The Spokane Alliance is offering institutional members like INUUC the opportunity for its community to deepen its knowledge and skills, so that it can be better partners to BIPOC communities in our region.

In November, the Alliance will host our first local Wrestling with the Truth of Colonization training. The first five sessions of the training will be Tuesday and Thursday evenings (November 14, 16, 28, 30, and December 5) from 6–8 p.m. PST via Zoom. It will then be followed by three in-person local sessions focused on the history of local tribes, the work of Indigenous organizations, and opportunities for partnership. You can read more about it and register at https://www.spokanealliance.org/events.

Seven INUUC members have taken the training from our sister affiliates. Here is what Bob Stilger said about the training:

“As a Cherokee man, raised in dominant culture, it made it possible for me to wrestle with the complications of being both while being neither. My anger at what Andrew Jackson and white supremacist culture did to my ancestors on the Trail of Tears and afterwards rose like a dragon inside me. It was a good opportunity to face some of my own internal turmoil heart-on.”

A team of leaders from across the Alliance has been working for almost two years to bring this training to Spokane, as part of our effort to take meaningful action with Indigenous organizations on issues of concern to us all, from a place of right relations. Our goal is to engage a critical mass of Spokane Alliance members in understanding the truth and ongoing impacts of colonization, building right relationship with indigenous people and communities, and identifying collective action for the common good. Mary Lou Johnson, johnson-ml@comcast.net