SPOKANE, Wash. — The Salish School of Spokane will receive federal funding to support their program and keep their native language alive.
The school, located near Garland District, teaches dozens of kids and their parents the Salish Language and traditions.
It is the only school in the state with a native-language preschool program and currently has waitlists for both its elementary and preschool classes.
The administration said it hopes to build a new $10 million Salish Cultural and Recreational Community Center so it can serve all the people on its waitlists and host more activities.
“Right now, our elder is down from Inchelium. He’s drumming with the kids and we have him out in a shed that we fixed up and stuck a heater in. What we’d love to have is him in a beautiful music room to really honor the gift he’s bringing back to our kids,” said Christopher Parkin, Principal of Salish School of Spokane.
The school has already secured over $2-and-a-half million for the $10 million dollar project and Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington has donated land by the Spokane River to build on.
“We always keep in mind the focus of having the language back on the river. That’s really a beautiful thing and having our students be able to experience language on the land,” said LaRae Wiley, Executive Director of Salish School of Spokane.
The funding from City of Spokane was approved at a City Council meeting on Monday night and is one of nine $100,000 grants allocated to multicultural centers across the city.
Parkin said the school plans to use the funds to hire grant writers to help them fundraise for the rest of their community center project.
“It would have a few classrooms, a commercial kitchen and cafeteria seating. It can host a stick game tournament; it can host a powwow. We can have language learning classes,” said Parkin.
The new center would be both a language school and a place for people to gather, celebrate their culture and support one another.
“We’ll be able to do our Salish language revitalization programming there for youth and young adults, but we’ll also be able to open it up to the community so that over Native nonprofits can use it. And of course, during the day, the kids from our school would be able to come over and use it. They don’t currently have a gym or cafeteria,” said Parkin.
For Parkin, the funding is part of a larger goal to help the Salish community grow and thrive.
“Language is such an important part of someone’s identity, and when you learn your language and you’re speaking your language, it can really lift you up,” he said.
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