Happy Camping!

I think it’s safe to say that every kid who grew up on the Yakama Reservation has heard of or been to Camp Chaparral, the famed summer getaway for our Native youth. I myself have fond memories of my childhood where my brother and I drove away on the big school bus that came to pick up kids at the beginning of the week. I remember how we made dream catchers, I even weaved my first basket up there (admittedly, it was key chain size, but hey)! I always had fun meeting my cousins and cooling off in the icy river. Once, we went fishing and I took a picture of the pint size trout I managed to catch. (There was even a salamander all the kids tried to poke at!) It has a lot of happy memories and that history stretches even further back to my parent’s time, when the place was brand new. Although it was long ago, my memories of it still feel vivid and I enjoy knowing that there are still people who go up there and volunteer as staff to look after our young ones and make sure they have that safe zone. It is of course drug and alcohol free and this is really important that our youth know that that’s a priority.

At the Open House, there was a Mini-Powwow, led by an all-youth drum. There was even a switch dance which featured the staff and student volunteers, one of them was Sheila Pierce, my old friend from Wapato High School. She and the other staff worked tirelessly all summer to keep the camp running spick and span. Stephen Salam was in charge this year, and during the lunch I got to catch up with him about school and UW Powwow. He too is an Alum of University of Washington, he and my older brother were both part of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society chapter at UW. I was super excited when he invited me to come down to the Open House. It was a great day catching up with folks and seeing how my childhood playground is still being played in.