Sundial celebrated with tribe
Irv Toler, of Ephrata, talked about his history in the Columbia Basin during the first annual Spirit of Soap Lake celebration Saturday.
Soap Lake hopes to establish annual event
SOAP LAKE — The tinkle of bells and the hum of people gathering punctuated the beginning of the first annual Spirit of Soap Lake event Saturday.
Chief Ronald and Barbara Friedlander, of the Confederated Colville Tribes, and their family, were in attendance along side members of the Soap Lake Garden Club at the foot of the Calling the Healing Waters sundial.
Barbara Friedlander blessed the event with a prayer offering and smudge.
“Every spring we used to camp in the Soap Lake area,” she said. “After the long winter, we needed the healing of the water.”
Barbara Friedlander explained that the regalia her husband Chief Ronald Friedlander was wearing had belonged to Chief Moses and was 200 years old, as far as they were aware.
“My grandmother’s grandfather was Chief Moses,” Barbara Friedlander said.
She said she and her family had chosen to come to the event, even after there was a mix-up about the holding of a powwow, because the Soap Lake area was traditionally part of Colville land.
“Years ago, we used to have a powwow and drum, and play stick game (here) all night,” Barbara Friedlander said.
Keith Hagglund opened the ceremony by reading aloud proclamations sent from Gov. Chris Gregoire and Sen. Janéa Holmquist, R-Moses Lake.
“Isn’t it special that little old Soap Lake gets recognized by our leadership in Olympia,” he said.
Dorothy Downing also spoke about the events that led to the creation of the Calling the Healing Waters sundial.
“It’s hard to realize what you were doing in 1993, but I know what we were doing, we were planning ahead,” she said.
Downing said the garden club was discussing ways to spruce up the Healing Waters garden near the lake when it was suggested that a sundial be put in place.
She explained that when David Govedare and Keith Powell arrived in Soap Lake for a site inspection for the sundial, they decided the sundial should be placed in its current location rather than in the garden.
“I think of this (sundial) as a frontier; a frontier with a vision,” Downing said.
Irv Toler, of Ephrata, gave a brief history of the area through his experiences.
Toler, born in 1919, established a cold storage facility in Ephrata, farmed sheep, and wrote the book, “Delusions at 21.”
“My grandfather was going to come here and drill oil and make a million dollars,” Toler said. “Instead, he came within a gnat’s eyebrow of starving to death.”
Toler finished his speech with an observation about the sundial.
“That looks like freedom — freedom cast in stone,” Toler said.