Community members gathered in Friendship Square Monday to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a celebration in its second year.
The Moscow City Council voted last October to recognize the day in lieu of Columbus Day.
Becky Tallent, University of Idaho journalism professor, helped plan the event.
Tallent, of Cherokee heritage, said she wanted people to leave with a better understanding and appreciation of Native culture.
“This event allows people to talk with a Native and see that we are still here,” said Tallent, who also serves as vice chair of the Moscow Human Rights Commission — the event sponsor.
She said she hopes Moscow residents learn why Natives are proud of their heritage and the importance their stories have.
This sentiment was echoed by Ken Faunce, chair of the commission, who hopes the event continues each year.
“Here in the Palouse, and here in Moscow, we are standing on traditional Native land, and we think it is important that people know that,” Faunce said.
The celebration at Friendship Square saw a few storytellers deliver three unique stories. Each was from a different, local tribe.
The first was a Nez Perce, Jeanette Matuska, who told heart of the monster, an ancient legend that tells of the origins of the tribe.
The story goes that Coyote, in his quest to free the people from the belly of a great monster, tricked it into swallowing him.
Once inside, Coyote cut the monster’s heart from his body, killing the great creature, Matuska said.
From this heart, Coyote made the tribe, Matuska said. The heart can still be seen to this day outside of the Nez Perce National Historic Park.
The second storyteller, Barry Moses, was from the Spokane tribe. Instead of telling a traditional story, Moses told a personal one.
He recounted that he had a dream about sarvisberry, a plant local to the area.
Moses told his aunt about the dream and she told him where he could find a bush of it.
As time went on and spring came, the sarvisberry bushes began to flower, he said. It was at this point that Moses realized the special plant he dreamed of was all over his land.
He said that this taught him to respect the land and the life that grows from it.
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Hunter Diehl can be reached at [email protected]