The grand opening of the expanded NATIVE Project complex in Spokane’s West Central Neighborhood was packed Friday morning. All the seats were taken, so dignitaries, community members and clients stood side-by-side in the aisles. No one watched the clock. There were long opening and closing prayers, in English and in Salish. And gifts were distributed – ceremonial blankets and Sacajawea coins. The ceremony also featured traditional music and self-deprecating humor.

Toni Lodge, NATIVE Project’s executive director, said she and others behind the $3.9 million complex were crazy to dream such a big dream.

“The only people crazier in the room are them,” she said, pointing to Washington Trust Bank officials. “They gave us the money.”

Well, some of the money. The complex was financed through loans and donations from a diversity of sources, and this is fitting because NATIVE Project and its medical clinic, NATIVE Health, open their services to diverse clients. Some of the health care is tailored to the concerns of urban American Indians, including preventive programs on diabetes and renal disease, but 30 percent of the clinic’s clients are non-Indians.

Since 1989, The NATIVE Project has offered services that strive to make whole the broken in our community. These include individuals recovering from drug and alcohol addiction and families recovering from generations of behavior that hinder rather than nurture children.

At the dedication Friday, Pauline Flett, a Spokane Indian Tribe elder, said the building would have been called a longhouse in long-ago days. “Wisdom was in the longhouse,” she said.

The NATIVE Project complex is a welcome addition to the West Central neighborhood, where things are changing for the better all the time. It’s a welcome addition to a vibrant Spokane – a city of higher-paying jobs, upscale housing, retail and restaurants – envisioned by community leaders two decades ago when Spokane languished economically.

But a truly dynamic city dreams big things for all its residents, regardless of socio-economic status. This modern longhouse on Maxwell Avenue, filled with healing and wisdom, is testament to the power of inclusive – and “crazy” – dreams.