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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Hands-on primitive skills and living event May 26-30

Skin tanning is one of the primitive skills taught at the Between the Rivers Gathering in Valley, Wash. (Courtesy)
Skin tanning is one of the primitive skills taught at the Between the Rivers Gathering in Valley, Wash. (Courtesy)

PRIMITIVE SKILLS -- The third annual Between the Rivers Gathering, an extended ancestral living skills workshop geared for families, is returning May 26-30 in Valley, Wash., north of Spokane, sponsored by the nonprofit group Bridges to the Past.
What: Hands-on primitive skills instruction, from Upper Paleolithic to Early American homesteading with camping, communal meals and camaraderie for all ages.
Who: Nearly 30 instructors to teach primitive skills to participants.
Classes: Bows; basketry; blacksmithing; bookbinding; buckskin tanning; camp craft; clothing and decoration; fibers, cordage and weaving; flint knapping; leatherwork; traps and snares; lithic (stone) tools; seed saving and sustainable gardening; shelters; survival skills; weapons; wild food; wild medicinals; woodworking and more.
Attractions: Archery range and instruction, atlatl throwing, traveling museum, on-site tent camping.
Cost: Classes, workshops and meals are for paying participants. Most participants will take classes all week, camp on site and eat meals communally. Day fee for non-campers. No fee for daily observers.
Info: betweentheriversgathering.com



Rich Landers
Rich Landers joined The Spokesman-Review in 1977. He is the Outdoors editor for the Sports Department writing and photographing stories about hiking, hunting, fishing, boating, conservation, nature and wildlife and related topics.

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