10/15/2025
ʔa pecya! The Spokane Language and Culture office has great news to share with you all.
Our Language and Culture department has received a $900,000.00 grant from the Administration for Native Americans (ANA) with a project called, “Spokane Indigenous Ethnobotany Plant-based Curriculum Project”. Marsha Wynecoop, Teea McCoy and Kathy Roper worked many hours, evenings and weekends writing, proofreading and working on budgets, and the hard work paid off. There are only 4 of these grants awarded in the entire United States and we are one of those four! It is very exciting!
This project started as of October 1, 2025 and we will be working on this grant through June 30, 2028. We will be identifying, cataloging, and photographing 120 plants over the next three years. Plants will be cataloged in four separate categories: Medicinal, Edible, Ceremonial, and Utilitarian. Data will be collected in the field and will create an indigenized curriculum (240 lessons total) that can be accessed by our teachers for teaching ethnobotany to our students in local schools as well as provide curriculum to our Back to the Heart Immersion School.
Our Language Assistant, Carol Stearns, has been working tirelessly on the digitizing of our archives and we give her a big thanks for her dedication. As we move into this next project, she will be accessing vital information from the archives that will be used to build our new curriculum. Karen Probert has been working hard on getting backpacks and school supplies to the kids in our area (among her other duties), if your child is still in need of supplies, please reach out and she will help you get them while supplies last. We would like to thank her for all that she does. Cody Peone will also be taking on extended duties for our new grant, and we appreciate the hard work and knowledge that he brings.
We have various partnerships that will be working on this project together with us: Back to the Heart Immersion School, CDA Tribe, Spokane Tribe Preservation, Spokane Tribal Network, Kalispel Tribe, Language House, and the Wellpinit School District. Our partners will have a chance to go out into the field with us to collect data in a participatory educational method. Language teachers will also be going into the local classroom teaching Indigenous Ethnobotany to students. If you have an interest in taking part of this learning experience, please reach out to us here at the Language Office and we would be happy to inform you on dates.
Language and Culture has received funding through other grants which we have used for various community events. If you have seen the sweetgrass braiding, pine needle basket weaving, earring making, and moccasin sewing classes that our program has been offering, it is likely from one of these grants. We have enjoyed seeing our community members come and spend time together. Please keep an eye on our page, we will be posting dates in advance of the new classes that we will be offering so participants will be able to plan accordingly. Contact Adrina Wynecoop, our Events Coordinator, for additional event information at 509.258.4222. It is a great time to get together to visit, laugh, and create with one another as a community. Editing our final 5 books through another grant has continued and we hope to have these completed and printed in the very near future. Thank you to Cody and Marsha for getting these traditional stories ready for print.
Finally, we would like to welcome back Elizabeth, August, and Annette! They have spent the last couple of years in the intensive language learning pilot program with Barry Moses, called N3. We see very good things to come upon their return. We are all in this language revitalization work together.
We are looking forward to our language classes, curriculum development, and the outings that will take place. Keep an eye out for language learning opportunities and we hope to see you soon! Big thanks to everyone! šey u hoy.
