Our Programs
At Salish School of Spokane (SSOS), we believe that efforts to improve the lives of Salish and other Native American people in Spokane will be most successful with they begin with the preservation and revitalization of traditional language and culture.
Our culture, language, and kinship systems are the key to our success and health as individuals and as a community. Through a century and a half of genocide, colonization, discrimination, and struggle for survival and self-determination, we have managed to hold on our identity, culture, and our language. But our survival and cultural struggle has come at a great cost to our people. We carry a burden of intergenerational trauma stemming from colonization, racial discrimination, and the policy of removing children from Native homes for placement in boarding schools and foster homes.
Our community-based long-term goals are informed by our all-Native board of directors, our leadership team, focus groups, and surveys of our parents and community members.
Our goals focus on restarting inter-generational use and transmission of Salish language and culture by:
creating and sustaining an immersion school that is staffed by highly qualified teachers;
providing a dynamic language acquisition program for youth, parents and community members;
engaging new learners in cultural immersion with fluent Elders and knowledge keepers;
creating Salish language curriculum materials;
preserving the language and teachings of our Elders; and
working to re-establish Salish cultural norms with Salish-only domains and a Salish urban village with clustered housing and services.
Our initial efforts (2010-2020) focused on deploying a Salish fluency transfer system and launching Salish immersion schooling. Our current efforts are aimed at sustaining our school programming, increasing opportunities for parents and community members to become fluent Salish speakers, and planning for the beginnings of a Salish urban village.
To accomplish our mission, we are carrying out our work to develop and decolonize our community across several programmatic areas, serving children and youth 1 to 14 years old and adults in the community.
The 2024-2025 school year began Sept. 2, 2024, and runs until July 31, 2025.
Salish immersion school
We offer a n̓səl̓̓xčin̓ (Colville Salish) immersion Language Nest class for 1- and 2-year-olds, an ECEAP preschool class for 3- and 4-year-olds, and combined K-2 and 3-5 elementary classes, as well as a combined 6-8 middle-school class.
Our immersion school program teaches all subjects in n̓səl̓xčin̓, and also includes arts and athletic enrichment: cross country, soccer, equestrianism, piano lessons, and powwow drumming and dancing.
Salish immersion school hours run from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.
We offer before- and after-school care for preschool and elementary students from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
We are in session Mondays through Fridays excluding professional development days, holidays, and winter, spring, June, and August breaks.
We offer 195 school days per year.
Evening Salish language and culture classes for parents and community members
Salish School of Spokane offers free Salish language classes for parents and community members from 6:00-8:00 pm, Mondays through Thursdays. All classes are in-person (no Zoom) and meet at SSOS, 4125 N. Maple St., Spokane, WA. Parents are required to complete at least 60 hours of n̓səl̓xčin̓ (Colville Salish) class per year in order for their children to attend Salish School of Spokane. Complimentary child care is provided for parents attending evening language classes, and we serve dinner at 5:30 p.m. before evening classes. For the 2024-25 school year we are offering the following classes, which began Monday, Sept. 16, 2024:
Wednesday evenings
Exploratory Beginning n̓səl̓xčin̓ (Colville Salish). This class is open to all parents and community members, but you must submit an application and be officially enrolled. There are still open seats in this class- apply now!
Monday and Wednesday evenings
Beginning Fluency Track n̓səl̓xčin̓ (Colville Salish). This class meet twice per week from 6:00-8:00 pm and regular attendance and achievement will lead to building n̓səl̓xčin̓ proficiency. To enroll in this class, you must submit an SSOS application. For college credit, you must also enroll and register through SFCC. This class is currently full.
Tuesday and Thursday evenings
Advanced Beginning n̓səl̓xčin̓ (Colville Salish). This class is for advanced beginning students who have mastered the n̓səl̓xčin̓ 1 book and have done some study of the first half of the čaptíkʷɬ 1 book. To enroll in this class, you must submit an SSOS Community Language Program application.
Intermediate n̓səl̓xcin̓ (Colville Salish). This class is for intermediate students who have mastered the n̓səl̓xčin̓ 1 and čaptíkʷɬ 1 books. To enroll in this class, you must submit an SSOS Community Language Program application.
Community members must apply to attend evening language classes. If you have a question about enrollment in these classes, please email info@salishschoolofspokane.org.
School-based intensive Salish language teacher training program
Critically endangered Indigenous language communities, including all Salish language communities, must focus on training new, adult advanced fluent speakers if our languages are to survive, and Salish School of Spokane does just that. Our Salish Language Educator Development (SLED) program trains adults to be advanced fluent speakers of n̓səl̓xčin̓ so they can work as teachers and fluent cultural leaders. SLED trainees begin with an intensive year of Salish immersion instruction of six hours per day and a two-hour-per-day internship in our Salish immersion classrooms.
After the one-year intensive, trainees continue with 90 minutes of Salish immersion training per day while beginning their teaching placements as Associate Salish Immersion Teachers.
Development of Salish language curriculum materials
SSOS has developed a Salish Fluency Transfer System and Curriculum that allows for the timely and predictable training of new advanced fluent speakers of n̓səl̓xčin̓. We use this system to train new fluent teachers, parents and speakers. We have also developed Salish language math, literacy and science materials for our immersion school programs. That said, we have a tremendous unmet need for additional curriculum materials and books in our language. Our curriculum focus is on new n̓səl̓xčin̓ science materials, additional n̓səl̓xčin̓ graded readers, and new social studies materials.
To support general community awareness of Salish language, we also produce the Salish Word of the Day (SWOTD) podcast that is posted to YouTube and Facebook daily when SSOS is in session. SWOTD is also carried by KYRS Radio in Spokane.
Language revitalization training and assistance for other indigenous communities
SSOS trains and empowers other critically endangered Indigenous language communities so that they too can successfully revitalize their languages. We have strong working relationships with Indigenous communities in the Yukon Territory, British Columbia, Washington, Montana, Oregon, California, and Alice Spring, Australia. We gift our Fluency Transfer System to Indigenous community that would like to adapt it for their language and culture, and we provide technical training to assist in the adaptation of our system and on general Indigenous language revitalization strategies. Ultimately, we believe that the long-run success and sustainability of our work with Salish in Spokane is tied to the successful revitalization of all of the Indigenous languages of the Columbian Plateau and surrounding regions. We draw strength and inspiration from each other, and we are working to form a network of mutual support among critically endangered Indigenous language communities.
