LC State Hells Canyon Institute

Annnnd that’s a wrap on the 2023 Spring semester!! We’re so proud of our graduating students and of our cohort! 🥳🎓
We hope you have a wonderful summer!!! 😎⛱️🌊

This weather has us reminiscing on Canyon Week! ☀️😍
We hope you have a productive Dead Week as we prepare for finals, and symposium, we know our students have been working hard to do just that!
Our students will present at LCSC’s symposium this upcoming Friday on campus at the Williams Conference Center from 2:00pm to 3:30pm! 📚🧑🏻‍🏫 We can’t wait to see everyone’s presentations! 😊

Follow the leader! Here’s the cohort hiking to Eureka Bar in Hells Canyon! You can even see someone pointing out a woodland star flower, thanks to professor Liz Martin who taught the group on botany in the area!
🌸🌻🌷🌱

Our HCI cohort knows how to get bendy! Thanks to our wonderful presenter and LCSC professor Jeanette Gara, our cohort learned some new skills, like acro-yoga and partner yoga! 🧘🏼‍♀️🧘🏽🤸🏻‍♀️

All of us at HCI hope that you’re having an amazing Spring Break so far! I know we are! 🥳

Here’s a photo from our cohort earlier this week at Eureka Bar in Hells Canyon! 😍☀️

In less than a week, this will be our cohort’s reality!! 😍
We can’t wait to share the beauty and history of Hells Canyon with you all! 🌊

Last week we had the pleasure of having our assistant director Leah teach us some basics in wilderness first aid!
Here’s some photos of Leah and the students demonstrating how to make a emergency leg splint and arm sling using objects we can find around a campsite and even our own clothes!!
We’re so excited to learn these new skills so that we are prepared for when we are out in the Canyon in a few weeks!!
🏕️🍂🌲🌤️

This past Friday the HCI cohort was fortunate enough to tour the Nez Perce National Historic Park in Lapwai! The first photo is of Park Ranger Jared teaching our students about a Nez Perce tool. The second is a photo of students looking at the special collections up close with a park curator!
Thank you so much to the folks at the Historical Park for teaching us so much, we loved our time there! 🤓😍

This past week HCI had the opportunity of going to LCSC’s Center of Arts and History to learn more about the Chinese Beuk Aie Temple. In 1865, many Chinese miners arrived in the Lewis-Clark valley to hunt for gold and there were as many as 746 Chinese people (mostly men) in the mining areas near Lewiston.

While our cohort learns about the history and religion of the Chinese immigrants, it is also important to remember the hardships and injustices that these humans faced. In 1887 at Deep Creek on the Oregon side of the Snake River, as many as 34 Chinese gold miners were ambushed and murdered by a gang of horse thieves and schoolboys from Wallowa county.

Although six men and boys were indicted, three men fled and were never caught and the other three were declared innocent. This massacre has been largely forgotten until recent years when misplaced court documents shed new light on the crime. HCI is grateful to have the opportunity to visit Chinese Massacre Cove during our Field Week in Hells Canyon.

We are grateful for the Center for Arts and History and the local historians for providing HCI with so much knowledge and education on this part of our area’s history. We are excited to have our cohort continue to learn about Hells Canyon’s history!

some days we learn about science and history, other days we take the time to learn about the arts! Here’s a photo from HCI’s Canyon Week in 2022, where our cohort got to create beautiful mandala-inspired, watercolor bookmarks!
We can’t wait to see your creative work throughout the rest of this semester! 🎨🧑🏻‍🎨

Qe’ciyew’yew’ (thank you in Nimipuuti
mt, the language of the Nimiipuu tribe) to the anonymous friend who left this outside our office yesterday! 💕
We ❤️ little love notes, especially when it gives us a chance to learn more about the Nimiipuu language! 🫶🏼
Happy (almost) Love Day to you all! 🥰

One of the best things about HCI is our multidisciplinary approach to learning! Students learn a variety of different subjects throughout the course.
For instance, here’s one of our students holding actual SMOG!! One of our main professors, Professor Johnston, researches atmospheric chemistry and looks at environmental levels of toxins!
Every week is something new and interesting for our HCI cohort! 📚🔬🧪👩🏻‍🔬