KETTLE FALLS – Sisters Lynda Miller and Lynette Young, 79 and 74, respectively, have spent the summer protesting and covering their yard with signs — a visible expression of their outrage toward the President Donald Trump's administration.
Though no one in their community has joined them, the sisters say they refuse to stay silent.
“We drove all the way from Northport for this,” Miller said.
Multiple No Kings Day rallies took place throughout the day in Stevens County. According to Mathew Johansen, the chair for the Colville branch of Indivisible, there were 160 attendees in Chewelah, 291 in Colville and 140 in Kettle Falls.
Donna and George Matter, Kettle Falls residents of Kettle Falls, attended the rally in their town early Saturday afternoon. The Matters expressed dissatisfaction with Trump, criticizing the president's control and advocating for a return to democracy and the Constitution.
Donna Matter said she’s concerned about the fear and trauma affecting children and society, particularly in larger cities like Chicago, where her son currently lives.
She said her son has witnessed violent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids targeting Latinos, many of whom work alongside him at a restaurant.
“The people that worked there were afraid, so his wife pulled up the car and they drove everybody home,” Donna Miller said.
Gwen Fellows, 25, a resident of Kettle Falls, said that at first she liked the idea of Donald Trump running for office back in 2015, believing he would listen to rural communities. But it didn’t take long for her to change her mind.
Fellows said Trump’s policies have hurt American citizens and given ICE permission to act without humanity. After earning her law degree from the University of Wyoming this spring, she decided it was time to speak up — and had a message for Trump she wanted to make clear.
“Stop the shutdown. Release the files,” Fellows said, referring to the federal investigation into financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
