By Rev. Sheila Miranda
Each summer, as youth from around the Greater Northwest United Methodist churches visit the Yakama Reservation on S.L.A.M. Trips, a traditional value of the Yakama people is highlighted during the week-long cultural learning and service trips. This past summer’s value was “K’wya-am-timt” (Yakama dialect of Sahpatin). It is a descriptive term that talks about honesty and being truthful. Corey Greaves, Yakama elder and director of Mending Wings, told our young people that “realness starts with honesty” and that “honesty comes from the heart”. “K’wyaamtimt”, he said, “is to be honest and truthful in talking about yourself and your opinions, and to avoid any behavior that could appear to harm the honor of yourself or your family by being dishonest.”
This theme aligns with the West Jurisdiction Committee on Native American Ministries’ first action step outlined in 2024: Telling the Truth. Each year at SLAM Trips, our youth and adult leaders come face-to-face with historical perspectives from our native hosts that are missing from most historical accounts. MegAnn Moore, youth leader from Yakima Wesley UMC, reports, “A conclusion that most of our group came to after a week at S.L.A.M. was that our history books are wrong. We need to look at more than one side of the story to get the whole story, and the white people’s story is most often not the best story.”
82 youth and adult leaders participated in the GNW S.L.A.M. Trips weeks in 2025. Our groups visited sites crucial to telling the story of the westward expansion of America. One or more of the following sites were visited, and our hosts or a native elder shared their historical perspectives:
- Treaty Grounds in Walla Walla, where the Treaty of 1855 was signed
- Fort Simcoe near White Swan, site of a military fort and then a boarding school for native children
- Celilo Falls village, where the Columbia River inundated the original village when Bonneville Dam was opened in 1957
- Yakama Nation Cultural Center in Toppenish
SLAM Trip 2026
SAVE THE DATES: July 28 – July 3
Sun., June 28 (5 pm) – Fri., July 3 (10 am)
If these dates do not fit your church’s schedule, your group may attend any of the other weeks of the S.L.A.M. Trips schedule. To learn more about S.L.A.M. Trips visit their website at slamtrips.com.
Questions and interest can be directed to:
Joanna Talbot, a youth from Wenatchee First UMC, tells about her encounter with honesty on the trip:
“Even though our theme was honesty, I wasn’t expecting that much honesty. It really surprised me that topics that are usually “not over the dinner table” were discussed fairly easily. The invitation to talk and be honest really opened the floor for understanding. Things like the worship circle we had made me realize that oftentimes all we have to do is listen to someone to understand them and find them.
Putting aside beliefs and values, and truly listening to the person talk about their lives, experiences, and stories brought people together through compassion and empathy rather than through perceived likeness or bias.
Next was our history, which frankly made me a little uncomfortable to learn that Native people were treated so harshly, to the point of irreparable damage for generations and generations. I couldn’t fathom the truth of what happened with Celilo Falls, where the thunder of the great falls was silenced by Dalles Dam. It hurt my heart to think people were and still are treated with such dismissiveness and cruelty.
I felt uneasy hearing how Elder Karen from Celilo Village could still remember, firsthand, how they continued to build the dam despite protests and how they tried to compensate for this huge cultural loss with dollars rather than compassion. It was disappointing to learn that Native voices have and are being suppressed and disfavored over others. Yet I learned, while we can’t retrieve lost petroglyphs or bring back Celilo’s thunder, nor erase the pain from our history, we can become better.
We need to be mindful of our impact on the world, others, and ourselves. Not only by cleaning up waste or by protecting wildlife, but by holding ourselves and others accountable.
There is a responsibility to avoid repeating mistakes, to learn from them, and to act on our knowledge; we must take them into account for the present and for future generations. Overall, the mission trip to the Yakama Nation truly opened my eyes to issues I wasn’t aware of and inspired me to address them using honesty, compassion, and teamwork.
The goal of the Greater Northwest Youth Collaborative to S.L.A.M. Trips is to bring United Methodist youth together from around our four-state area (AK, ID, OR and WA) to learn and grow through the cultural and service experience hosted by Mending Wings. Over the past three years, more than 300 youth and leaders have participated in the trips. Like Joanna, many people have had their eyes opened to a broader truth and are inspired to live in better, more compassionate ways.
The following churches from across the GNW have participated in a S.L.A.M. Trip:
Alaska
Anchor Park UMC
Anchorage: St. John UMC
Juneau: Aldersgate UMC
Oregon-Idaho
Bend Youth Collective
Christ UMC
Fruitland UMC
Lake Oswego UMC
Open Door Churches (Salem)
Newburg UMC
Portland FUMC
Samoan Missional (Medford)
Tigard UMC
Pacific Northwest
Yakima: Wesley UMC
Wenatchee FUMC
Vancouver: Mill Plain UMC
Walla Walla: Pioneer UMC
Seattle FUMC
Coeur d’Alene Community UMC
Tacoma: Kalevaria UMC
Puyallup UMC
Sammamish: Faith UMC
South Sound Cooperative
Gig Harbor UMC (Joint Youth Group)
Kent UMC
Spokane: Audubon Park UMC
Spanaway UMC
Edmonds UMC
Rev. Sheila Miranda serves as Assistant for Connectional Ministries for the Inland and Seven Rivers Missional Districts of the Pacific Northwest Conference of The United Methodist Church.
