Arts

Indigenous art remains in existence throughout the Columbia River System, while their significations are endangered. Through cultural arts training and programming, we implement curriculum, share documentation, and inspire young artists to continue and or create their legacies

We provide support to youth, educators and arts programs throughout the region sharing history and culture with audiences kindergarten to professional levels.

We partner with educators and institutions to excel in instruction and curriculum implementation.

History

Every place tells a story. The Columbia River is deep with history and creativity. These histories and customs of the river have transcended to generations of today, generations doing our very best to hold true to the teachings of our ancestors in a different world.

Much has been recorded through oral histories, linguistic analysis, anthropologists, and developers respectively. We seek out the history through our very own people who have been in our homelands since time immemorial. The Columbia River is where our creation story began. Our creativity and inspiration came from the river, its resources, its seasons, and its people.

We seek to understand and share our understandings. Our information at times is even new to us as we continue to reach elders, wisdom keepers, and educators to share with us students and aspiring teachers who offer the very best in cultural curriculum implementation.

We tend to our teachers, educators, and people. Through them, we attain friendships, family, wisdom and healing. Because of them, we help organizations and programs understand their own histories and communities as well through land acknowledgements and advocacy presentations for equity.

Health

The sustainability of our efforts relies upon our ability to share and in our ability to be a healthy community.

We seek nutritional understanding, personal development, positive affirmations, body functionality, and healthy communication.

We provide support to organizations seeking an equitable future around race, equity, diversity, and inclusion (REDI) trainings.

We educate communities about the impacts of Trauma and Toxic Stress in an effort to inspire a community of care, support, love, encouragement, aspirations, kindness, nurturement, and identity.

We nurture new and established relationships with elders throughout the Columbia River system to acknowledge their lives, their experiences, and their wisdom to be passed on to the next generations through our programming. Through them, we learn history, customs, arts and significations. We remain together in how we revitalize our culture, customs and creativity, seeking every student, teacher, and advocate to be involved.

Indigenous games were once a tradition throughout the continent, keeping people strong, healthy, clean, and competitive. Many games have since faded into the past while others remain endangered. Our program is pursuing resources and support for youth to revive and play these once common games.

We connect people to a community of support, respect, growth, healing, and prosperity.

Language

When we began on our language journeys, we were quite lost. It was hard. We wanted our elders to feel accomplished, so we created our very own homework to study outside of class and with elders when they were available. We excelled.

We are associated to the very best students and teachers of Indigenous Languages across the Northwest for our commitment to understanding people, the language journey, proficiency, acquisition, communication and excelling.

We support organizations and programs in providing language workshops, experiences, and acquisiton. We share techniques in language documentation, study habits, teaching methodologies, learning styles, curriculum development, lesson planning, educational strategies, and capacity building.

Spirit

The power of prayer, meditation, and thankfulness has been the root of our growth and connection to communities. We are open to all denominations while sharing our own spiritual practices we don’t necessarily consider our religion, more so, our way of life. Humility is part of our growth and seek it daily and through our customs.

To share these experiences, we coordinate culture programs that welcome new and experienced youth and teachers to share and grow together.

We conduct circles of welcoming, prayer, meditation, thankfulness, exploration, and healing through longhouse traditions, sweathouse ceremonies, canoe journeys, and peace-making circles. 

We help to provide and find a sense of place, identity, and community throughout our region to respect self, others, our environments and the generations that interact with it.

We believe in sharing to encourage and inspire all generations of today and tomorrow.