Miss Colville Tribes

The Colville Tribes have reason to be proud of Michelle Stanger.

Michelle just returned from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she competed along with 26 other Indian national representatives for national honors and the opportunity to represent Indian tribes, teaching diversity, throughout the world.

Michelle was selected as Miss Colville Confederated Tribes last July and has been representing the 12 tribes since then.

She won local recognition through competition on the reservation.

Michelle and her mother Lucy drove to New Mexico in late April, where the national competition was held.

It took three days of driving, through Salt Lake City, Denver, Four Corners, and Santa Fe, to get to the competition.

Thousands turned out, making it the largest powwow in the nation. Scores of tribes from the United States and Canada were present, while only 27 tribes had representatives in the competition.

It was the 40th such gathering.

Competition included native costumes, food, dance, and horse events. The competition was for tribal young people from 18-25 years old.

Michelle, a 2022 graduate of Lake Roosevelt High School, is one of many young people who have indicated they are going to have an influence in society for years to come.

Two other locals have distinguished themselves here in our coulee communities.

Merle and Jerry Kennedy are well known here. Merle in real estate and Jerry in insurance.

It appears that the brothers plan to taper off duties in their Grand Coulee businesses, with the sale of their properties.

I first met Merle when we stopped here to see friends we made when we lived here in the mid-1950s. We didn’t intend to go house shopping, but I intended to retire early and on a whim engaged Merle to show us around.

Since we had enjoyed living here some 40 years earlier, we ended up making an offer on a house in Electric City.

Through the years I have called on Merle to assist me on matters dealing with real estate, and he has always graciously helped.

One of the first things I had to do was get insurance for various needs. That’s where Jerry came to the rescue. 

I remember on one occasion I was shopping around checking on my policy with another company. Jerry, while selling that kind of coverage, advised me to stay with the company I was with.

That’s the kind of people the Kennedys are.

I can’t think of two people that have done more for our communities than the Kennedy brothers.