Spokane Language

The other day, I had the good fortune to sit next to the world's leading expert on the Spokane language. We were attending a funeral, but she happened to look down and see my name printed on a bag. This inspired her attention, and she passed me this note to explain the original, long version of my name. From there, she passed me several other handwritten notes - all of them translations of important prayers in our language. 

These notes made me feel like the richest man in the world. 

q'ʷiq'ʷay

The q'ʷiq'ʷay on the Kalispel Indian Reservation stood close to the road the other day - close enough to get some decent pictures. 

Update: My good friend Carole mentioned that these animals are really bison - not buffalo. She has a master's in zoology, so I suppose she is in a position to advise me on these matters. But I really love my buffalo; never did care for bison. Our language is filled with many beautiful misnomers.

In any case, I could not bring myself to call them bison, so I changed the title to Salish: q'ʷiq'ʷay.

Religious Images

Statue of Jesus at Sacred Heart Medical Center. 

Quail

Over the last ten years, we have had several generations of quail nesting in the tree in our front yard. However, this current generation seems to have been raised in our back yard instead. This year, my daughter got some great pictures of the parent quail with their chicks.