Confluence Library

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.

On May 11th we held a virtual conversation with writer Sarah Vowell to explore the national recalibration that’s underway over how America expresses its stories and values in public spaces.

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.

This podcast is on the Redheart Band and the memorial that is held every year in Vancouver, WA to honor them. The Redheart Band was imprisoned by the US military, during the “Nez Perce Wars”, in 1877 — a little boy died in captivity and 1998, an annual memorial that began to honor him and the Redheart Band.

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.

Paul Lumley, the Executive Director of NAYA PDX, talks about how treaties are a source of power for tribes, the importance of tribes being in charge of their own science, and the resilence and passion tribes have to maintain their traditions.

Tanna Engdahl, the spiritual leader of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, talks about Cowlitz federal recognition, the experience of non-treaty tribes, the impact of the disease on the Cowlitz and the spiritual power of sacred sites and ancestors.