A potted evergreen tree was on display during Friday's potlatch, which would later be planted in honor of former Chinook tribal chairman Ray Gardner who died in 2015.

NASELLE, Wash. — One after another, the residents of the Naselle Youth Camp stepped forward to Loran Bacon, a member of the Native Brotherhood group at the camp, and received their smudge. With an abalone shell filled with smoldering sage, Bacon waved his feather through the smoke, coaxing it forward onto their bodies, in a Native American ritual meant to purify the receiver.

“We’re giving good spirits,” said Bacon, who was an active participant in last week’s annual potlatch at NYC. “It makes me feel real good. I think about my family, and I pray about them every day. I like to smudge. It gets me in the spirit.”

Bacon, and the brotherhood, were the hosts of the event, a traditional gift-giving feast which is practiced by Native American tribes throughout the Pacific Northwest. The word comes from the Chinook jargon meaning, “to give away.” Perhaps what was given most freely was goodwill toward those in attendance and their ancestors.

“It’s pretty holistic,” said Michael Nolan, a native Cree, who is a drug and alcohol counselor at the youth camp and is the facilitator of the Native Brotherhood. “I kinda have the role of their elder. I think they maybe look at me as younger than I am. I’m in my 30s, and I can still remember those days. ”

The event welcomed representatives from the Chinook and Shoalwater tribes, the Pacific County Sheriff’s Department, even local musician Krist Novoselic, featured poetry readings, drum songs and food.

“Once we walked the earth and our bodies were strong. Once we started each day with deep breaths and grateful thanks for all around us … Our sacred breath — it’s time to take it back,” read one of the brotherhood prior to a lively drum circle song.

Nolan said that the native youth are hungry for that familial spirit that binds them together and allows him to make a strong connection with the young men.

“They have that respect and it’s almost more than if I were just a counselor,” he said. “It’s built into their culture.

“A lot of these guys, even though they come from the reservation and they’ve participated in powwow. A lot of them come from a culture of poverty that’s so rampant in that system, where their father or mother are in jail and so they’ve lost a lot of their ceremonies. They’re learning and relearning. It’s a way to own it for themselves. So when they leave here, they feel like they can walk in a better way.”

Also honored at the ceremony was the life of late Chinook Chairman Ray Gardner, who died late last year. Gardner had been a regular contributor to the group in previous years and the group planted an evergreen tree in his honor as part of the ceremony.

Nolan explained that the boys at the Youth Camp are now there for a limited amount of time, usually three to four months, before being transferred to a different facility or group home. Unfortunately, the current group in the Native Brotherhood did not have the opportunity to meet Gardner, but Nolan said his legacy and spirit are still present today.

“It’s like everything in our culture, with the oral tradition, he’s alive in our stories shared in sweat lodge,” he said. “They all know his name, he is definitely alive in that sense.”