LA PUSH — Former Quileute Tribal School Superintendent Leon Strom, who is credited with starting the Welcoming of the Whales ceremony in La Push, will be the guest speaker at the 11th annual rendition of the tribal welcome honoring gray whales.

The free ceremony, which is open to the public, will be at 10 a.m. today on First Beach near the school and the playground area.

The annual ceremony marks the migration of the gray whales as they pass by La Push. At some ceremonies, gray whales can be seen out in the Pacific.

“A couple of years ago, whales were spouting while the students were singing,” said Rio Jaime, Quileute events coordinator.

“There’s a strong chance of seeing whales” during today’s ceremony, he said.

“We’ve been seeing whales out there the last two or three weeks.”

The ceremony will be followed by a meal and festivities at 1 p.m. at the A-Ka-Lat Center.

“It will start on the beach with prayer by one of the elders, followed by traditional prayer songs and singing and dancing from students,” Jaime said.

Then the older students will take a raft laden with salmon out into the sea as an offering to the whales, said Mark Jacobson, superintendent of the tribal school.

This part of the ceremony emphasizes the importance of fishing to the tribe, Jacobson said.

“We rely on fish for survival,” he said. “The sea has provided sustenance for centuries.”

At the A-Ka-Lat Center, students will continue dancing and storytelling, Jacobson said.

While the Quileute have not hunted whales since the early 20th century, subsequent generations have never forgotten the importance of the majestic animals who make their home in the ocean.

The gray whales currently are migrating 10,000 to 12,000 miles up the Pacific from winter calving lagoons in Baja Mexico to summer feeding grounds in the Bering Sea.

When the Quileute people still hunted whales, they celebrated their return much as they will during today’s ceremony.

When whaling stopped, the tradition fell out of vogue.

That all changed 11 years ago, when the administrative staff at Quileute Tribal School — led by Strom — decided to revive the welcoming ceremony.

Storm will arrive with students from Yakima, Jaime said.

Some 50 to 100 students and anywhere from 200 to 400 adults are expected to be at the ceremony, Jacobson said.

For more information, visit https://quileutenation.org/or call 360-374-6163.

Community members welcome the annual migration of the gray whales in a recent ceremony. (Cheryl Barth)