History revisited at Q’emiln event

Visitors to Q’emiln Riverside Park on Wednesday will feel they’re stepping back in time.

That’s when the Post Falls Historical Society and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe will team up for the sixth annual living-history day, Q’emiln Quest.

The event, geared toward Post Falls area fourth-graders but open to the public, will delve into the region’s tribal and white settler history. It will feature performances by the Lightning Spirit Drummers and Singers and presentations by Coeur d’Alene tribal linguist Raymond Brinkman and tribal outreach specialist Mark Stanger.

“The oldest history of the area is Coeur d’Alene tribal history,” said the historical society’s Kim Brown. “We like to simulate oral traditions because that’s how history was passed down.”

Brown said she expects as many as 500 fourth-graders from Post Falls public and private schools to attend.

“The best way to keep history alive is by sharing it with our children,” she said. “We’re hoping to give them a sense of the land that they may not have experienced before.”

While the attendees will learn how Frederick Post arrived in the area in 1871 and established a lumber mill on the Spokane River, the program also will go further back in time, Brown said.

Students and other visitors will learn that the Coeur d’Alenes had a settlement near the river – likely not far from the park location – called Q’emiln, she said.

Stanger, whose tribal name Many Tracks is translated from KA TEN HOY TEN, said the Q’emiln area was located along major travel routes, both east-west and north-south. The Coeur d’Alene band that settled there became known as traders.

“People went up and down the river and did a lot of trading for food and blankets and shelter,” Stanger said. “Between Cataldo and that area was a big trading area for the Indians.”

Stanger’s expertise is in fish and wildlife and natural resources. He said he hopes to encourage the audience to become stewards of the land.

“Some of stuff that I talk about is environmental education, taking care of what we have today, taking care of the lake and rivers,” he said. “Just basic stuff that we can do (to) make sure we’re not putting pollutants in or damaging the lake.”

Stanger also hopes to give local students access to information they may not have heard before. Too often, he says, students learn about white American history. When textbooks delve into Indian history, it usually is about the tribes to the south – Navajo, Apache or Comanche.

“For us, this is a good time to teach the children,” Stanger said. “Our children are our future.”

The Quest program is supported by the Idaho Humanities Council and the Post Falls School District. But the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s involvement is key, Brown said.

“The Coeur d’Alenes have been very supportive of us, sharing their history,” Brown said. “We couldn’t do it without them, and we are very appreciative of that. We can’t tell their story the way they can.

“It’s a history gift from one generation to another and a gift from one people to another.”