7/21/18 Saturday

                Today was the final day of the field class, it went by quicker than I taught it would. This morning I woke up with excitement as I knew that today I would be back home. I was lucky enough to bring my own tent on this trip and so I was the first one out of the group to be packed and ready. Everyone else had to clean their tents to be turned in. Jessica appointed me as the inventory checker; I had to check in all the equipment that was issued by the Heritage students and of the White Swan students. The inventory check worked out quite well and nobody was missing anything, instead, we had extra equipment. As I was doing the inventory check I had to wait for students to get their equipment cleaned out and honestly I just wanted them to hurry up because I wanted to go back home. It is not that I did not like the trip but two weeks straight eating sandwiches for lunch can make you miss the commodities back home.

               On our way back home around 10am, we stooped at Colie dam at the visitor’s center. Jessica tried to get us a tour of the dam but sadly they were all bucked for the morning. The visitors center was not all bad, there were a lot of displays about the equipment that was used to build the dam. My favorite part was building an electric puzzle that was powered by batteries that made a fan spin. It was really cool because everyone around me was also amused to see the puzzle work. After the dam, we stopped at a rest area known as Dry Falls to fill out the final class evaluations. I was talking to a ranger that works there and I was surprised to learn that Dry Falls was the result of an ice age. The view there was incredible. After Dry Falls we stopped at Coulee City to eat some Mc Donald’s. I just want to thank Jessica for paying for everybody’s orders. It was nice to see my classmate’s reactions to eating a hamburger instead of their sandwiches. I saved my sandwich from today and gave it to my dog when I got back home as a souvenir from my trip. When we stooped at the rest area in Selah I have never felt so happy to finally see my desert wasteland valley. We arrived earlier than any other group at heritage because we all managed to finish our vlogs earlier than predicted, we arrived at heritage at 4pm.
           

 

                This field class has truly been an adventure for me; it has given more knowledge about environmental science and culture sharing than I could have imagined. I built new bonds with new people that I had not met before and if it was not for this trip, this would have not been possible. The time and effort that everyone from the faculty put in this trip was incredible especially through the rough times we had. I honestly cannot thank Dr. Jessica Black enough for making all this possible, I will never forget this experience. To me, this opportunity has been life-changing as a college student and as a person. In all honesty, I now have more respect for the different Native Americans reservations that are around my area. I also learned that if I was not a criminal justice major environmental science would have been my major.         

7/20/18 Friday

            Today the Colville reservation took us out on a forestry day and we got to meet three of their workers Rob Millery, Lance, and Clinton. On our way to meet them I noticed just how large the Colville reservation is and how beautiful their forest are with incredible lakes, it is really nice. I was just wondering why of all of the places this reservation could have welcome us they choose to set us up on a barren wasteland. I feel that we were not so welcome here because if they really wanted to demonstrate a good impression on us they would have welcomed us to a better place. But the three gentlemen we met today were just really good people. They showed us around their forest and how they maintain them by taking out running fuels out of the forest, running fuels are the plants and dry wood that can catch on fire really fast. They sure keep their forest really clean because usually there is a lot of weeds and dead trees that one cannot even manage to see inside of it, but the Coleville’s actually clean up their forest and protected from wildfires. I was impressed by how efficient they are with their money and their resources. When they clean up their forest instead of having a hand crew working there for three months they hire a one-man excavator to do the work and it is more efficient for the job and their wallet.

They protect their forest because they are a timber tribe, they live from that natural resource and depend on it. The reservation is the most forested in North West Washington ranging around 3.4 million acres. What was most interesting about this reservation is that they have an open reservation, unlike the Yakamas, where they have their own private roads and locations, Colville hardly has any restrictions when it comes to their tribal lands. During the tour, I was surprised to hear that the Colville’s welcome fire as a form to care for their forest. Clinton the wildland firefighter explained to me that fire is a natural phenomenon that is part of nature, which some areas need to burn. He expresses his concerns for how the government and the people that do not know their tribe's old tradition with fire have a saying in their forest. He states that it is really hard to convince officials to do burning on areas of the forest. I feel like the government has been too controlling with Native Americans from in the past and now. In all the reservation that we have visited on this trip, it seems like the government has affected those tribes the most than any environmental problems.

 

Something new that I learned during the tour was when Rob Milery showed one of his tools known as an increment borer tool. This tool drills inside the trees roughly all the way through it, or as deep as possible. When Rob took the tool out it had collected a sample of the tree, it looked like a small branch with a lot of rings around it. Each of the rings represents a year of age of the tree, Jessica made us guess how hold we the tree Caleb drilled was. I guess 55 years old but it turns out that tree was 95 years old. During the presentation of the tool, Mr. Clinton fell off a log that he was sitting on that was about 4 feet high. I felt bad for him but I saw it all, especially how he landed, it was just funny because lately everyone has been tired and serious. It was actually nice to see Mr. Clinton laugh, lately, he has been isolating himself and just looks really down. On our way back to camp the firefighter Clinton cut some firewood for our group and even gave us Gatorade and waters from his truck. Overall this tour was really enjoyable for me, but I would have like things with the Colvilles to start off better than what it did.     

                     

7/19/18 Thursday

             Today I woke up excited because I had a great view of the Upper Columbia River and I there is only two more days to go back home. This morning we had to pack up our things again because we were to move campsites later on the day. Around 8:00am we had the privilege to meet our tour for the day, Lucy Luevaenv. She is a Traditional Culture Preservation Officer that works closely with archeologists. She first took us to the town of Okanogan, but on our way there we stopped on the side of the road and she showed us a great view of the land from the top of a valley. We then proceeded to our destination and after an hour and a half, we arrived at the Omak Stampede stadium. It was great there because there was soft grass and shades compared to our previous campsite from last night. I was disappointed that we did not get a tour of the stadium. But we learned about a hill that leads down the Okanogan River in witch horse raiders raise down a really steep hill. Apparently, the horses that get hurt down the hill from breaking their legs, then they get put down.

            
              After our visit to Okanogan, we went to a museum of Fort Okanogan Museum to learn about the Natives in Colville County. Amanda Hulk was our tour guide for the museum and she was really nice, she let us look at everything and even let us eat our lunch there. To be honest I did not eat my sandwich today because I’m getting tired of them. I just had cookies and some peanuts I had laying around. In the museum, I learned that the Columbia River connects to the Okanogan River and goes to Canada. The museum itself was really interesting because I have never been in a museum before. It was very interesting to see how the Natives Americans lived their lives in the Coleville Reservation. I saw the canoes they used for fishing. I got to feel bear hide without getting eaten by one, so that was a good day for me. It also showed how the industry of fur trading used to be in a reservation. I learned that young women were married off to fur traders for better prices and products towards the tribe.

               Next, we visited a larger museum in the town of Coulee Dam that showed how life was before the installation of the dam and how that impacted the local Natives long after. We met Frank Andrews who was in charge of running the museum. In all honesty, I was expecting an informative tour from Frank, but he hardly talked to us. During my time with the Spokane tribe, Warren Seyler showed a video of this issue with the dam. Getting to see that dam up close was really cool, even if we just pass through. In my opinion, the museum demonstrated the might of the Colville river people. The dam itself caused the relocation of many Native Americans that depended on the provisions that the river provided. With those communities gone also came the relocations of cemeteries. This museum also showed more artifacts of the fishing life before the dam, it showed fishing spears, fish traps, nets, fishing arrows. Talking about arrows I was surprised at the majority of different types of arrowheads that Natives used to use in hunting. It is like a modern day gun where there are different guns for different animals and purposes. They had tiny arrowheads from spear like heads, I guess some arrowheads were used for different animals and each had their own damage effects for the different parts of the Animals.

              After the museum, we visited The Confederated Tribes of The Colville Reservation a government agency. It was another service center for the Colville reservation that provides aid and other range of resources. It is also where the Archeologist that work in the reservation is located. We met Kevin Donald who is an archeologist who works for the history and archeology department. This man had so much education he went to Oregon state university, he went to Duke University and obtained his BA, Ph.D. and was even a college professor for a decade. From Kevin I learned that they are responsible for protecting archeological sites, they even have a dedicated fire division for these sites. He gave a really good advice about careers that I never thought about. He said to not look for money in a career or how cool it sounds like, but to think about the long run in life and find somewhere where you are not taken for granted and appreciated.  At the end of the day, we finally moved campsites to Keller Lake. It is actually really beautiful but a bit crowded. Other than that I got a lakeside view from my tent so I cannot really complain. Being the last campsite that we will be on, Deschutes National Forest is still by far my favorite campsite. 

7/18/18 Wednesday

              Sadly, today we departed the Spokane Tribe Reservation Powwow grounds. I woke up earlier around 5:30am to pack all my clothes and pick up my tent. But as I was picking up, I heard screams from people and it turns out that buster the dog from the fairgrounds got beat up by three other wild dogs. When I went over construction workers and the other people from the religious group were standing around buster. I felt really sad because he had been such a good pet host and he could not even get back up, and if he did he was limping. Later that morning breakfast was made, we had huckleberry pancakes. I really enjoy when we leave the campsites because we always end up cooking good breakfast other than cereal and beagles. After breakfast, I finished my blogs with the help of Omar because my computer was not working that day. So Omar let me borrow his laptop to upload my blogs, “thanks, Omar.” Around noon Warren Seyler arrived to pick up one of my group members belongings because she had to depart from the trip due to an urgent personal problem. I was glad that we were allowed to write a farewell letter because she was a great person. Around 2:00 pm we departed camp to the Colville’s reservation. I was actually sad to have to leave the hospitality of Warren Seyler and his tribe, from the bottom of my heart, I will never forget those days we were there.

              The trip to the Colville reservation took around three hours long. On the way there I fell asleep a couple of times. When we arrived there it was extremely hot and to make matters worse the camping spot that we were assigned to was literally in the desert. When we got there no one wanted to set up their tents because there was no shade in sight. It was also pretty windy and as a result, some of the tents from camp kept flying away. I mean it was nice that we had running water for the RV and there were bathrooms with showers. But it was not all bad because we were camped right in the side of the upper Columbia River. Everyone hated this campsite, but in secret I actually liked it. When it was night time I took a shower and there was a nice breeze from the river. Because my tent has windows and another door in the back, I had a great view of the night starts and the river and the breeze felt really good and all this in the privacy of my tent. I looked at the constellations of the starts for a while and counted airplanes in the night sky. Honestly, that has got to be one of the best nights of sleep that I have had on this trip.

7/17/18 Tuesday

             So, I'm happy to report that my wasp's stings feel better this morning. That being said today I woke up at 4:30 because we were supposed to wake up at 5am in order to be ready to leave at 6:40. But to my surprise, I was the only one up at 5am. To my surprise everybody ended up waking up at 6:30am, I guess I did not get the memo of the schedule change. We started off of day by traveling to the Camas wellness center located on the Kalispel Tribe reservation. That wellness center was really nice, it had a clinic and dental facilities, gym, pools, game room, basketball courts, and much more. There we met our tour guide for the day Ray Antz the director of wildlife and terrestrial resources for the Kalispel tribe. He then took us to the Kalispel tribal fish hatchery.  There we met Jason fish program manager at the hatchery. I was surprised at the operation that they are running because it really doesn't seem like much from the outside, it just looks like a barn with sheds. Inside they had four large water tanks with different types of fishes from, cutthroat trout, volt trout, and triplet rainbow trouts. They catch fish and release it into the Spokane River. They also killed around 90% of northern pike which has been a problem for some time because they eat smaller fishes. It is pretty amazing how they managed to pull that off, they managed to pinpoint where they would spawn and heavy net them. 

After that, we met an archeologist for the Kalispel tribe who took us to visit some old caverns that were once underwater and used by ancient natives as refuge once the sea level dropped. We had to do a brief hike to get to the caverns and when we got there it was like going back in time. The archeologist explained how the big main cavern was used by the religion as a monastery for a while. He stated that it also had some sort of divine presence. The caverns were really interesting to me because I could see formations of rocks that were once underwater.  To think that once the river level was that high is just astonishing. I also liked it when the archeologist told a story of how a boulder collapse on a native lady that was trying to seek refuge. It killed the lady and their family members could not lift the boulder off of her so they made it her grave. Till this day it is still there marked with sacred symbols to symbolize her passing. Another interesting part was when the archeologist took us across the river in order for him to show us some native grasses. But when we were there he told a really cool story about how the mosquitoes spawned there. He said that there was a vengeful shaman who demanded blood every week to drink from villagers. If you would not give him blood in form of payment then he would kill you. So each villager would bring out their bucket of fresh blood and so the shaman was called mosquito. But one day when the mosquito was done drinking his blood he had a big tummy hanging down almost to his knees. So the villagers decided to let his canoe free and told mosquito to go get it so as he dived in the water the villagers stopped a pine tree and needles felt into the water and as his stomach touched the spikes in the water it sliced open his stomach releasing mosquitoes everywhere.  

 

After that we had lunch at 12pm at a powwow ground, I have never seen such a structure in a building like that. It was really cool looking almost like a sort of arena but for a dancing pow wow. Then next to the powwow grounds there was a herd of buffaloes that belong to the Kalispel tribe. There was a total of 140 buffaloes. It was funny because everyone was amazed but I know a rancher that owns buffalo in the Yakima Valley, so to me, that was not that exciting. Then we continued our tour to visit the Indian Creek, Community Forest. This location is being remodeled for hosting youth camps of all ages. It is really cool how the Native Americans are opening these types of camps for students to learn more about their cultures and native lands. After the youth camp, we visited an upcoming language school to learn salesh. I thought that was very funny and enjoyable. I learn to say suwawesh meaning fish in their language.  

In the evening we returned to camas wellness center to spend some free time there. I ended up playing in the game room. I played air hockey with Caleb for a while. After that, I tried to play ping pong but miserably failed at it. But then I discovered a new love for a new hobby, playing at the pool table. It was my first time playing pool with Pedro, Pablo, Amelia, and Mr. Clinton. After that, at 6pm warren made dinner for us at the powwow grounds. They gave out fried bread and it is similar to a Mexican dish known as a sope. On top, I put on beans, meat, cheese, lettuce, and hot sauce. I have to say that has been the best food that I have had on this trip. Again I just cannot thank Warren Sailor enough for what he is doing for us.   

1/16/18 Monday

Today morning Warren Sailor came to the camp to take us to the Spokane tribe fire department. When we arrived there we were introduced to George, the coolest 67-year-old man that I have had the pleasure of meeting. I could tell George loved his job right away because he showed such determination when teaching us about the trees on the reservation. I have been a wildland firefighter and passing a pack test where you have to carry a forty-five-pound vest on you and completing a three miles speed walk under fourteen min is extremely difficult.  To have pass such physically demanding test in my world that makes him a testament of time, proving that age is no excuse to keep fighting for one's dreams. He took us on several tours of various locations in the reservation in order for him to demonstrate to us how the tribe is managing their forest. What was most fascinating to me was how he opened up a pine cone from a pine tree in half and there were seeds inside of it. I always taught that the pine cones were the seeds of the trees, not that they carry even more seeds inside them. Which that takes me back to Warren, in where he gave us the best piece of advice in life. He stated that older people must learn to take orders from younger people in order for a successful work environment. Just because one is old it does not mean that they know everything. To me, that piece of advice will follow me forever because he is right. Especially on this trip were adults must work together with teenagers.   

Later on the day, we meet two crew members of the fishery tribe that took us shock fishing. Brian Casey was the name of the leader of my group.  In my opinion, I did not really like this activity because I taught we were gonna be catching huge fishes but it was only fishes of the size of my pinky finger. We were supposed to look for red trout but only end up getting day shade fishes. To make matters worse the creek was dried due to hot temperatures and as a result, there was no current passing through the creek to support large fishes. It was not that amusing fighting over one little fish with the nets. Then the worst part of this trip happens to me. I and my group were going upstream of the creek and we stumble upon a wasp nest. I was the first to get stung on my nose out of the whole group. At first, I thought they were just flies but when I saw Pablo getting bit, Brian yelled: “ok boys time to get out of here.” When he yield that out, everybody started to scream and panicking and I dropped my net because they were only attacking me and Pablo the most. What was most frustrating was that in order to get back to the trail we had to go downstream and there was a 4ft log blocking the way.  As I ran I could feel the wasps stinging by back and hip, so I just jumped the log without thinking if I was even going to land that jump. I landed on my back and on top of some large boulders and the fall did not even hurt I was scared and just wanted to get away from the wasps. Jake up was on the other side of the log and he helped me get up. I then ran back through the trail but they were still chasing me, I could hear the humming. But as I was running I my shirt got stuck on hawthorn bush and it had spikes everywhere. As I tried to free myself I could feel them stinging me on the back of my head repeatedly. When I managed to get myself freed I just ran as fast as I could towards the trucks. When we got there they gave us medicine to counter the effects of the wasps. I counted nine stings on me from the wasps and it hurt even more when I was at camp. Overall, based on this experience things cannot get worse right?

 
  

Later that night at 8pm Warren came to the camp to take us to a pit house as his people call it. This was one of the most fascinating structures that I have ever seen in my life as this pit house was an underground home. When I saw the outside of the hose it straight up reminded me of something from the movie Lord of The Rings. The inside of the house was even more fascinating because it just felt so comfortable. I think Warren was right he stated that the pit house has a spiritual feeling of peace and tranquility. When I sat down it felt like church for me and I felt obligated to show my respects for the pit house. Warren took us there in order to alleviate the tensions within our group by talking about the bad things that weight on us on a personal level or emotional. Some of my group partners shared their personal problems with the group. Out of respect for Warren’s request what is said on the pit house stays on the pit house. So I will not go into detail, but I can say that I have never experienced such an intense moment. There were tears and moments of love, honestly, I would have never thought that Warren was going to do that for my group. It just really shows that Warren is a great man with a huge heart that cares about his land and his people but most of all he cares about the well-being of everyone. In today's days you hardly meet or come across good people like him, nowadays the majority of people only care for themselves. I feel really fortunate to keep meeting great people throughout this trip.