The Umatilla flows from the western flanks of eastern Oregon’s Blue Mountains, a subrange of the Rockies that merges the Cascades ecosystem with aridity and granite. The Umatilla watershed is both the ancestral and present-day home of a thriving Native American community (the adjoining reservation is shared by the Cayuse, Walla-Walla, and Umatilla tribes). Grey wolves are returning to the area after decades of absence, and in many ways the conflicts of the Blue Mountains are a microcosm of the West.
Our journey will visit contemporary cultural institutions on the Umatilla Reservation before traveling to a nearby Wilderness and areas that are at threat from ranching and timber extraction. Readings and discussions will evaluate the idea of wilderness in the context of colonial settlement and Native American struggles for sovereignty and human rights.
The ‘pack-n-park’ model is our way of getting the best of all worlds: we backpack away from the roads and buildings and then set up a base camp from which to explore the surrounding countryside.
Participants: Alisha Adams, Zack Bent, Jennifer Day, Emma Houlihan, Simone Mueller , Stephanie O’Neill, Scott Polach, Anna Van Kooij, Kim Zitzow, Marina Zurkow
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