A youth attempts to paddle a tule boat in the water. (Submitted photo.)

By Randy Parks
Burns Times-Herald

If you build it, it will float. (Hopefully).

Fourteen youths from the Burns Paiute Reservation traveled to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge (MNWR) to build tule boats as part of the tribe’s Culture Preservation program.

The group arrived at the refuge about 9 a.m. and spent the next few hours making ropes from cattails and tying the tules together.

Carla Burnside, archaeologist at MNWR, helped coordinate the event and instructed the kids on boat construction.

By early afternoon the boats were ready and the kids took turns testing their sea-worthiness.