Day Hike - Sequalitchew Canyon & Edmond Marsh

The weather cooperated and the sun broke through just as we reached the beach for lunch.  A seal was riding the tide just off shore and diving for his lunch.  The fall colors were highlighted in the sunshine.  This area is rich in historical sites and along the trail we discussed early European settlement, the history of the Nisqually tribe since contact, the DuPont dynamite factory, the phenomena of company towns and late 20th century urban planning. This historical context made this hike an ideal place to include a land acknowledgement for the Nisqually:

The Nisqually call themselves the people of the river, people of the grass They have lived in the Nisqually watershed for thousands of years.  Their homeland encompassed the rich salmon habitat of the Nisqually river and the open expanses of the south Puget prairies. This is an area of about 2 million acres is near the towns of Olympia, Tenino, Dupont and extending to Mount Rainier. Their ancestors migrated north from the Great Basin, across the Cascade Mountains, to settle near the Mashel River. The Nisqually are the prime stewards of the Nisqually River fisheries resources, and operate two fish hatcheries: one on Clear Creek and one on Kalama Creek.