Revitalizing Native languages of the Colville Reservation
through immersion schools
ʔaluspuʔús
Melissa co-founded ʔaluspuʔúsand formerly served as a board member for many years. She is a member of the Colville Tribes and has Okanogan, Lakes, and San Poil ancestry. Melissa is pursuing a master’s degree in education, with an emphasis in Montessori elementary education, in a joint graduate program of Whitworth University and Montessori Northwest. She has been serving as the executive director of Hearts Gathered since February 2013. Before that, she worked as an in-house attorney practicing federal Indian law for the Colville Tribes for 13 years. Melissa earned her juris doctorate degree and became a member of the Washington State Bar in 2000. She has also interned in the Colville Tribal Language Program, has taught beginning college classes in the Okanogan language, and has reached an intermediate-low level of fluency in Okanogan.
Melissa published a paper in the Washington State Bar News in 2002, The State of Indian Education and New Schools of Thought, which helped motivate her to start Hearts Gathered to provide a better-suited school system for our Native youth and the opportunity to be fluent in our Native languages.
Ted is a founding board member and first-line descendant of the Colville Tribes. He has become a fluent Okanogan speaker (a rare individual who reached fluency as an adult). He serves as our lead teacher, and has formerly served as our interim executive director. A certified language teacher, Ted has taught beginning to advanced college classes in the Okanogan language while working for the Tribal Language Program.
Ted has extensive experience developing curriculum, and documenting and transcribing elder recordings. He has been teaching at Waterfall School since it opened in 2010. Ted will be pursuing Montessori credentials.
way̓ x̌ast sx̌əlx̌ʕalt. Greetings.
Here at ʔaluspuʔús (Hearts Gathered), we are excited about what we are accomplishing. It brings tears to the eyes of our staff members and all those involved who are making a new reality where our little ones understand in their tribal mother tongues. They are speaking in their ancient language. It almost makes you breathless.
Margaret is a member of the Colville Tribes and works as a teacher's intern/teacher aide at Waterfall School. She assists Michele in the classroom. Margaret is only a few credits shy of earning her bachelor’s degree and has received a certificate in early childhood care and development. Margaret will be pursuing Montessori credentials.
Ted Moomaw (xʷistsmx̌íkn)
Amelia Marchand (skʷumqnálqs)
Executive Director and Co-Founder
Melissa Campobasso (qʷʕásqiʔ)
Margaret Timentwa (makrít)
Amelia has been serving as a member of the board of directors of Hearts Gathered since 2009. She is a member of the Colville Tribes, and is affiliated with the Moses-Columbia, Chief Joseph Band of Nez Perce, Palus, Okanogan and Lakes tribes. She is a graduate student in environmental law and policy. She earned her bachelor’s degree in anthropology, with a minor in American Indian Studies, in 2005.
Amelia works as a water regulatory specialist in the Environmental Trust Department of the Colville Tribes.
OUR BOARD AND
STAFF
Board Member
Lead Teacher and Co-Founder
Board Member
Dr. Mary S. Hall
Mary is a board member and a member of the Colville Tribes. She has Okanogan ancestry. Mary works as the director of the Colville Tribal College. She formerly served as the interim executive director of the Colville Confederated Tribes. She served as the superintendent of several school districts, including the Nespelem School District, over her extensive career in education.
Mary earned a doctorate degree in educational leadership in 1986, a master’s degree in education in 1981, and a bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 1974.
Teacher
Intern