SpokaneFāVS
Gonzaga’s Director of Native American Studies and Assistant Professor of History Laurie Arnold will give the 2015 History Department Art and Craft of History Lecture on April 8. Her lecture is entitled “Mythbusting! Native American History and Contemporary Issues.”
Arnold, a member of the Colville Tribe, will discuss the Columbia Plateau Tribes’ experiences with new immigrants to the Plateau in the 1800s and cultural continuities present in the tr
aditions practiced today. One such continuity is the tradition of the bands and villages of the Columbia Plateau gathering together for winter to tell coyote stories and lessons about Plateau values and spiritualties, according to a press release.
Today the Plateau descendants have renewed their study and use of tribal languages that offer cultural connections to their ancestors. Arnold will touch on the cultural connection to the past and put it into a greater context for understanding the Plateau Tribes’ commitment to this region, from protecting the rivers to developing local economies, according to the release.
The event is free and open to the public.
Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Washington. She is the executive director of SpokaneFāVS.com, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. She also writes for The Spokesman-Review and national publications. She is a Scholarly Assistant Professor of Journalism at Washington State University.
