Confluence Library

In this episode, we talk with Patsy Whitefoot. She’s an elder from the Yakama Nation, a well-known leader in education circles, an activist, and a Confluence board member. She talks about the Columbia River system, her experience with it, and the importance of reciprocity.

This year the Vanport Mosaic asks us to consider the WE in “WE THE PEOPLE,” and how we can Remember, Repair, Reclaim, and Re-imagine our collective stories. Confluence is partnering with the Vanport Mosaic to address this question, through a Story Collection that offers Indigenous perspectives on monuments, memorials, healing, and how to tell a more inclusive version of history to the public, through video interviews, short films, podcasts, articles, and more.

Communities across the nation have faced a reckoning with their monuments. The last year has seen a groundswell of questions about who gets to define our stories in the public sphere. On April 27th, 2021 we held a conversation consider modern examples of healthy commemoration of Indigenous history and cultures.

Two new episodes of the Confluence Story Gathering podcasts explore racism along the Columbia River in the 1950s. Parallel Lives is the two part story of Ed Edmo and Lani Roberts growing up in The Dalles, Oregon. Their juxtaposed stories give a full picture of rural Oregon and the parallel lives they led along the N’chi-Wana River.

Two new episodes of the Confluence Story Gathering podcasts explore racism along the Columbia River in the 1950s. Parallel Lives is the two part story of Ed Edmo and Lani Roberts growing up in The Dalles, Oregon. Their juxtaposed stories give a full picture of rural Oregon and the parallel lives they led along the N’chi-Wana River.

This Story Collection is based on a conversation between Native Storyteller Ed Edmo and Professor Lani Roberts, where they discussed their parallel childhoods growing up in The Dalles and the discrimination that Ed faced there.

Native American Elder, Storyteller, and Educator Ed Edmo, and former professor Lani Roberts speak about growing up in The Dalles during the 1950s. Although they grew up in the same area and are the same age, their lives were lived in parallel fashion because of the differences in their ethnic heritage.  Their juxtaposed stories give a full picture of rural Oregon and the parallel lives they led along the N’chi-Wana River.

This vintage postcard of Shoshone Falls was found in an antique store. The art was done by Horace C. Myers, an Idaho photographer.

The confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers was a major uniting force for tribes of the Columbia River basin. It became a major site for settlers later, as the waterways provided a convenient mode of transportation.

The Sacajawea State Park area saw a lot of change between the surrender of Chief Joseph and the revelation of the Hanford nuclear operations only a century later: railroads, dams, and plutonium replaced trade and family.