Preserving our heritage is a responsibility shouldered by all of us

Salish School of Spokane (SSOS) was incorporated as a Washington State non-profit corporation in October of 2009 by five Salish women with the goal of revitalizing our four Southern Interior Salish languages, providing Salish immersion schooling for children, and teaching Salish to parents and other community members.

Our co-founder, LaRae Wiley

LaRae Wiley (Sinixt) is a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes, and she is the co-founder and Executive Director of Salish School of Spokane (SSOS). LaRae earned her BAs from Eastern Washington University in 1988 and 1990 and is a certified teacher. From 2003 through 2021, LaRae learned n̓səl̓xčin̓ (Colville Salish) as an apprentice to the late master speaker Sʕamtíc̓aʔ (Sarah) Peterson of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band. The n̓səl̓xčin̓ language was moribund (no children raised in the language) for 94 years in LaRae’s family until, when she was in her late 30s, she made the commitment to bring the language back to her family and community.

Starting a school

In 2008, LaRae and her husband, Chris, had the opportunity to provide daycare for their first grandchild, and, with their daughter’s blessing, they committed themselves to only speak n̓səl̓xčin̓ to the child. The results were immediate, and their grandchild began to understand and speak n̓səl̓xčin̓. In 2009, LaRae collaborated with two other families to try doing an n̓səl̓xčin immersion preschool. For six months she cared for and taught four little girls while only speaking n̓səl̓xčin̓. Again, the effort was successful, so later that year, LaRae, with a friend and the three moms of the children, founded Salish School of Spokane.

Looking to the future

As LaRae begins to pass the operation of Salish School of Spokane to a new generation of leaders, she is very proud and happy that her language is coming back, and that there is now a clear way forward for anyone who wants to learn n̓səl̓xčin̓. She, the SSOS board of directors, and SSOS staff, are working hard to sustain our Salish language revitalization programming while also raising funds to build a new campus with a a school and a Salish Cultural and Recreational Community Center (CRCC) at River Haven.

Making a change

begins with us

SSOS is a grass-roots organization governed and led by Native American community members who want to reconnect with our traditional language and culture and re-take control of our children's education. SSOS is not just a “school”. We are seeking justice and striving to improve ourselves and our community using a schooling model. Just as the agents of genocide and colonization used residential boarding schools to break cultural and inter-generational connections among Salish and other Native American people, we are using schooling, adult education and culture to rebuild those connections and ensure a better future for ourselves, our children and our families.

There are four Southern Interior Salish languages in the region surrounding Spokane, and all are deeply endangered. There are only a few elderly speakers who are first-language speakers of our languages. SSOS seeks to create new fluent speakers of Salish languages by training new adult speakers, offering immersion language instruction and care to children and youth, providing Salish language training to parents, creating Salish curricula, and sponsoring Salish immersion cultural and ceremonial activities. We do our work in an urban setting, where Native families often have little or no access to authentic language and cultural resources, but where the need and desire for cultural revitalization and rebirth is extreme.

Our goal as an organization is to bring Salish language back into use by Salishan families living in Spokane, and through language, bring about cultural healing.  We have begun to accomplish this goal by providing Salish language immersion childcare and pre-school, pre-kindergarten, and K-8 education to children while facilitating Salish language instruction and training for their families through evening classes, Salish language social events, ceremonies and internship opportunities at the immersion school. Eventually, we hope to grow our programming to become a dynamic, Salish-centered urban community that achieves cultural re-integration and decolonization by recovering our language and culture while engaging the dynamic realities of 21st Century life.

Timeline

  • LaRae Wiley and her husband Chris begin caring for their first grandchild, and make the determination to only speak n̓səl̓xčin̓ to her.

  • As her grandchild began to learn n̓səlxčin̓, LaRae realizes that they might be the only child on earth who is growing up with the language. In response, LaRae reaches out to her daughter, sister, and another Sinixt mother and proposes that she lead a pilot n̓səl̓xčin immersion nest with four children from January to June 2009. The nest was a success, and LaRae and the mom’s incorporate Salish School of Spokane in September 2009.

  • In September 2010, Salish School of Spokane opened it doors, providing n̓səl̓xčin̓ immersion preschool to six children and evening language classes for their parents.

  • Salish School of Spokane (SSO) secures a language nest grant from the Administration for Native Americans allowing expansion of enrollment to 12 children and the launch of the Salish Language Educator Development (SLED) program.

  • SSOS moves to its Maple Street campus and is licensed as a commercial childcare center. Student enrollment increases to 24 children.

  • SSOS is certified as a Washington State private school for grades K-6. Student enrollment increases to 59 student aged 1 to 11 years.

  • SSOS is approved for private schooling up to 12th grade.

  • With funding from the Administration for Native Americans, SSOS launches a bilingual (Salish-English) secondary program. Total enrollment at SSOS increases to 74 students aged 1 to 17 years.

  • During the COVID pandemic, SSOS was able to provide in-person instruction after only a brief suspension of classes in March and April 2020. Our staff, students and families were early adopters of the COVID vaccine and our community was 90% vaccinated by the end of February 2021.

    SSOS students did not have a decrease in math and literacy achievement due to the COVID pandemic.

  • Due to a community-wide mental health crisis brought on by the COVID pandemic, SSOS suffered a loss of Salish immersion capacity resulting in the closure of our Language Nest and secondary classrooms. Due to a lack of teachers, student enrollment fell to 32 students, preschool to grade 6.

  • To rebuild Salish immersion instructional capacity, SSOS launches two new intensive teacher training cohorts and doubles evening Salish language class offering including for-credit courses through Spokane Falls Community College and Selkirk College.

  • SSOS re-opened its Salish immersion Language Nest classroom and expanded up to 8th grade for a total student enrollment of 48 students.

    The Salish Language Educator Development (SLED) program provided n̓səl̓xčin̓ language training, classroom placements, and professional development 26 staff.

    SSOS served 49 adults in evening and weekend community n̓səl̓xčin̓ language classes.

    Salish School of Spokane is working to build a new campus with a school building and a Salish Cultural and Recreation Community Center (CRC) at River Haven. We have $7.7 million in funding in place for this $12.7 million capital project, and will be working through 2024 and 2025 to raise the remaining $5 million. Ground breaking is scheduled for February or March 2026.

  • Enrollment at SSOS for September 2025 will 50 students, aged 1 year to 8th grade.

    SSOS continues to train and support other Indigenous language communities in North American and Australia. In June 2025, a training team from SSOS is training Aboriginal language communities in Australia, presenting Indigenous Language Fluent Transfer System trainings in Alice Springs and Adelaide.