Sharing a meal is a universal gesture of community and hospitality. Spokane Community College’s (SCC) Inchelium campus, located two hours north of Spokane on the Colville Reservation, is becoming a focal point for community and hospitality—and sharing delicious fry bread and Indian tacos.
In celebration of Native American Heritage Month in November, the Inchelium campus invited students, faculty, and staff from the entire SCC community to visit the campus, learn about traditional medicine, and share fry bread—a dish common to Tribal communities across North America and made from simple staple ingredients including flour, water, and salt. Fry bread is also the base for Indian tacos, which top or fill the fry bread with an array of sweet or savory ingredients.
“This is the first time we’ve done this fry bread event, but I’d love it to become a regular thing,” said Tami Desautel, a Program Assistant for the college who oversees operations in Inchelium. “With more faculty teaching onsite and better facilities like the popcorn and coffee machines for the lounge, this place is becoming more and more a gathering point for students.”
Students in Inchelium have access to programs ranging from GED preparation and Running Start to degrees including the AAS in Wildlife/Fisheries.
“The Tribes in this region are a major employer for Natural Resources graduates,” said Marilyn Nielson , a Natural Resources instructor who teaches in person in Inchelium one day per week. “Having the Wildlife and Fisheries program hosted here is one way to help local students get qualified for those local jobs with the Tribe.”
Erin Braun is one of Nielson’s students and attends classes at the main SCC campus in Spokane and instructional days in Inchelium. “The program gives students and people around here the opportunity to learn more than just the basics,” Braun said. For her, the program offers the opportunity to stack certifications to achieve her goals. “I have my bachelor’s in vet tech, but I’m doing the Wildlife/Fisheries program to merge the two so I can study wildlife diseases and how they transfer from wildlife to domesticated animals.”
Braun attended the fry bread event with a group of her Wildlife/Fisheries classmates, who had the opportunity to put their studies in a cultural context with a session on tinctures delivered by Spokane Colleges’ Director of Tribal Relations Dr. Naomi Bender. Students learned about the medicinal properties of forageable plants including rosehips and elderberries, and methods used to prepare them as salves, teas, tinctures, and Bear Medicine—a preparation of osha root and other plants used to ease colds and flus.
“This is what we call ‘place-based medicine,’” Dr. Bender told students. “We express our thanks for what we take, and we don’t overharvest—we only take what we need.”
Desautel says that for some students in Inchelium, the campus offers the only realistic option for attending college. “When travelling to Spokane or even Colville isn’t an option, we can make the difference between a student going to school or not going to school.”