“At the far corner of North America lies a majestic land of dense forests and steep mountain ranges, where ocean waters wander inland for hundreds of miles through countless bays, passages and inlets. Ancient coastal cultures thrived for millennia among these salmon-filled waters, traveling far and wide to trade, to socialize, and sometimes to make war. The water was their highway, and their vehicles were wooden canoes, each carved from a single towering cedar tree. In the 1800’s, newcomers overran the region, decimating Native populations with new diseases, forcing them into small corners and suppressing their ancient cultures. In time, cars, freeways and TV became part of Native life. Memories of the old ways grew ever dimmer. Something was missing… Now, generations later, a new era of rediscovery has begun. Cedar canoes are again taking to the water in an annual epic called the Canoe Journey, where Native people seek to regain their spiritual core and, on these ancient highways of water, to cross paths with their ancestors and feel their presence. In this beautiful and poignant film, we join the Muckleshoot canoe crew as it departs from its home reservation near Seattle to begin Canoe Journey 2003 at Neah Bay as guests of the Makah Nation. Travel with them as this band of separate individuals, after many trials, learns to become a family by journey’s end…”