Mali Matt
Cultural & Language Specialist, SKC Division of Education
Stevenson Rm. 107
(406) 275-4771
- B.S., Native Language Teacher Education– Salish Kootenai College, 2022
- A.A., Salish Language Educator Development- Salish Kootenai College, 2022
- A.A., Office Professions- Salish Kootenai College, 2006
Marianne (Mali) Matt was born in St. Ignatius, MT. Her grandparents were Frank (Dewey) Matt and Ferol Porter; her parents were Anthony Matt and Geraldean Cole. Mali Matt is an enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and grew up on the Flathead River. Mali said that the white earth at the river was her first teacher of the Salish language and culture. There, she found the connections she would need later to learn the Salish language and culture with her elders.
From 2004-2014, Mali was a student and worked at the Salish Kootenai College with Alec Quequesah, a fluent Salish language speaker and cultural leader of the Confederation Salish Kootenai Tribes. For the next decade, Alec’s cultural teachings ignited Mali’s cultural knowledge, and she soon began teaching the Salish language at SKC. On this journey, she also met Supi Mays, whose teachings are in Mali’s Salish language and culture today. Mali is forever grateful for Alec Quequesah and Supi Mays’s contribution to her cultural education and their support in revitalizing and perpetuating the Salish language and culture.
From 2014 to 2020, Mali became a Salish Language Cultural Specialist for the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes Early Childhood Services and began teaching small children the Salish language and culture. Mali also worked with CSKT tribal elder Lucy Vanderburg in creating Early Childhood Services Salish language curriculum. Working with young children and families on the reservation was an honor and a privilege for Mali, and the experience awoke the importance of giving the Salish language and culture to younger generations.
By 2019, Mali decided to pursue her education in the Native Language Teaching Education program at the Salish Kootenai College. In 2022, she earned an associate’s degree in Salish Language Educator Development and her bachelor’s in Native Language Teacher Education. Mali is also pursuing a bachelors in Culture and Language and a Tribal Historic Preservation degree offered at the Salish Kootenai College. The educational degrees have strengthened Mali’s language and culture to give back to her community. In 2024, Mali became the Cultural & Language Specialist with the Division of Education at SKC, helping to infuse these aspects of learning in all SKC teacher training courses.
A wise elder once told Mali about the Salish language, “We are born with our language. We must wake it up. We are all born with it. ” (Dolly Linsebigler). Mali has not forgotten her elders’ words and continues to retell their stories, language, and culture to all who want to learn.