“Joyce McCloud teaches Yelm Middle School students Mya Pierce and Nick Some how to weave bracelets
and roses from cedar bark on Thursday at the Nisqually Tribe’s culture center. All 230 seventh-grade
students from the school participated in Nisqually tribal history and cultural lessons during a
field trip that was funded by a heritage grant. Photo credit: Lisa Pemberton, The Olympian.

By Lisa Pemberton,The Olympian:
“Don McCloud said local tribal history and culture wasn’t taught at Yelm Community Schools when he was a student.

That’s one of the reasons he was happy to be able to tell students from Yelm Middle School about the Boldt Decision, which upheld tribal treaty fishing rights, as well as about the importance of the Nisqually River and the tribe’s traditional method of cooking salmon over a fire.

The Nisqually elder helped lead workshops for the school’s 230 seventh-graders on Wednesday and Thursday at the tribe’s 250-acre culture center and farm on Mounts Road near DuPont.”
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