YACHATS – Organizers of the 12th annual New Year’s day peace hike are once again having to improvise a bit this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
This year’s events Saturday, Jan. 1 include smaller live and virtual activities, the Yachats Trails Committee has announced and there will be are no indoor or large group activities.
Other than last year, previous hikes followed the Amanda Trail from the Yachats Commons to the Amanda statue south of town and has grown steadily in attendance and its importance to the community.
The Peace Hike traditionally honors the memory of a blind Native American woman named Amanda Du-Cuys who in 1864 was taken away from her daughter and marched barefoot for 80 miles with other captives to the Alsea Sub-agency prison camp in what is now Yachats.
Depending on the weather and in lieu of a single event, this year the trails committee has created a map of alternative trails that allow people to walk or hike where they are most comfortable. Committee members will be at the pavilion behind the Yachats Commons from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to answer questions and provide maps and guidance.
If people are unable to walk, the trails committee has posted a video on YouTube by linguist Patricia Whereat Phillips of the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians narrating the Amanda story.
Cedar is a sacred tree for many tribes of the Pacific Northwest, according to hike organizers. There will be cedar sprigs at the pavilion and at the bears’ statue on the Amanda Trail that people can take on their walk “holding their vision of peace and what it means in one’s life,” according to the trails committee.
There will be no formal ceremony at the Amanda Trail gathering area, but 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.
Because of construction on a suspension bridge over Amanda Creek, the Amanda Tail will be open to the gathering area only on Saturday, Jan. 1 and can be reached by an auxiliary road off U.S. Highway 101.
The trails committee also commissioned a peace hike button by Nora Sherwood, which can be picked up at the pavilion, the Amanda gathering area or the Yachats Chamber of Commerce visitor’s center. The Yachats Ladies Club will be offering water, energy bars and cookies at the pavilion and gathering area.
