Cruise helps tell Kalispels' tale
—Photo courtesy JANE FRITZ Passengers take in the shoreline along what was once known as Mud Slough, an important campsite of the Kalispel people for thousands of years.
-- Photo courtesy JANE FRITZ Kalispel Tribal chairman Glen Nenem, right, addresses the passengers aboard the Shawnodese last month on Lake Pend Oreille. Anna Armstrong, Kalispel education director, sits to Nemen's left.
SANDPOINT — With more than 10,000 years of history in the Sandpoint area, members of the Kalispel tribe had grown deep roots before Woodrow Wilson ordered their removal to northeastern Washington in 1915.
Next Thursday, with the help of The Idaho Mythweaver and Lake Pend Oreille Cruises, tribal members will help participants visualize the Sandpoint their ancestors knew on the Kalispel Indian History Cruise, which casts off from City Beach dock at 10:30 a.m.
Kalispel tribe education director Anna Armstrong will be on hand to provide commentary on points of historic interest as the tour boat ferries guests along Pend Oreille Bay toward Kootenai Point. The Kalispels once camped and fished at summer gatherings along the shore. Across the lake, passengers will see views of sites where trappers such as David Thompson introduced an ongoing wave of settlers that would finally put an end to the Kalispels' traditional way of life.
The Idaho Mythweaver has collaborated with the Kalispel tribe on a number of public outreach projects. In addition to the cruise, the organization offers a Native American film series through East Bonner County Library District and "Native Heritage in Our Backyard" for fourth graders in the Lake Pend Oreille School District, according to the group.
“Our work is trying to educate the local people about the first people here. We help present and preserve cultural resources and oral history. The boat tour is a way for people to get to know them (the Kalispels) as well as the lake," said Jane Fritz, executive director of The Idaho Mythweaver.
Fritz, who authored the book "Legendary Lake Pend Oreille," an historical account of the area's legacy, said even after their relocation to the Usk, Wash., reservation, Kalispel people returned to the shores of the lake for annual pow wows. The last gathering took place in the 1930s.
"Because they wound up in Washington, Idaho pretty much just wrote them out of the map," Fritz said.
"Sandpoint City Beach was once an important summer village site. This area was their homeland. Lake Pend Oreille, Priest Lake, Eastern Washington up to Canada, the Chewelah valley — all of this area was their aboriginal territory. It covered almost 4 million acres."
Their reservation, along the Pend Oreille River between Usk and Cusick, covers about 4,600 acres," she said.
The nonprofit, volunteer-staffed Idaho Mythweaver will be celebrating its 27th year in conjunction with the cruise. A picnic lunch of handmade Indian fry bread tacos is included in the ticket cost.
To join the tour, call either The Mythweaver at 208-265- 8323 or Lake Pend Oreille Cruises at 208-255-LAKE.
The tour is limited to 30 people and the cost is $48 per person. This event is a benefit for The Idaho Mythweaver with proceeds supporting its ongoing cultural work with the Kalispel Tribe, according to a press release.