Tribal museum now open

The Colville Tribal Museum opened for the season last week, and they've already had visitors from multiple states stop in to learn local history and culture from the Tribes' History/Archeology Department.

This year, staff have installed new exhibits you have probably not seen before - even if you are local. These exhibits include twined basket work by Omak mixed-media artist and tribal member Joe Feddersen, an old dendroglyph on a San Poil ponderosa pine, and a section dedicated to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people, where visitors can leave a prayer if they wish. 

"We help people understand about our culture, and so we can understand about theirs," said museum supervisor KeAnna Cawston, on the museum's opening day May 29. "[I'm] still learning a lot. There's always something to learn here." 

The museum's regular exhibits showcase aspects of daily life from contemporary to older times, with examples of the techniques and materials of the day (whether dipnets and spears, or a metal tackle box) and photographic images going back over the last 100-plus years. You'll see colorful beaded picture bags from the 1890s, sticks and bones used in stick games, and photographs and documents from the "termination era" of the 1950s to '70s, a policy debate that divided tribal membership, impacted elections and put the Colville Tribes in the national news.

It's significant to have a dedicated point of contact between the Colville Tribes and local residents who are non-members, Cawston says. 

"We always want everyone to come in," she said. "We want not only tribal members, but people of the town, because we all learn from each other. And so it's fun to see how families are connected. This place is constantly - we're constantly learning."

The majority of the museum's 1,500 to 2,000 annual visitors are from out of the area - other states, other parts of Washington, sometimes other countries. There's a tour group that brings Finnish farmers to the museum every year, for example, who come to learn about Native American cultures and the impacts of reservations.

This will be the final year to see the Nespelem: Home and Community exhibit.

"We do try to change the temporary exhibits every few years, and do something new," Cawston said. "It's fun working here because it's actually really fun to talk to people. I talk to so many different people throughout the summer, from so many different cultures." 

It may be fun, but it's work with a mission.

"Of course, our first thing is to teach people. That's why we have a museum," Cawston said. "The second part is: Now we are the caretakers of all of these artifacts. And we really take that very serious."

The tribe's Fort Okanogan Interpretive Center, between Bridgeport and Brewster, has also opened for the season. Both museums have the same days and hours: Wednesdays to Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., from now through late September. 

The dendroglyph, or picture tree, shows a human figure carved into a ponderosa pine trunk. It was one of at least six picture trees in the SanPoil area, thought to be from the 1800s. The item was installed just two days before the museum's opening day, May 29.

If You Go

Colville Tribal Museum and Gift Shop

512 Mead Way, Coulee Dam, WA

Phone: (509) 633-0751

Email: ctmuseum@colvilletribes.com

Days and Hours: 

Wednesday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

Cost: Free (donations accepted)

Fort Okanogan

Interpretive Center

14379 State Route 17, Brewster, WA

Phone: (509) 631-2130

Email: fortokanogan@communitynet.org 

Days and Hours:

Wednesday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

Cost: Free (donations accepted)