men donned rooster-like tail feathers and elaborate headdresses made of porcupine quills.

The first dance was only for the tribal women to participate in, then the men joined in, then the Tribe invited everyone at the park to dance. The little kids ran about, but often when they encountered one of the men stomping the ground and their headdresses moving dramatically, they ran away.

The dances were very methodical, moving in a big circle, every step matching the beat of the drums. Sometimes dancers threw in some fancy footwork, crossing one foot behind the other, then moving forward again.

One of the dancers, Kyle Davis, had bells around his ankles that rattled with every step.

“It’s part of our culture, you start dancing when you’re in diapers,” he said. “It’s not something you walk into; we have been practicing and learning for years.”

The traditional drumming and song was performed by two groups. Rose Creek is an all-women group. Each woman started drumming and singing when they were 15 or 16 years old. Now they are all in their 20s. The other group was White Horse, all members of the Nomee Family.

The dancing ended with “The Happy Dance.” Everyone held hands in a big circle and side stepped clockwise. Suddenly, all the dancers threw their hands in the air and rushed to the middle of the circle, shouting at the top of their lungs.

After the canoe landed on City Beach, Chairman Allan and Coeur d’Alene Mayor Steve Widmyer exchanged gifts. The Tribe gave Widmyer a ceremonial blanket and Widmyer gave the Tribe a circular piece of wood with Lake Coeur d’Alene painted on it.

“I think the relationship with our city and the Tribe is stronger today than it ever has been,” Widmyer said. “It’s only going to get stronger.”

Warch the canoe will be transported 3 miles down the Spokane River from Little Falls Saturday morning. There, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the Spokane Tribe will meet and continue the 92-mile journey together to Kettle Falls.

The Tribe decided to skip 100 miles of the Spokane river due to too many dams, portages and the hard rapids. The canoes will be accompanied by another safety boat and a support vehicle.

Lovine Louie stood at the water’s edge with her daughter, North Star. Dressed in her traditional buckskin dress, watching the canoe come in, she smiled.

“That spiritual connection we have, it’s an awakening,” she said. “We should welcome our canoe, that’s why we’re here. I’m so proud.”