By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews.com
Like so many Yachats traditions, this season’s New Year’s Day Peace Hike won’t go on as planned — but it will take shape person by person and online.
“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the absolute need to follow all safety protocols, there will be no traditional large-group hike as we have known it,” said Joanne Kittel, one of five trail leaders of the sponsoring Yachats Trails Committee. However, people are urged to “personally explore their own visions and rituals for manifesting peace in their hearts and in the world.”
Further, starting on New Year’s morning, a video will be available online of Miluk Coos tribal member Patricia Whereat Phillips narrating the Amanda story as well as the history of the Peace Hike.
The annual hike honors the memory of a blind Native American woman, Amanda De-Cuys, a blind Native American and member of the Coos tribe. In 1864, she was forced to leave her young daughter and march barefoot through rocky terrain to the Alsea Sub-agency internment camp in Yachats. Her tragic story has come to represent the forced relocation of area Native Americans when white immigrants stole their coastal land.
The video of Amanda’s story will be available on several local websites: the City of Yachats, Yachats Chamber of Commerce, Yachats Trails, and View the Future.
The Yachats Trails Committee has organized the hike since 2010, walking from the Yachats Commons building downtown, along U.S. Highway 101 to the Amanda grotto and statue south of town along the lower portion of the trail.
Bad weather changed last year’s hike, which still went on in an abbreviated version around the Wetlands Park behind the Commons. Afterward, people placed cedar boughs in a fire by the Pavilion.
“Cedar is a symbol of healing,” said Kittel, who added that cedar sprigs will be available this year in outdoor areas near the Commons and along the Amanda Trail.
“This year, we’re asking people to do their own Peace Hike,” said Kittel. “They can choose any trail they like, wherever they live, or simply meditate to find that place of peace within themselves.”
A commemorative button will be available to people who have viewed the Amanda video. The buttons will be offered at the Yachats City Visitor Center and the Yachats Chamber. Button requests, including the sender’s name and mailing address, may be emailed to yachatstrails@gmail.com. This year’s button was created by Morgan Gaines Quuiich, a Lower Umpqua tribal member.
The first Yachats New Year’s Day Peace Hike took place Jan. 1, 2010, several months after the dedication of the Amanda Trail, which Kittel spearheaded building and donated land for the grotto. Many tribal members attended the dedication ceremony, after which people hiked to the Amanda Grotto where an Amanda statue stands. The trailhead is at the south end of Yachats Ocean Road.
The Yachats Trails Committee, working under the supervision of the Parks & Commons Commission, cleans and maintains the city’s trails, wetlands, Prospect Gardens and Whale Park. People interested in joining the work may email the committee at YachatsTrails@gmail.com
