Students from the Salish School in Spokane drum and chant an "honor song" as part of the blessing of Eastern Washington University's Prairie Restoration Project last Wednesday.

Eastern Washington University officially launched two long-time initiatives with dedication ceremonies last Wednesday.

A crowd of around 100 people stood by on the wind-swept hill near the university's water tower to help kick-off the Prairie Restoration Project with a blessing and acknowledgement of the land by the Spokane Tribe of Indians. Spokane Tribe chair Carol Evans told the assembly that there were also representatives from the Coeur D'Alene, Kalispel and Flathead tribes in attendance at the ceremony, which was highlighted by a group of native drummers from Spokane's Salish School performing an "honor song" as part of the blessing.

"I know our ancestors, their hearts are filled with joy at this point," Evans said.

Eastern's Cheney campus spans over 300 acres, of which 100 – 150 has been leased to farming west of the campus. In 2017, Eastern's biology and education departments, along with the Office of Sustainability, hit upon an idea. Instead of leasing the land for farming, as it had since 1952-1953, develop a portion of the rolling landscape into an area to encourage education, research and recreation as well as give back to community something lost long ago - the original habitat of the Palouse Prairie.

The Palouse Prairie Restoration Project is aimed at doing all of this through trails, educational spaces and specific plots dedicated to research, with the primary goal of the project being education.

"We work to solve problems," university President Dr. Mary Cullinan said. "We are also very focused on being interdisciplinary and this is the perfect project."

The university received a $100,000 grant last September from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Education Grants Program to help fund the project. According to the timeline on the project's website, 40 percent of phase one is completed, with completion of the project's concept master plan scheduled for this summer. In the fall a pilot plot of land developed in conjunction with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife will be seeded with native plants to demonstrate to the community what the completed area will look like.

It's hoped that the trail system will also serve as a recreation area for the university and Cheney communities, as well as potential locations for cross country meets and other athletic events.

The restoration project has been linked with another endeavor started in 2015 - the Lucy Covington Center. Covington was a member of the Colville Tribal Council and long-time tribal rights activist who in the 1950s and 1960s worked with other tribes to end "termination" - a federal policy designed to wrest control of land and natural resources from tribal ownership by terminating tribal status.

Covington worked with others to successfully end this program and preserve tribal sovereignty, but also shift U.S. policy from termination to tribal independence and autonomy. Born in 1915 near Nespelem, Covington passed away in 1982.

The university launched the Lucy Covington Center project to provide support and resources to its Native American students, with the intent eventually to include a building on the Cheney campus. During the Prairie Restoration Project dedication, Eastern's director of Native American Affairs Nicole DeVon pointed to a large sign with a heart in the distance to the west where the center is to be built.

Later near the Cheney Normal School Heritage Center on campus, the building's cornerstone was unveiled. Jerry Klinger of the Jewish American Historical Society told the audience that Covington, who had some Jewish background, and other Native Americans shared many of the same feelings towards the Earth as members of the tribes of Israel.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.