• Our Evolving Relationship with History: A Conversation with Sarah Vowell, May 11, 2021, 4:00 pm. Please register here.

America’s relationship with history is changing and, with it, our views of public monuments. Debates are raging in towns and cities across the nation. Some monuments have come down, others defaced. Join us for 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.

This program is a partnership between Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA and Confluence, a community-supported nonprofit with the mission to connect people to the history, living cultures, and ecology of the Columbia River system through Indigenous voices. In recent years, the Whitman College community has debated the value a statue of the college’s namesake, Marcus Whitman.

• https://www.confluenceproject.org/library-post/an-evolutionary-moment-for-monuments/

On April 27th, 2021 Whitman College and Confluence Project held a conversation about healthy commemoration of Indigenous history and cultures. Guest speakers were Roberta Conner, director of Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, on the Umatilla Reservation near Pendleton, Oregon; Deana Dartt, PhD, Principal of Live Oak Consulting; and Emily Washines, board member of the Museum of Culture and Environment, Artist Trust, and Columbia Riverkeeper. All three guests are recognized thinkers in representation that elevates and amplifies a more inclusive version of history.