The first peace of the New Year

Start 2026 on a contemplative note with Yachats Peace Hike

By Eliot Sekuler

For the TODAY

It’s an opportunity for reflection in the midst of the New Year’s celebration, a look back on a difficult past and a hopeful look forward to the future. For the past 16 years, Yachats’ New Year’s Day Peace Hike has brought together a diverse cross-section of Oregon Coast residents to affirm their unity and honor the tragic ordeal endured by the state’s Indigenous peoples when their lands were stolen.

The hike was originally conceived to honor Oregon’s Trail of Tears, a mid-19th-Century forced march in which Indigenous people were herded at gunpoint under harrowing conditions from their ancient lands to the Yachats military camp known as the “Alsea Sub-Agency.” The camp was created by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1859 to contain the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, imprisoning them at the site without regard to their very different languages and cultures. The historic figure who has come to symbolize that ordeal is Amanda De-Cuys, a blind woman from the Coos tribe who was forced by government troops to leave her family and walk barefoot from her Coos Bay home to Yachats, where she faced an uncertain future among strangers. On New Year’s Day, hikers will walk the trail named in her honor — the Amanda Trail — and will pause beside a bronze statue dedicated to her memory. The statue has become, organizers have said, “a place of reflection, ceremony and remembrance.”

As in past years, Peace Hike events will begin at Yachats Commons, with a welcoming community drum circle beginning at 8:30 am. An opening prayer and a narration of Amanda’s story will take place at 9:30 am. At 10:30 am, a fire will be lit at Commons Park and ceremonial cedar will be distributed, as in some Pacific Northwest Indigenous cultures, cedar represents strength, generosity and a pathway to the spiritual world. At that time, the longer, 2.2-mile Amanda Trail Hike will begin, followed at 10:45 am by the beginning of a shorter trail walk. At noon, hikers assemble at the Amanda Gathering Area for a fire, a cedar offering, prayers, songs and stories told by tribal members. This year, the new Yachats trolley will be available to ferry a limited number of people from the Commons to the Amanda Gathering Area.

The annual hike was conceived in 2011 by Lauralee Svendsgaard, chairperson of the Yachats Trail Work Group, who explained her vision for the event as an opportunity for participants to  commemorate the injustices wreaked upon Native American tribes “while making a solemn commitment by each of us to find that place of peace within us; to vow to let that power direct our actions in the new year when we engage others; and to courageously speak out against injustice, bigotry, and callous perspectives on those who suffer; to treat people of all cultures with honor, dignity and respect.”  

The event is organized and supported by a coalition of civic and tribal groups, led by the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. Partners include the event’s founding organization, the Yachats Trails Work Group, along with the Yachats Ladies Club, the Oregon Coast Visitors Association and View the Future, a Yachats-based nonprofit land trust organization with a mission to protect natural lands, and restore eco-systems while honoring the history, resilience and vibrant culture of the Indigenous peoples who were imprisoned at the Yachats camp.

According to Joanne Kittel, who serves as View the Future’s co-chairperson, the Peace Hike is especially relevant in a time when some government officials have taken steps to whitewash or erase some uncomfortable truths in our nation’s history.

“We cannot change the past,” she said. “But we can and we must acknowledge it. There is no national memorial to the genocide that happened in our country and no thorough recognition of the Trails of Tears. We have to build that recognition community by community.”

Although the Peace Hike is a commemoration of past events, Kittel said it is appropriate for a group called View the Future to sponsor this event. 

“We’re an environmental preservation organization, and we chose that name because we’re always looking at our future to preserve our environment and our culture.” said Kittel, who holds the rare distinction of being accepted as an honorary member of the Confederate Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians. “That includes preserving the historical truths of the Native Americans who have lived here since time immemorial. We’re always looking toward our future as we work toward preserving our environment and our culture. The work that we do now has everything to do with making the lives of future generations better.”

Thursday’s New Year’s Peace Hike activities begin at 8:30 am at the Yachats Commons, located at Highway 101 between 4th and Pontiac Streets. The event will go on rain or shine. For more information, go to viewthefuture.org.