Tribe participates in event aimed at reconnecting communities and their work along the Willamette River

By Danielle Harrison

Smoke Signals editor

PORTLAND -- Tribal representatives, nonprofits, government officials and service agencies gathered Wednesday, March 18, during an event that promoted reconnecting communities through restoration, redevelopment and cultural renewal along the Willamette River.

“Reimagine the River,” organized by the 1803 Fund, Ecotrust and Willamette Falls Trust, was held at The Redd in Portland and focused on the various groups in attendance learning more about other projects promoting public access, environmental stewardship and economic opportunities.

There were approximately 400 attendees in person and online.

“The goal of ‘Reimagine the River,' was to bring together several communities and leaders who are all engaged in redevelopment work so that we can better understand the work that each of us is doing,” Tribal Council member Kathleen George, who attended the event, said. “I think one of the things that came out of it is a shared vision of restoring community around our Willamette River. This was an opportunity to not only talk about the work we are doing at tumwata village, but also to expand the conversations we’ve been having with the local cities and counties to other groups who are doing community river restoration as well.”

During the event, George discussed the intent for the day and also moderated a panel discussion about effectively building coalitions.

“I led a conversation between the leaders of the 1803 Fund, Ecotrust and the Willamette Falls Trust to share some reflections on what we had heard that day and then invited each of them to share their thoughts about next steps coming out of the event,” she said.

The Tribe is in the demolition phase of its tumwata village project in Oregon City and on the other side of the river in West Linn, the Willamette Falls Trust has its own project promoting inter-Tribal access, a collaboration between the Warm Springs, Siletz, Umatilla and Yakama Nation Tribes.

The event was the first time the Tribes met to discuss their projects after longstanding tensions between Grand Ronde and the Willamette Falls Trust. The Tribe was part of the trust until withdrawing from the group in 2021, citing an undermining of the Tribe’s sovereignty and micro-aggressions at the staff and board levels.

“In talking about the event with Tribal Council, we very much wanted to participate in the hopes that we could focus on the good that can come out of community redevelopment of our river and this was an opportunity to approach conversations that can do that,” George said. “I had the opportunity to welcome everyone there to our Tribe’s homelands and to share our vision of how restoring healing to the river can restore healing to the community. Our hope was that participating in a positive way can be a part of that.”

George noted that the Tribe’s work on the Willamette River and at tumwata village is “going to be there forever.”

“It’s going to continue,” she said. “We are going to rebuild community and invite people back to the falls. Willamette Falls Trust is working on identifying a project that they hope to move forward on the West Linn side of the river. And if there are opportunities to be knowledgeable about each other’s work and to create projects that the most people can benefit from, we want to be a part of that…I think Grand Ronde hopes to see healing of relationships and we’re hoping that this can be a step in that healing process.”

In addition to George, Tribal Engineering & Community Development Department Manager Ryan Webb, Tribal Community Development Manager Kristen Svicarovich and Tribal Ceded Lands Manager Michael Karnosh attended the event.

Webb served as a panelist during a discussion about restructuring, reinvesting and rethinking the value of waterfront development along the river, where he gave a presentation on tumwata village.

“I always enjoy any opportunity to talk about the progress the Tribe has made at this site since we purchased it in 2019,” he said. “My presentation was short as I shared the stage with other presenters, however, I think I was able to convey to the audience how much work the Tribe has accomplished. Given all the other presenters there throughout the day I think it was clear that the Tribe has made significant progress on developing our site along the Willamette River compared to other entities/nonprofits and their respective sites.”

George agreed.

“The work at tumwata village has been enormous and the 24-acre site is just huge with all of the buildings and structures that were on there,” she said. “I think just so many people looked and saw this old, industrial monstrosity and this was an opportunity for Ryan to really talk about how much work has already occurred. So many people came up to me and shared their excitement about the progress they saw and their excitement about the vision that Ryan shared.”

George said that overall, the event was a strong start to a “much needed,” conversation.

“One of the things we heard loud and clear is that people want this to be the first of several meetings and so I think the group will come back together and give some thought about how we can continue that,” she said. “What we want to avoid is people working in their very community specific silos…We can do our best when we’ve talking to one another.