<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><div>Courtesy of today's (October 11, 2016) Spokesman-Review</div><div><br></div><div>---------------------------------</div><div><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 48px; margin: 5px 0px 20px; font-family: 'Chronicle Display A', 'Chronicle Display B', serif; line-height: 1; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'dlig' 1; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">Spokane celebrates first Indigenous Peoples’ Day with a gathering in Riverfront Park</h1><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Through song, dance and prayer, the indigenous peoples of the Inland Northwest sent a clear message during a celebration Monday: We’re still here.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At a gathering that began outside Spokane City Hall and ended on Riverfront Park’s Canada Island, a group of over 100 people celebrated the first Indigenous Peoples’ Day since the City Council <a href="http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/aug/29/city-council-changes-columbus-day-to-indigineous-p/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted;">voted in August to rename Columbus Day</a>.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“That acknowledges for us that we’re still here and we have a future,” said Dave BrownEagle, a Spokane tribal member who opened the celebration.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Spokane is home to one of the largest urban indigenous populations in the U.S. There are 14,286 enrolled tribal members in Spokane County according to Toni Lodge, CEO of the Native Project, representing about 300 tribes.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The celebration included drumming and song from the Salish School of Spokane, intertribal dances, prayer and reflection.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We celebrate the resilience, the fight, the stamina, the love that carried each and every ancestor forward,” said Jo Ann Kauffman in an opening prayer.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The gathering mixed joyful celebration of indigenous cultures with sober reflection on healing from the trauma of genocide. Outside City Hall, about two dozen people of all ages dressed for fancy dancing, grass dance and jingle dance stepped in a circle to the beat of a drum.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On Canada Island, many young people tried their hand at <a href="http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/sep/28/coeur-dalene-tribes-powwow-sweat-exercise-video-fe/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted;">Powwow Sweat</a>, a program developed by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe that reimagines traditional dances as cardio exercise routines. The island is <a href="http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/sep/19/spokane-tribe-given-chance-to-rename-reimagine-can/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted;">due to be renamed and reimagined by the Spokane Tribe of Indians</a> as part of the larger Riverfront Park redesign.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Kauffman, a Nez Perce tribal member, <a href="http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/aug/25/spokane-council-to-consider-exchanging-columbus-da/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted;">approached the City Council</a> about changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day earlier this year. She said Monday that truth and reconciliation were a first step to healing relationships between indigenous people and settlers.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“He brought an era of genocide to the Western Hemisphere,” she said of Columbus.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Many spoke about the common connection local tribes have with water and salmon.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Lovina Louie, a member of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, had tears in her eyes as she talked about the Spokane River.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Because we were put on reservations, we were taken away from the water. A lot of us are coming back,” she said.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tribal leaders carried a traditional Salish sturgeon-nosed canoe built by local artist Shawn Brigman to Canada Island on Monday as part of the celebration. Brigman, a member of the Spokane Tribe, has built 16 canoes for local tribes. Some of the canoes traveled with local tribal members to North Dakota in support the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/federal-court-denies-tribe-s-request-halt-dakota-access-pipeline-n662926" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted;">protest of a planned oil pipeline across sacred sites</a>. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Louie’s was one of six families on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation recently selected to build their own canoe through a workshop with Brigman.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“When that canoe touched our water, I could feel our ancestors welcoming us home,” Louie told the crowd.</span></p></div><div>---------------------------------<br><br><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" </span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div> </div></div></div></div></div></body></html>