Celebrating its 25th year of hosting a regional campout at the Whidbey Institute for fourth grade students, the Whidbey Island Waldorf School and other schools paid homage to the original people of the Salish Sea.
Students from other Waldorf schools, including Bellingham, Bellevue, Port Townsend, three Seattle-area schools, Sandpoint, Idaho, and home-schooled students were invited to participate in the three day event last May.
The gathering’s name has evolved from what it was once called, Potlatch, to include a description of the south and central coast Tulalip people including the Lower Skagit, Swinomish, Suquamish, and Snohomish tribes. The event has been renamed a Coast Salish Cultural Sharing.
Angela Lindstrom, Grades Pedagogical Director of the Whidbey Island Waldorf School, is of Native American descent—she is Ojibwe (Anishanabe) from the Great Lakes region on her mother’s side. Her father is part Eastern Band Cherokee.
“I have a great love for our native teachings,” she said during a recent visit. “It is important to honor the land we live on. Our school and the Whidbey Institute occupy unceded tribal territory.”
Whidbey’s first people lived on what they called our island, Tscha-Kole-Chy, a name that endured for Coast Salish people for hundreds of years. It was renamed Whidbey Island by George Vancouver, for his ship’s master Joseph Whidbey, during an exploratory mapping voyage of the Saratoga Passage and Admiralty Inlet in 1792.
To increase awareness of our island’s first inhabitants, Waldorf’s fourth graders study local geography and indigenous cultures as part of their curriculum, and their studies culminate during the May gathering.
Over the years, Angela has hosted the regional Waldorf event, and has invited indigenous people and other curators of Native American culture to educate the school’s fourth graders.
During this 25th anniversary celebration, children learned Lushootseed, the native language of the Puget Sound.
“Maria Rios, a language warrior, taught the class,” Angela said “It was profound experience to have Lushootseed spoken on the land again. The children learned it and retained the words. You could feel the earth singing. So powerful.”
One of the elders who has helped over the years is internationally recognized Native American flutist, inventor, and native rights’ activist, Paul Chiyokten Wagner. He teaches Coast Salish culture and potlatch traditions.
“He is so spectacular. He teaches drumming, flute playing and story telling,” Angela said.
Another member of the Tulalip Tribes is Jamie Arnold, a skilled traditional cedar weaver. She teaches weaving classes regularly at the Hibulb Cultural Center and History Preserve on the Tulalip Reservation near Marysville. This year Jamie taught the children how to weave cedar mat necklaces.
“She comes from the Shelton family on the Tulalip Reservation,” Angela said.
‘Chief William Shelton,’ whose Snohomish name was Wah-kah-dub Whea-ka-dim, was born in what is now Langley on July 4, 1868, and is an ancestor of Jamie Arnold’s. William Shelton was credited with helping to preserve the traditional ways of his people, and acting as an ambassador between his people and the white settlers.
Additionally, at the May gathering, Haida artist Seri Sims taught drawing of traditional Pacific Northwest designs in red, black and white.
Angela’s daughter Abra Lindstrom Finch led games. Abra demonstrated the traditional Native American pow-wow jingle dance, wearing a jingle dress.
Each of the schools prepares a gift to give away to another school when they come. Whidbey Island Waldorf School’s fourth graders presented a gift—a felted tapestry of animals native to our area.
At night each of the schools gathered to present songs, poems, and parts of a play that were meaningful to them, which deepened their experience with the Coast Salish culture.
“Every year I tell the story of Salmon Boy,” Angela said. “The story was gifted to me, and I wrote it as a play.”
This year, WIWS Grade Four teacher Sykie Toles’ class performed the play, as part of the 25th anniversary celebration..
“Her class performed the play on the second night. That was really a beautiful collaboration,” Angela said.
The second night of the camp also featured a bonfire and salmon feast.
“We tell the story of Salmon Boy before the feast,” Angela added. “The elders honor parents who helped put the event on, with a native blanket. We dance the blanket around the fire and wrap the parents in the blanket as a gift to each one of them. They get to keep the blanket.”
Another event, in the Coast Salish tradition, is to call up three witnesses—parent volunteers who went above and beyond in giving of their time. They were honored by being wrapped in a blanket as well..
“We say their responsibility is to go back their communities and tell them about the things they learned at the CSCS,” Angela explained. “They were in tears.”
The Coast Salish Cultural Sharing event is evolving into something that is run by Coast Salish people, who share their culture with the students and their parents.
“I’m really proud of how it’s changed over the years and is now coming from Coast Salish people’s traditions,” Angela said. “In a way I’m midwifing what they are trying to bring into the world. It is so filled with amazing spirit. We get parents saying this is life changing. The biggest difference over the years has gone from craft making and talking about a group to living with elders who keep their traditions alive. The children can see that native people are still alive today. They hold regular jobs like everyone else, but they are still warriors for Mother Earth and the environment. They’re still doing the work. That’s very moving. Even without their owning the land, we’re still fighting for the rights of the Earth that benefits everyone.”
To learn more, visit the Whidbey Island Waldorf School website.