Lorena Medina-Dirksen

Washington State Park Special Interpreter at Fort Simcoe

Fort Simcoe, WA

September 9,th 2025

“I love it. I love the challenge of learning new things. I love it. Just talk with people and try to explain to them and try to make them amazed about what we have.”

For the past three years, Lorena has worked as the one and only Specialist Interpreter at the Washington State Park of Fort Simcoe located on the Yakama Nation Reservation. Coming from Mexico City twenty-eight years ago, Lorena’s passion was and remains sixteenth century Central Mexico Spaniards and Aztecs. For the time being, however, Lorena is enjoying the challenge of exploring new history and finding that there are many similarities between her home and Yakama.

As we spent the morning with Lorena touring the land, she relayed various historical facts. Fort Simcoe, originally a garden stewarded by indigenous peoples, was taken over by the US military during the Yakama War. Many of the buildings that once lined the open square are gone today but some remain to convey the past. From the large white Captain’s quarters at the heart of the fort to mundane wooden barracks further down the hill, we began to imagine what it may have been like back in the day of settler occupation. There is much to be felt and processed here, especially when thinking about the Indian boarding school and jail that once operated and remain as physical marks on the landscape. Yet Lorena is still here working to educate those that are willing to listen and learn about the complexity of the past.

by Allee Garver