Toni Lodge's life is about activism, change

By Mary Stamp

Toni Lodge's life has been about change.

She has been part of making change for children and youth, families and the community by providing leadership to found and shepherd The NATIVE Project in West Central Spokane.

"I put into action my beliefs, faith and desire for a good future for my grandchildren, their grandchildren and all children," said Toni, who is CEO.

A member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe on the Canadian border in North Dakota, she shared her journey to starting and building up The NATIVE Project and recently opening its new Children and Youth Center.

Toni learned in the 1970s that change is possible through community will, activism and legislation. Spirituality and activism were part of her teen years.

"I have seen how times have changed," she said. "As a young Native woman, I had different opportunities than my grandmother had. I was able to work for corporate news organizations."

Having studied journalism at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, she worked with newspapers such as National Native News, Knight-Ridder News and United Tribes Indian College in Bismarck, N.D.

"I was drawn to journalism because the 1970s was an exciting time with changes in civil rights, Indian activism and women's rights. I wanted to know what good things could happen," she said.

That decade was the end of attempts at assimilation from the federal government's termination policy and boarding schools' indoctrination for Native people. The American Indian Movement introduced new changes for America and promoted sovereignty, self-determination and restoring cultural traditions and tribal languages for Native people.

Toni, as a young reporter covering this era, said she had "a front-row seat to see good change" with the passing of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, the Indian Self Determination and Education Assistance Act and the Indian Child Welfare Act, which resulted from activism.

"My tribe and community was in a traditional colonized church, but after the Religious Freedom Act in 1978, we could legally practice Native religion. It was freeing," she said, explaining that her community began publicly practicing traditional cultural spirituality that emphasizes being connected with the land, water and earth.

"Before then, we only practiced our cultural and spiritual ways in our homes, where we kept the celebrations and practices alive," said Toni. "When we could celebrate publicly, young people could learn together rather than one at a time, regaining a sense of community at events like ceremonies, sweats, sun dances and powwows."

As people practiced ceremonies, the language was revitalized, which Toni said was important in restoring people's wellbeing. For 30,000 years, tribes had health practices. Indian doctors healed people, helped with birthing, taught prevention and prayed with people they cared for, she said.

Keeping that tradition, The NATIVE Project staff may pray with people as they mix modern and traditional medicine practices.

"We share with each other what our grandmothers used to do," said Toni.

Clinic staff can ask patients what they eat, how often they walk, go in the woods, sing, pray and have social time along with discussing symptoms and using medication to treat what's wrong with patients.

The medical providers and behavioral health staff know that university studies agree with traditional knowledge that people in relationships live longer.

"Medical and mental health care are more than what is wrong with a person. They are also about what is right with them," Toni said.

"In our culture, relationships are a big factor in wellness," she observed. "We are part of a family, a community and a tribe. It's important to go to ceremonies, powwows and events together."

After Toni came to Spokane to be with a sister in 1979, she worked with Indian Health Services, a local tribe and Spokane Public Schools.

She married and had four children and now has 10 grandchildren.

"Now is the best time of my life," she said, "but having children and grandchildren makes me more committed to work with kids and the future."

In the early 1980s, Toni and other Native professionals working with children and youth knew kids were not doing well and wanted to provide activities. She felt the public-school Natural Helpers program had good ideas. Other professionals had more ideas.

In 1985, they formed the Indian Youth Leadership Program. She and co-founder Clint Small wrote a federal grant and were funded on the first try.

In 1989, they incorporated as The NATIVE Project.

NATIVE stands for Native American Treatment Intervention Education.

She and three friends gave up school district jobs to serve on the staff, and 11 others agreed to serve on the board.

They started The NATIVE Project by listening to community members to learn about needs for mental health, and drug and alcohol treatment programs.

"One brick at a time," she said, they added the medical, dental and pharmacy services, and programs for parents and families. Then they incorporated care coordination, culture, exercise, meals, nutrition, leadership training, youth camps and a place where youth can be activists.

"With 30 percent of the Indian community in Spokane being from birth to 18 years old, we decided we needed a significant amount of our energy dedicated to direct services for this age group," said Toni. "According to the 2020 census, there were 26,000 Native Americans in Spokane—about five percent of the population—but that's an undercount."

The NATIVE Project serves people from 300 tribes, not only urban Indians but also many from the Colville Confederated Reservation and other nearby reservations, as well as from Montana, Alaska and Canada.

"Spokane is the eighth largest U.S. city for urban Indians. Many came in the 1950s under the Indian Relocation Act, a genocide law designed to get people off the reservations, hoping they would join white society and disappear," Toni said. "It did not work but left the city with many Native people who were cut off from family, community and tribes.

"We keep adding services. The new building came about because of our commitment to children and youth. Since COVID, more youth felt depressed, isolated and disconnected. We connect them, so they are less anxious," said Toni, noting that use of marijuana and alcohol continues to be common.

The new Children and Youth Center has more space for activities and interaction, rather than private rooms for therapy with a counselor.

The architect incorporated ideas of staff, board and kids into shared rooms and fluid spaces, including a music room with a piano, guitars and hand drums, a space for dance and exercise, an art therapy room, a yoga and meditation room and a ceremonial room for talking circles and cultural groups.

The 12 behavioral health staff and support staff have moved into the new space and are changing their approaches in the new environment.

In the other building, clinic programs are expanding into the vacated behavioral health space. Now they can add more medical offices, dental chairs, pharmacy space and adult mental health.

In that building, staff saw 500 kids a year for therapy and treatment and 1,500 for prevention and cultural activities. The medical and dental clinics see 6,000 patients a year.

Aware of the genocide Native Americans have experienced, Toni has tried to undo the damage "one kid at a time, one year at a time, pushing back the damage so we will be around for hundreds of years and longer," she said.

"I want my grandchildren's grandchildren to be here long after I'm gone," she said. "The worst happened to us. Because what is happening now is bad, we push back harder. We need to keep pushing and never stop.

"Persistence is in my DNA," she affirmed. "So is love. One has to love the kids to work at the NATIVE Project."

For information, call Helen Goodteacher, communications manager, at 325-5502 or visit thenativeproject.org.