Biweekly Updates – Coast Salish: Land, Sea & Place

June 18, 2024

Standing on the banks of the outer San Juan Islands, the late spring breeze whispers stories of time immemorial. Coast Salish: Land, Sea & Place is a multiyear project of LIFRC made possible by a grant from Office of the Superintendent for Public Instruction (OSPI), administered by WA State Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO).

We are honored to have the project designed, developed, and facilitated by Leslie Eastwood (Samish Nation) and Chiyokten Wagner (Saanich Nation). We are so grateful to Denise Crowe, Samish Nation Department of Education, for leading place-based learning throughout the project and a coalition of Coast Salish and Hawaiian tribal elders who so generously shared knowledge, culture, and teachings with Lopez youth grades 6-9. Without their support and expertise, this project would not be possible.

LIFRC Youth Engagement Program staff provides site coordination, curriculum alignment and student engagement. We are especially grateful to our ongoing collaboration with Lopez Island School District and our partnership with fabulous adult chaperones who make this project so awesome. Most of all, to the youth who bring boundless energy, curiosity, laughter and the Lopez spirit to learn!!

Each session involved four days and three nights at Camp Moran on Orcas Island. Lopez Island 6th, 7th and 8th Grade spent each day learning outdoors from tribal elders including ethnobotany hikes, native plant crafts, culture sharing and the importance of canoe journeys. Each grade also traveled with tribal educators to an outer island (Matia, Jones or Sucia) to continue the Since Time Immemorial curriculum.

Since Time Immemorial tribal sovereignty curriculum offers accurate and reliable place-based and inquiry-based lessons that have been developed in collaboration with tribes to be integrated with existing core curriculum. These camp sessions represent an expansion of classroom setting to include experiential learning, outdoor skill building, cohort development, leadership skills and social emotional learning.

LIFRC’s emphasis is to build a learning environment that encourages critical thinking, includes co-learning, and holds space for genuine reflection and inclusion. Since Time Immemorial guides our programs with this tenet: “Indian education dates back to a time when all children were identified as gifted and talented. Each child had a skill and ability that would contribute to the health and vitality of the community. Everyone in the community helped to identify and cultivate these skills and abilities. The elders were entrusted to oversee this sacred act of knowledge being shared. That still is our vision for Indian education today.” – From Where the Sun Rises (2008)