Spokane Salish school plans community center
As part of a broader effort to preserve Salish languages, some Indigenous community leaders in Spokane are planning to build a cultural community center.
This week, Spokane’s city council awarded the Salish School of Spokane a grant that will be invested toward the school’s capital campaign for the center.
Christopher Parkin, the school’s principal, told SPR News the non-Indigenous community has been supportive of their efforts so far. He said the organization’s eventual goal is to weave more Salish culture and language awareness into the day-to-day life of the Inland Northwest.
“Virtually everyone living in the mainland or in Hawaii knows that there's a Hawaiian people, a Hawaiian culture, a Hawaiian language. And almost all people know a Hawaiian word,” Parkin said. “And that's our vision for Spokane, that our traditional Salish language and culture can just assume a normal and beautiful place in our civic life, in our cultural life, in the city.”
Parkin said the site would be a place to host powwows and where anyone can come to learn and engage with Salish culture.
Right now, he said the school's location just doesn't offer enough space.
“Our current facilities — we're just jammed in there. We use every square inch," Parkin said. "There's very little space to do the kind of work that is desperately needed to bring back our languages and preserve these traditional cultures that have been carried forward into the present day by our elders and ancestors.”
If the group’s fundraising goal is met, the community center would be built along the Spokane River, bordering the Three Island Conservation Park, on land formerly owned by the Sisters of the Holy Names.
Bribery accusations fly on both sides in I-2117 campaign
The group behind a Washington ballot initiative to overturn the state’s Climate Commitment Act has filed a complaint with the Public Disclosure Commission, accusing the Inslee Administration of bribery.
Let’s Go Washington alleged that the Department of Commerce used the Climate Commitment Act bill credit program, which provides rebate checks to voters through their public utilities, to bribe voters.
They pointed to an email from a DOC official saying the public utilities must send checks to voters before voting begins on the initiative.
This comes after an opposing group called “Defend Washington” filed a complaint earlier this month against LGW, accusing them of violating anti-corruption laws by attempting to sway voters with discounted food and gas at their rallies.
Fed grants aimed at improving early childhood programs in Indigenous communities
Nearly $16 million in federal grant money will help the state of Washington and two tribal groups strengthen learning programs for children.
Eight million dollars will go to the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF). The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation will get $4.4 million for its Head Start program and parental, cultural and traditional curriculum programs. And a $3.5 million grant for the Lummi Indian Business Council will help pay for early learning programs, which includes Head Start and development programs for teen parents and their children.
“With these grants, our state and Tribes will be able to provide more families with access to early childhood education, wellness and health programs, and child care,” U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said in a statement. “It’s good news but there’s a lot more we need to do.”
The funding, announced by Murray’s office this week, comes from pools of grant money included the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Head Start grants for Indigenous communities.
UW researchers create light source that mimics sunrise and sunset
For several years, the blue light produced by televisions, computer monitors, cell phones and tablets has been blamed for poor sleep quality.
But newly-published research from the University of Washington suggests the light receptors in the human eye that detect color aren’t that bothered by blue light.
“A lot of people kind of jumped on this idea that there's a photopigment that's most sensitive to blue, and that's going to interrupt our sleep, but it turns out that it's really not very sensitive,” UW vision scientist Jay Neitz told SPR News. “And so a lot of these claims that the blue light is going to disrupt your sleep turn out to be not true.”
Neitz and his colleagues exposed a small study group to different wavelengths of light. They found that shades of orange and blue appear to help regulate sleep-and-wake cycles effectively. Those wavelengths mimic the colors of sunrise and sunset, triggering certain brain cells that play a role in regulating the production of melatonin, the body’s chemical cue that it’s time to go to sleep or wake up.
The study influenced the creation of a LED light that produces the orange and blue hues considered most effective for helping regulate melatonin. The light, which is commercially available from a Chicago-based company called TUO, flickers back-and-forth between the orange and blue shades so quickly that the human eye can’t perceive the difference. To a user, it looks like a soft white light.
After two hours of exposure to the two-tone light, the participants in the UW study felt sleepy up to an hour and 20 minutes earlier than usual.
Neitz, who himself suffers from occasional sleep difficulties, said the discovery feels good.
“I have a lot of empathy for all the other people that have this same kind of problem,” Neitz said. “So to be able to do something that is at least part of the solution to this very serious problem is just a very satisfying thing.”
The study was published in the peer-reviewed publication Journal of Biological Rhythms.
Pop-up bar concept seeks to fill gap in Spokane nightlife
After a few months of darkness, the downtown bar Servante is back with a twist on traditional nightlife in Spokane.
The venue hosted a Candyland-themed pop-up bar in April and now has permits to start hosting events with ever-changing themes, decor and experiences for customers.
Co-owner Kris Kilduff told SPR News it will bring a growing nightlife trend to Spokane.
“If you're trying to just go out and have a drink or eat a bite, you can throw a rock and hit a spot that does that. So what you're seeing, especially in bigger cities, and I think you're going to see more in Spokane, is places really trying to change for the experiential side,” Kilduff said.
Kilduff said they want the interior to evolve for new events every month from now on, working with local artists and crafters to change the bar to match their themes, which could range from Stephen King to "The Wizard of Oz."
“It allows us to be a little flexible, create kind of cool ideas, cool concepts around maybe what the people already want to see," he said. "And having that fluidity, I think, is just exciting for people that want to go out and do that kind of stuff.”
This weekend’s event is a blacklight, 1980s-themed arcade bar, which runs from Thursday Sept. 26 through Saturday Sept. 28.
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Reporting was contributed by Owen Henderson and Brandon Hollingsworth.
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Editor's note: A previous version of the story "Spokane Salish School plans community center" incorrectly identified the future location of the center as Moran Prairie. If built, the center would be located near the Three Mile Conservation Area. We regret the error.