Native American culture Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Co-founders of a new Native American music festival prioritize education, creativity, and relationship

By Anjuli Dodhia October 23, 2024

NWPB's Anjuli Dodhia spoke to WSU professors, Drs. Melissa Parkhurst and Jacqueline Wilson (Yakima), about their upcoming Olsen Festival of native American Music. With Artist-in-Residence Connor Chee, the festival will be hosted on the WSU Pullman campus, November 12-23, 2024. Read More

Native artist, who went blind at 55, gives free talks on resilience

By Susan Shain October 21, 2024

John Halliday, a speaker and artist, is giving talks about Native American resilience across Washington state. (Courtesy of John Halliday) Listen (Runtime 1:00) Read In the coming weeks, artist John […]Read More

Pendleton Round-Up crowns first Native queen in 71 years

By Susan Shain September 12, 2024

A woman wearing a flowered cowboy hat rides a dark brown horse around an arena. She waves to the crowd.

Kayla Fossek, the Pendleton Round-Up Queen, makes her grand entrance. (Credit: Travis Snell / Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation) Listen (Runtime 1:06) Read When Kayla Fossek walks through […]Read More

Winter solstice is also ‘Indian New Year’ in the Northwest

By Anna King December 22, 2023

Cloe McMichael, 22, sets the table in the longhouse in Mission, Ore. ahead of the annual Indian New Year ceremony, which is celebrated on the Winter Solstice. The feast is […]Read More

Paddle to Muckleshoot: An epic canoe journey returns

By Lauren Gallup October 6, 2023

A canoe family paddles onto shore at Alki Beach Sunday, July 30. // CREDIT: Tracci Dial, NWPB

There was a breeze, clouds and humidity in the air in West Seattle that hadn’t been there for days on the morning of July 30, as visitors to Alki Beach found seats or meandered down to the shore, waiting. A little after 11 a.m., as the sun began to break through the gray, the tip of a canoe and its passengers’ paddles could just be seen cutting across the water, the Read More

Para las tribus, la bienvenida del salmón al Alto Columbia es un recordatorio del ‘trabajo de toda una vida’

By Courtney Flatt June 30, 2023

imagen de un hombre cocinando salmón a la parrilla

El sol apenas comenzaba a salir sobre el río Columbia en Bridgeport, Washington, cuando un pescador Colville capturó el primer salmón de la temporada.Read More

For tribes, welcoming salmon to the Upper Columbia is a reminder of ‘lifelong work’

By Courtney Flatt June 5, 2023

A man in a blue plaid shirt, black apron and white fedora holds a green bottle of olive oil above six pink filets of salmon. The filets are sitting on a white plastic table. A crowd of people stands behind him looking at a blue river.

Ira Stevenson preps salmon filets for the salmon bake after a First Salmon ceremony at Chief Joseph dam in north central Washington. (Credit: Courtney Flatt.) Listen (Runtime 4:04) Read The […]Read More

Native American Heritage Month — In their own words: Rachel Heaton

By Lauren Gallup November 18, 2022

Rachel Heaton holds up the Muckleshoot Tribe flag on top of Mount Rainier. Photo courtesy of Heaton.

For over 30 years, Native American Heritage Month has been federally-recognized. Northwest Public Broadcasting reporters are interviewing Indigenous people from throughout the region to learn what they think about the month and what they want people to understand about their culture and who they are. Lauren Gallup spoke with Rachel Heaton, co-founder of Mazaska Talks, an Read More