Confluence

Listen for a short update on the podcast, including information about our upcoming special episode and where we're appearing next.

Two family members, Emily Washines (Yakama)and Josiah Pinkham (Nez Perce), discuss finding resilience, comfort, and strength in times of challenge.

In this episode, the speakers discuss being a voice for the orcas, salmon, and the waterways they live in. Listen to the episode to learn from Washington State Representative Debra Lekanoff (Tlingit), Klickitat Tribal Elder Wilbur Slockish, and James Holt, (Nez Perce) the Executive Director of the Buffalo Field Campaign on how to care for these important members of our ecosystem.

How are orcas connected to salmon?

In this episode Washington State Representative Debra Lekanoff (Tlingit), Klickitat Tribal Elder Wilbur Slockish, and James Holt, (Nez Perce) the Executive Director of the Buffalo Field Campaign discuss the orcas, salmon, and waterways that bring and grace to our region and how they require committed caretakers – now more than ever.

Answering the question, “Who Gets to be an American?” Elizabeth Woody, Chuck Sams and Patricia Whitefoot talk about how to help people become more American, through an Indigenous lens.

Answering the question, “Who Gets to be an American?” Elizabeth Woody, Chuck Sams, and Patricia Whitefoot talk about the complex nature of US citizenship, the sovereignty of tribal nations, the responsibility to the land, the kinship network to the non-human elements of the land, and the relationship to the world.

How can we maintain cultural traditions throughout the pandemic and draw on them for strength? Join Emily Washines (Yakama) and Chuck Sams (CTUIR) to hear first-hand stories of the different ways Tribes have responded. This podcast episode will go beyond statistics and headlines to consider the daily lives of Native people as they confront what, for them, is the most recent pandemic.

Indigenous communities in our region have been hit disproportionately hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Join Emily Washines (Yakama) and Chuck Sams (CTUIR) to hear first-hand stories of the different ways Tribes have responded. This conversation will go beyond statistics and headlines to consider the daily lives of Native people as they confront what, for them, the most recent pandemic.

Emily Washines is an enrolled Yakama Nation tribal member with Cree and Skokomish lineage. She speaks Ichiskiin (Yakama language) and other Native languages. A scholar, with a Master’s in Public Administration, her research and work in film, writing, speaking and exhibits focuses on the Yakama War, Native women, traditional knowledge, resource management, fishing rights, and food sovereignty. Yakima Herald-Republic lists her as Top 39 under 39. She is a board member of the Museum of Culture and Environment, Artist Trust, and Columbia Riverkeeper. Emily lives on the Yakama reservation with her husband and three children

Chuck Sams is Cayuse, Walla Walla, Cocopah, and Yankton Sioux. He grew up on the Umatilla Indian Reservation. He is the Deputy Executive Director for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR). Prior positions include Environmental Health and Safety Officer/Planner in the Tribal Planning Office for the CTUIR, Executive Director for the Umatilla Tribal Community Foundation, and National Director of the Tribal & Native Lands Program for the Trust for Public Land. He serves as Chairman to the Oregon Cultural Trust, Gray Family Foundation, and Columbia Land Trust. He is a veteran of the U.S. Navy where he served as an intelligence specialist.

In this episode of the Confluence Podcast, Robin Wall Kimmerer speaks to Confluence about unlearning the settler view of land and listening to the land.

In this episode of the Confluence Podcast, Robin Wall Kimmerer asks the audience to consider what the earth asks of us and how we can do right by the land.

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim.