Salish Summer Program

During our Summer Program all youth have regular outdoor soccer instruction, physical education lessons, horse care and riding, and cultural hikes; traditional food and other plant collecting is a weekly activity, though it can be more frequent or intermittent depending on availability and ripeness.

The soccer program is provided by the SkyHawks soccer academy and kindergarten through 5th grade students participate in twice-weekly workshops.

Physical education instruction this summer has focused on volleyball skills building.

Horse care and riding takes place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at Trot About Riding School in Colbert for youth aged 8 to 15 years. 

Cultural hikes are led by our Salish-speaking Native American staff, and take place at sites along the Spokane River and in the surrounding countryside. These 1-2 mile hikes provide time for students to engage in positive social interactions while being physically active and culturally engaged. 

Traditional food gathering to date has included the collection, preparation and preservation of foam berries, sarvice berries and huckleberries. We also make traditional reed mats.

The oldest students (aged 12-15 years) participate in weekly field work with the Spokane River Keeper. These students will hike to riverine sites in order to trap and examine crawdads (crayfish) for a University of Idaho study, and they take water samples on which they will perform turbidity and water quality analysis. 

Our program is one-of-a-kind because it combines Salish language immersion opportunities in which youth can have strong peer-to-peer interactions and connections while at the same time being physically active and engaged in outdoor field work and experiences. Our program is a culturally safe space where Native American youth and freely express and develop their Native American identity.