Travel

Fort Spokane, a mixed legacy

 

The stables is one of the few remaining buildings from the old military fort dating from 1880.
The powder magazine and stable are captured in the morning light at Fort Spokane.

This month I visited Fort Spokane, a former U.S. military base that is located where the Columbia and Spokane rivers join. Today those waters are dammed in what is now the Lake Roosevelt National Scenic Area. The fort was built in 1880 to keep “the peace” between white settlers and Indian residents on the Colville Reservation. (Click on each photo to see larger pictures on separate picture pages.)

The National Park Service notes, “In many ways, the Indian experience at Fort Spokane is a microcosm of the Indian experience across the United States.” In 1900 the fort become an Indian boarding school, one of the most controversial legacies of the treatment of American Indians. Children were forcibly moved here from their families from the Colville and Spokane reservations, leading to major protests by Indian leaders, including Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce. The school was then closed in 1908.  (See the display from the visitor center below.)

Click on the picture of a display at the Fort Spokane Visitors Center entrance to read the description about the Indian boarding school controversy surrounding the boarding of more than 200 American Indian children here at the start of the 20th century.

Spokane Historical, published by Eastern Washington University, describes this controversial era, which was followed by having the fort become a tuberculosis sanitarium after 1909: “The idea behind Indian Boarding Schools was that the children would benefit from learning skills that would help them integrate into the white population. It was the general consensus among the white government agencies, at the time that this was far superior to the education that they would have received at home. As Capt. Richard H. Pratt said on the education of Native Americans, the cruel philosophy was, ‘Kill the Indian, and Save the Man.'”

After much of the fort was removed prior to 1930, a few remaining buildings were saved, such as those captured in my photographs and incorporated into a cultural site to be administered in the area surrounding the newly created reservoir that filled the river canyon after the Columbia River was dammed in Coulee City. I highly recommend anyone traveling to eastern Washington visit to the fort and lake and enjoy the beautiful scenery (I heard coyotes when I camped there). Also take the time to learn about the area’s history. This location truly is a microcosm of the state’s development in the last two centuries.

Colville Confederated Tribes’ pride

 

The Omak Stampede held in August every year is one of the main gatherings of the Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington.
The Colville Reservation covers nearly 1.4 million acres in Washington’s Okanogan and Ferry counties, in the middle of the state.

The Omak Stampede, in Omak, Wash., is both an official rodeo and a gathering of members of the Colville Confederated Tribes, in central Washington. The event takes place the second weekend of August every year. This year I didn’t stay for the event, and instead shot a few pictures of the tepees set up every year new the pow wow performance area. I then took my first drive through the reservation ever, stopping in Nespelem and eventually at the Coulee Dam on the reservation’s border. It was great to finally see this place, as it covers 2,100 square miles and has a key role in the state’s and region’s history.

The rolling hills of the Palouse
I took this photo from Steptoe Butte, which overlooks the Palouse region north of Pullman, Wash. It is wheat harvesting time now in Washington, and farmers are feverishly working in all directions harvesting the valuable crop.

 

Southeast Washington extending into northwest Idaho is home to the region known as the Palouse. Rolling hills that extend for miles in all directions host some of the nation’s most productive farmland. Farmers grow wheat and lentils, and the region hosts the annual and world-famous National Lentil Fest. (Click on the photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

The barns of Lincoln County, Washington
This beautiful barn is located near Fort Spokane, a major spot for history buffs and those wanting to splash in Lake Roosevelt. I love this part of the state.
Coming southeast from Coulee Dam on Highway 174, this large barn and old farmhouse sit on a prominent point overlooking the Columbia River valley. This was one of those perfect photographic moments.

I recently completed a wonderful tour of central and eastern Washington. One of my trip’s highlights was passing through rural Lincoln County, which is west of Spokane. This is wheat country. There are fields upon fields of wheat in all directions. Given the price of wheat, this is also a very profitable business too. Right now harvesters are running night and day cutting down the golden grain in the hot summer sun. The landscape is dotted with grain elevators and some of the most beautiful barns. These barns remind me of the ones I used to see on jigsaw puzzles that I connected growing up. I still do not why red is the preferred color, but the effect is stunning, particularly against an evening sky and rolling hills of wheat ready to harvest. This is definitely a place worth a visit. Be sure to slow down and stop and savor the scenery. (Click on each photo to see a larger picture on separate picture pages.)

Fires continue to burn central Washington

 

One of the fire incident command centers is located at the Methow Valley Elementary School near Winthrop, where hundreds of tents are pitched, creating a small city.
One of the active blazes in the Methow Valley, when this photo was taken on Aug. 6.
The many hundreds of firefighters have been welcomed warmly in Okanogan County.
The air is thick with smoke in the Columbia River basin, north from Wenatchee to the Canadian border. This was taken near the fire damaged town of Pateros on Highway 97.

I just completed a trip through some of the most impacted areas of central Washington, where the largest fires ever in the state have left a path of devastation and continued disruption. Okanogan County, a beautiful mountainous and a popular recreation area, was among the hardest hit. One fire alone, the Carlton Complex fire, burned more than 300,000 acres and destroyed dozens of homes. Charred remains of burned buildings can be seen from the roadside, not to mention hills turned black and brown. Thankfully, no one was directly killed. More than 25 helicopters remain deployed in the valley, and several thousand regional firefights continue to fight blazes in the county and now other areas of the state.

I will publish pictures of actual fire damage tomorrow, in Okanogan County and also in the town of Pateros, which lost more than a dozen homes to a fast-moving blaze in mid-July. I have never seen type of smoke cover we have now statewide as I saw the past few days throughout the entire state. (Click on each photo to see a large picture on a separate picture page.)

Drift ice swirl, north Atlantic
Taken in 1997.

The swirl is one of the shapes one sees consistently in nature, from the shape of the galaxies to the form of a nautilus shell to the patterns of whirlpools and tornadoes. I found the pattern mesmerizing as I flew over the north Atlantic in between Iceland and Greenland. I snapped the photo, since I had never seen anything like this before. It was a very propitious trip, as it inspired my later travels to the Arctic, in Greenland and Iceland, starting exactly 10 months later. (Click on the photograph to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

Grandpa’s role building an air base at the top of the world
My grandfather helped to build the Thule Air Base, and he took this picture during his stay as a contractor.

In the early 1950s, a sheet metal worker from Detroit providing for his wife and two kids saw an advertisement for his trade to work in Greenland. He flew there, via Newfoundland, and helped to build a new U.S. air base called Thule. It was built where Inuit had traveled and traded for thousands of years, and still lived. Thule played a key rule during the Cold War as an intercontinental ballistic missile station and air station. This also was the time when the U.S. Air Force continually had nuclear-armed B-52 bombers airborne at all times. During the height of the cold war, these nuclear-armed bombers landed and one even crashed there, to the dismay of Denmark, which includes the vast island in its kingdom as a home rule territory. (I read about this story on my flight to Greenland on a Greenland Air inflight magazine.)

This is how Thule looked when my grandfather took this photo. He described being able to bowl at a bowling alley there and leaving before his contract was completed, as he missed his wife, my grandmother. He never met the locals because the U.S. military had strict prohibitions to prevent the contractors from meeting with the resident Greenlanders. At the time, they wore traditional dress, he recalled. Decades later, he gave me the slides he took.

I still would like to visit Thule one day. I never got that far north, as one still needed special permission to visit the U.S. run airbase when I visited Greenland for the first time more than 15 years ago.

Click on the photography to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.

Traditional Greenland kayak and kayak methods

 

Taken in 2000.

In Greenland. the current generation of Greenlanders have rediscovered the historic kayak building, paddling, and handling techniques. The kayak, or qajaq, enabled Greenlanders to populate the entire western coastline and southeast coastline and survive, mainly by giving the hunters the ability to hunt sea mammals. These boats were all built by hand by people with no modern tools, and all from materials available from animals, bones, and driftwood. Greenlanders, like this man, practice their techniques, including flips with and without their traditional paddles. I took this in Qassaiarsuk in 2000, when there were more than a dozen paddlers showing off their finely honed skins on traditionally built kayaks. See more of my pictures of Greenland on my Greenland gallery. (Click on the photograph to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

Greenlandic Elder, Qassiarsuk
Photographed in Qassiarsuk, Greenland, in 2000.

 

I photographed the 1,000-year anniversary of Leif Ericsson’s exploration to the New World in Greenland in 2000. The attendees included the Queen of Denmark and the President of Iceland, along with all of the prominent Greenlandic leaders, artists, and respected elders. I shot this picture of a Greenlandic elder at the celebration ceremonies that took place in the old Greenland VIking settlement of Brattahlid, today known as Qassiarsuk. That was a very memorable experience. I loved it. You can see more of my Greenland portraits on my Greenlanders gallery. (Click on the photograph to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

The Ballard Locks, meeting place of tourists and salmon
A father and son watch migrating sockeye in the viewing area where salmon can swim up fish ladders on their way to breeding grounds upstream. (Taken in July 2014.)
It warms my heart to see people watching the glory of nature and not connected to machines and not caught in distractions that take away from the wonder of the present moment. (Taken in July 2014).
Tourists listen to an interpreter at the Ballard Locks, July 2014.

The Ballard Locks, run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is one of the most popular spots for visitors and locals alike. July is a particularly great time to visit, to see migrating sockeye, and even an occasional king, swim up the fish ladders, en route to their breeding grounds upstream from Lake Washington. Even if you live here, this is a great place to visit, often. No visitor I have hosted has walked away disappointed. For the record, the official name of this site, built originally for regional flood control, is the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks. (Click on each photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)