NIC's Fort Sherman Park now 'Cheamkwet'

COEUR d'ALENE - When True West Magazine ranked Coeur d'Alene one of the top 10 "True Western Towns" of 2012, the historic Fort Sherman buildings on the North Idaho College campus were noted by the magazine's writers.

The college marked its 80th anniversary Wednesday with a dedication of a different kind of magazine, the newly renovated 1870s-era powder magazine. The small, red brick structure is now an interpretive history center and meeting room loaded with plaques and artifacts.

"With the stroke of a pen, you can rewrite history, so we had to get it right," said Rhonda Smalley, a 24-year NIC employee who works in the campus mail and copy center.

Smalley, working under the guidance of NIC facilities director Mike Halpern, researched and designed the exhibits in the magazine, where weapons and gun powder were stored in the 1800s. Smalley said she worked closely with people at the North Idaho Museum and the Coeur d'Alene Tribe when gathering facts.

Halpern smiled Wednesday as he looked at the completed renovation, a project the college started working on in 2010.

"I love history and the history that's taken place here," Halpern said. "The fort was the springboard for the city of Coeur d'Alene."

About 100 people turned out for the NIC anniversary event and dedication which also included the official unveiling of a new veterans memorial outside the powder magazine, and a dedication of the newly named Cheamkwet Park.

Trustee Todd Banducci said the dedications were moving, particularly that of the new veterans memorial.

"It's great to be recognizing history here, and recognizing the veterans and the Tribe," Banducci said.

Cheamkwet Park, formerly known as Fort Sherman Park, sits behind NIC's student union building, adjacent to the dike road that runs along the campus' waterfront.

NIC president Joseph Dunlap told the group that the renaming of the park is in accordance with a longstanding "nine-point agreement" between the college and the Coeur d'Alene Tribe to preserve and promote the Tribe's history. Under the agreement, buildings and other campus facilities are given two names - an English language name, and a Coeur d'Alene name.

"But this park is different," Dunlap said.

Because Fort Sherman Park was never officially named, the grounds will have just one name that honors the Tribe.

"Cheamket" means "headwaters," Dunlap said, referring to NIC's placement at the headwaters of the Spokane River.

Quannah Matheson, the Tribe's cultural director, said tribal members prayed on those grounds for "thousands and thousands of years."

"It makes us feel good to come home," he said.

Matheson offered a prayer that all those who enter the NIC campus and the park enjoy themselves, that they experience "happy, joyful good feelings in their hearts and minds."

He prayed for the prosperity of the college and the success of all seeking to learn there.

Trustee Judy Meyer said the renovation of the powder magazine and the dedications of the veterans memorial and park are good examples of what community colleges do.

"We help the community know its history," Meyer said.