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TBHS Medicine Wheel Garden

TBHS Medicine Wheel Garden

Cultivating Community: Todd Beamer High School's Medicine Wheel Garden Blossoms into Reality

MedGarden-TBHS-20250325-36

Todd Beamer High School's Medicine Wheel Garden is becoming a reality! Students, teachers, and community members have been gathering for work parties to create this space for learning, solace, and reflection.

This holistic garden project offers numerous benefits for both students and the community, blending various ideas, knowledge, and hard work from multiple contributors. It is a collaborative effort involving Todd Beamer HS, AmeriCorps, FWPS Native Education, the FWPS School Gardens Coordinator, and school counselors; everyone played a crucial role in bringing the garden to life.

Volunteers diligently worked on tasks such as digging trenches and laying pavers and bricks. The garden will feature a cooking pit for baking salmon, clams, and other foods.

“I feel so blessed that this is finally coming together,” said Suzi Friedlander, a Speech Language Pathologist, who is also the advisor of the Smoked Salmon Native Society ASB Club at Todd Beamer and one of the main driving forces behind this project. 

The social emotional learning and knowledge surrounding this project are part of the Tender Gather and Grow and other Native Plant Curricula from the Plant Teaching for Social Emotional Skills, Cultivating Resiliency and Wellbeing with Northwest Plants, a collaborative project by GRuB and the Northwest Indian Treatment Center with funding through the Seattle Indian Health Board.

Suzi, whose tribal affiliations include Colville, Coeur D’Alene, Salish and Kootenai, and Canadian Cree, further explained, “The medicine wheel reflects personal growth, with its quadrants—red, white, black, and yellow—representing the seasons and human life stages: baby, young adult, adult, elder. It also ties into mental health and personal development.” 

“I know Suzi has been working on this for a long time, and it's exciting to see everything come together,” shared Todd Beamer HS Principal Travis Savala. “[The garden] is a place where people can come together; a place to find peace and connect with nature and themselves. This will be very valuable to many of our scholars,” he concluded.

Various school clubs and the culinary arts classes were surveyed about their preferred herbs and spices, reflecting their specific cultural uses, and the leadership team also contributed to the garden's design.

The garden will showcase native plants and incorporate the input on which foods, vegetables, and herbs to plant for students to harvest fresh produce. 

The medicine wheel is a powerful symbol in Native American culture, representing the circle of life and often incorporating medicinal herbs and plants, symbolizing Earth's boundary and the universe's knowledge.

There are over 300 Native American tribal affiliations in the district, spanning North America and the Pacific Islands. 

Funding was secured through grants from the Marine Hills Garden Club in partnership with the Washington State Garden Association, a donation from Home Depot, and strong support from the school's ASB. The Southwest Carpenters Union contributed two garden boxes and two tabletop beds. They will also provide benches and ensure the garden is accessible for people with disabilities. We are sincerely grateful for all these amazing contributions and to everyone who worked on this amazing project! 

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