Since settler colonialism, seasonal flooding along the Columbia has been a threat, a destabilizing force to be mitigated. Native understanding knows that seasonal flooding brings necessary replenishment and resources for sustainable ecosystem health. Join David Lewis and Teara Farrow Ferman for a discussion about Traditional life along the watersheds and how Native knowledge is addressing concerns for healthier watersheds today and moving forward.
This partnered event is the first of a three-part series offered by the Columbia Slough Watershed Council. The series examines the history of the watershed and its management to help inform current developments of a new watershed district with a stronger commitment to improved wildlife habitat, water quality, and the promotion of equity and social justice.
Support for this program comes from the Oregon Cultural Trust and the Multnomah County Drainage District.
Speakers:
Teara Farrow Ferman is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. She is the Manager of the Cultural Resources Protection Program for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) and the Assistant General Manager for Átaw Consulting, LLC, a small business enterprise of the CTUIR that she began in 2008.Teara has been employed with the CTUIR since 1994 and for the Cultural Resources Protection Program since 1996. Teara’s main emphasis has been on gathering and managing tribal oral histories and protecting and managing places of significant to the CTUIR and its tribal members. Her goal is twofold: to be able to utilize oral history knowledge to protect all cultural resources, not just the archaeology but the CTUIR’s First Foods – water, salmon, deer, roots, berries, and medicines – and all that we depend on for survival to perpetuate the CTUIR’s culture by encouraging tribal members to exercise their reserved Treaty Rights. This also includes the need to protect and preserve places where our ancestors are buried.
David Lewis is a member of the Grand Ronde Tribe. He is a descendent of the Takelma, Chinook, Molalla, and Santiam Kalapuya. A recognized researcher, scholar, educator, and writer of original histories of the peoples of Oregon and California, he was also previously the Cultural Manager for the Grand Ronde. David has worked on collaborative projects with regional scholars, tribes, local governments, and communities for over 20 years.