Sensitivity Workshop Next In Colville High School Dispute

A 2-year-old dispute over Colville High School’s Indians mascot remains unresolved, but school and tribal officials will take a first step toward reconciliation in late April.

They’re working together on a daylong workshop on racial sensitivity for Colville School District staff members and students. The session will be coordinated by the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and taught by Raymond Reyes, associate vice president of academic affairs and diversity at Gonzaga University.

School Superintendent Rick Cole said he hopes the workshop will lead to face-to-face meetings between the school board and the tribal council. There has been no formal discussion between the two groups since the tribal council asked the school board to change the high school mascot in May 1997.

School board members agreed to discuss the issue with the Colville-based Upper Columbia Human Rights Coalition last September, but the meeting was canceled at the request of the tribal council. The council said it wanted to meet with the school board in a session moderated by a representative of the state superintendent of public instruction. So far, no such meeting has occurred.

“Basically, we are waiting to have that dialogue,” Cole said.