2 results for month: 07/2019
Winter Camp of Spokane Indians
In 1959, Sam Webb recalled that back in the 1880s a family of Spokane Indians camped on the site of the new Gibson's Grocery (1011 1st Street) every winter. He said the camp was made up of about 10 to 15 teepees. This site is on high ground near the spring of water that gave Cheney its original name of Willow Springs.
Sam came to Cheney as a boy with his family on the first passenger train on the Northern Pacific Railroad line.
The Cheney area is part of the Spokane Tribe of Indians territory. 
Crunk’s Hill & Cheney’s First School
Located on the west side of North 6th Street near the corner of Mike McKeehan Way, Crunk's Hill was leveled to create sport fields. There is a plaque at the restrooms.
George W. Crunk came west from Tennessee. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War as a Private with the 20th Regiment, Kentucky Infantry, Company C. We don’t know when he came west, but by June 1878, he was farming this land with his wife, Annah, and their three children. The Crunk family did not stay long in the area, they moved to Oregon in 1883, but hill is remembered as part of Cheney lore because of an incident in the fall of 1878.
In 1915, Mary Cook Spangle spoke ...