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Kalispel center apprentice unveils Spokane metalwork display
USK — An apprentice at the Kalispel Career Training Center in Cusick unveiled a new cultural metalwork display in Spokane Tuesday, July 1.
Entitled “In the Shape of Family,” the display showcases a metal art sculpture of a buck, doe and fawn.
It was designed by Louis Boyd, who is part of the Sinixt band and a member of the Colville Tribes and fabricated with the assistance of several journeyman welders at KCTC.
Kalispel Metal Products, which funds and collaborates with KCTC, and Spokane District 3 Council members unveiled the display in the center of the Five-Mile roundabout in the Five Mile Prairie neighborhood.
“They’re not just art,” Boyd said in a Kalispel Tribe news release. “They represent spirit lines, the unique inner world of each one. Even though they belong to the same family, they’re not the same, and that’s something sacred.”
According to the news release, family is not about matching in many Native traditions. Instead, it is about connection and knowing that each spirit walks its own path, even while staying close to the people they love.
The buck in the display stands tall, a symbol of strength and the quiet responsibility that comes with guiding and protecting others. The doe carries herself with grace and gentle wisdom, watchful, nurturing and deeply rooted in knowing. The fawn moves with curiosity, wideeyed and full of possibility — still learning, but already carrying the strength of those who came before.
All three were sculpted with the same metal.
“This sculpture honors Indigenous families and offers something for everyone across Mother Earth who sees it: a reminder that we are not meant to match — we are meant to belong,” Boyd said. “That is what it means to be ‘In the Shape of Family’ — where spirit, difference, and connection are honored as family.”
At 85 Tule Rd., KCTC provides training to youth and adults in vocational trades such as welding, fabrication, carpentry, electrical, plumbing and heavy equipment.
Apprenticeships at KCTC are open to all whether they are members of a tribe or not.
Boyd has been a welding apprentice at KCTC for about two years.
Some of the metal art he made during his apprenticeship will be on display in the Camas Center for Community Wellness’ expanded clinic this summer.
