History and Culture Virtual Summit

Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
2020 History and Culture Summit

The History and Culture Summit is an annual event hosted by the Cultural Resources Department of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde that highlights the Tribe's relationships, places, and practices throughout its lands. The Summit supports a healthy community and promotion of Tribal lifeways through presentations of current research, leading hands-on activities, and cultivating community outreach.

Zig Zag Border

HELD ON OCTOBER 14th / 7PM

Marys Peak Group of the Sierra Club, The Spring Creek Project, and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde present the October 2020 Virtual Champinefu Lecture|

Changes in the LandOregon 1800 to 2020

Presented By| Dr. Stephen Dow Beckham, Professor Emeritus of History at Lewis & Clark College

Program Description:
This program addresses the changing landscape of Oregon resulting from settlement through industrialization and into the present. It addresses in some 165 images the significant historic period impacts on the state’s landscape. It covers Native American fire ecology, fur trade and overland emigration with the introduction of new diseases and species, mining, fishing, farming, logging, river and harbor projects, roads and highways, power line corridors, replanting of monocultures (firs, wheat, and other products), among other related subjects.

Click HERE to view a recording of the presentation.

Click HERE for a reading list shared during the live presentation.

History Cultural Summit 2020

HELD ON OCTOBER 22ND / 6PM - 7:30PM

The Oregon Historical Society & The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde present

The Surprising Adventures of George Gibbs,
1816-1873, on the Oregon Frontier

Presented By| Dr. Stephen Dow Beckham Professor Emeritus of History, Lewis & Clark College, with a panel discussion to follow.

Panelists| Dr. Stephen Dow Beckham, Dr. Sara Gonzales (University of Washington), Dr. Shannon Tushingham (Washington State University),and David Harrelson (Grand Ronde Tribes)

George Gibbs traveled overland to Oregon in 1849 and remained for eleven years to work in Oregon, Washington and California as the pioneer ethnographer, linguist, and collector of material culture for the Smithsonian. A Harvard law graduate, he participated in the Willamette Valley and NW California treaty councils of 1851 and wrote the "fishing rights" clauses into the ten ratified Pacific NW treaties of 1854-55, serving as secretary and cartographer to the Western Washington Treaty Commission. He was a skilled map maker and artist, and in 1861 moved to a tower apartment in the Smithsonian building on the mall in D.C. where he labored for a decade on publications and laying the groundwork for the Bureau of American Ethnology. The presentation draws heavily on the contemporary artwork by Gibbs and his associates as well as his maps, collections of artifacts, and scholarly publications. There are some "surprising" events in this man's life - thus the title. 

CLICK HERE to view a recording of the presentation and panel discussion.

History Cultural Summit 2020

HELD ON NOVEMBER 18TH / 7PM

Marys Peak Group of the Sierra Club, The Spring Creek Project and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde present the November 2020 Virtual Champinefu Lecture

StoryMap: Indigenous Naming of Creeks on Marys Peak

Presented By| Grand Ronde Tribal Members (Jesse Norton and Greg Archuleta)

In 2018, ten unnamed creeks on Marys Peak in Western Oregon were approved for naming by the USGS including words from three different indigenous languages to the place. This action had broad local support and participation. The process resulting in the new names has been hailed as a success story among naming efforts nationally. This effort serves as an example of how tribes, and the indigenous people of a place can be engaged and represented in a meaningful way. Join members of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and other participating partners in a virtual presentation on the naming efforts. The presentation will provide an overview of Marys Peak and the ten creeks through narrative, maps, photography, and video. This will be followed by a moderated discussion panel.

Click HERE to view a recording of the presentation.

History Cultural Summit 2020