#SupportIndigneous – Rachel Cushman

At Confluence, we are proud to support Native creativity, scholarship and education in all its forms. This week, we are proud to spotlight Rachel Cushman, secretary/treasurer of the Chinook Indian Nation, editor of Volume 4 of Voices of the River, Indigenous Knowledge practitioner, activist, educator, and doctoral candidate in Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon. 

Rachel’s scholarship and writings engage the resurgence and revitalization of Indigenous ways of being and knowing, pigmentocracy, non-colonial economies, and Indigenous land stewardship. 

“I strive to be a Chinookan scholar who frames the work through a culturally specific, Indigenous feminist, de-/anti-colonial lens. Indigenous writers are practitioners, crafters, and stewards of our communities’ stories, and our futures necessitate that we insert our unique worldviews into the literature” – Rachel Cushman 

Rachel’s work connects her experience, scholarship, and Indigenous knowledge to create works that explore Indigenous futurities, and the practice of Radical Sovereignty. 

Rachel also works tirelessly for Chinook recognition, linking her work to broader struggles for sovereignty, land rights, and justice.