In brief: Human Equality Club hosts events

The North Idaho College Human Equality Club will host several events this winter focused on human rights and world health issues.

Attorney and civil rights activist Norm Gissel will present “The History of the KKK in America” at noon Monday in the Driftwood Bay Room of NIC’s Edminster Student Union Building.

Gissel is best known for his association with Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center and their successful civil court case “The Keenans vs. the Aryan Nations.” In that case, the jury awarded $6.3 million to Victoria and Jason Keenan, thus bankrupting the Aryan Nations.

Bill Proser of Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy will present “The Horrors of the Holocaust” at noon Dec. 3 in the Driftwood Bay Room. Proser traveled with Holocaust survivors to the Warsaw Ghetto while researching his dissertation on the Holocaust. He also participated in a National Endowment for the Humanities seminar on the study of the Holocaust at Simmons College in Boston, led by well-known Holocaust expert Lawrence Langer.

All events are free and open to the public.

For more information, call 769-3325.

Wolf Lodge Bay

Watch the eagles

An educational eagle-viewing cruise, highlighted by a live presentation with a bald eagle, is set for Dec. 2 starting at 12:20 p.m. aboard the Mish-An-Nock, departing from the Coeur d’Alene Resort cruise dock.

The cruise is a fundraiser for Birds of Prey Northwest, a nonprofit group supporting raptor rehabilitation, education and conservation.

The tour will take in the sights of bald eagles gathering in Lake Coeur d’Alene’s Wolf Lodge Bay to feed on spawning kokanee salmon and features a live presentation beginning at 12:45 p.m. with Liberty, the group’s bald eagle ambassador.

Tickets are $15 adults, $9 children age 6 to 16. Order tickets in advance, as space aboard the boat is limited; last-minute reservations will be taken only if there is room. To order tickets, call Kris Buchler at 664-4739. Checks may be mailed to: Birds of Prey Northwest; P.O. Box 3507; Coeur d’Alene, ID 83816. Tickets may also be purchased at the Coeur d’Alene Wild Birds Unlimited. Or go to www.birdsofprey northwest.org for a link to pay by credit card using PayPal. Tickets are $16 and $10 online.

Coeur d’Alene

Warren Miller film at NIC

North Idaho College’s Snowriders Club and Lookout Pass will present the latest winter sports film from Warren Miller Entertainment titled “Playground” at 6:30 p.m. Sunday in NIC’s Boswell Hall Schuler Performing Arts Center.

“Playground,” presented in high definition, takes viewers to winter playgrounds from Sweden to Alaska, Japan to Canada. This year’s film includes a segment on ski racing featuring Bode Miller, the untouched Chugach Range with X-Games gold medalists and brothers Zach and Reggie Crist, as well as a special on the future of snowboarding with young proteges on the Burton Smalls Team.

General admission is $15 or $12 for NIC students. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Tickets are available at the door or can be purchased in advance at the Outdoor Pursuits Office located on the lower level of NIC’s Edminster Student Union Building, Vertical Earth Java on Sherman, Merit Ski Shop and Moosecamp Sports Shop in Coeur d’Alene or the Ski Shack in Hayden.

More than $2,000 worth of prizes will be given away during the event from more than 10 vendors, including one free snowcat skiing adventure from Big Red Cats and a free Lookout Pass day lift ticket to everyone in attendance.

Silver Mountain will sell its college season passes for $200 and Lookout Pass is offering passes to college students for $119. Special pricing for Silver Mountain and Lookout Pass will only be available the night of the show. Schweitzer Mountain will also sell passes at the event at preseason rates.

For more information, call 769-7809.

CdA tribal elder speaking at NIC

Frank SiJohn, Coeur d’Alene tribal elder, anthropologist and educator, will speak on the “Historic Battlegrounds of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe” during a presentation at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Molstead Library’s Todd Hall, on NIC’s main campus.

SiJohn will talk about several battles, including the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s battle near Steptoe Butte in May 1858, the Battles of Four Lakes in September 1858 followed by the Battle of Spokane Plain, which led to the massacre of 700 of the 900 head of the tribe’s horses. The loss was devastating to the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, which depended on the horses for transportation. SiJohn said his father called the location of the horse slaughter “white lake” because of the bleaching bones of the horses that scattered the area.

The presentation is sponsored by NIC’s Molstead Library as part of its ongoing series of programs on local and regional history.

The event is free and open to the public. However, because of the popularity of the series and due to limited seating, those planning to attend should call to reserve free tickets prior to the program. Open seating tickets are given on a first-come, first-served basis and attendees are asked to call if reserved tickets will not be used, so they can be distributed. Reserved tickets can be picked up at NIC’s Molstead Library or at the door up to five minutes prior to the start of the program.

Information: 769-3355.

– From staff reports