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Thank you to everyone who made our Symposium an amazing success, we could not have done it without you!!

Naknuwiłáma Tiičámna First Foods, medicines, and textiles display set the stage for the carbon-focused discussions that took place as part of the event. Credit: Jeanine Gordon Sept/Oct 2025

About the Event

The Carbon & Culture Symposium invited Tribal Knowledge keepers, cultural practitioners, land managers, research groups, academics, and those who share CTUIR’s vision for the future to join us for a 3-day gathering at the Ascension School. Carbon management strategies are being proposed for our Columbia Plateau region, however our First Foods and working lands are being left behind. This event offered lectures by scientists and systems thinkers, alongside Indigenous knowledge workshops hosted by Naknuwiłáma Tiičámna (Caretakers of the Land).

WHY THIS SYMPOSIUM?

Our lands and systems that support First Foods have a huge role to play in preventing and reducing carbon emissions. This event hosted informed discussions about options, risks, and opportunities for carbon management while centering Tribal communities and relationships to the land. Around the world, carbon mitigation has the potential to be used for new land dispossession and access disruption for Indigenous people when these projects are implemented over the objections of Indigenous communities or without adequate consultation. In the United States, Indigenous land stewardship provide pathways for climate resilience, carbon emissions reduction, and carbon sequestration approaches that are accountable to ancestral lifeways and First Foods. Tribal Treaties are strong legal mechanisms to motivate climate action and the United Nation's framework on Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) provides guidance on how carbon mitigation initiatives can meaningfully consult with Tribes and communities in project development and implementation. 

 

Dogbane Cordage Making by Naknuwiłáma Tiičámna (Caretakers of the Land)

Symposium attendees participate in Naknuwiłáma Tiičámna's Dogbane Cordage Making workshop, which was offered as a central feature of the event. Dogbane is a native plant species that has been used for textiles creation for Tribal people but has been threatned by carbon emitting practices like wetland draining, agricultural tillage, and urban development. Credit Monica Paradise 2025

Dogbane cordage finished product; this native plant provides a beautiful and soft golden fiber that can be used in basket and clothing weaving. Credit Monica Paradise 2025

[Photo description, Credit: CTUIR DNR FFPP Ermia Butler 2025]

Day 1:

Consent and Community

• Consent in Carbon Mitigation Projects; Whitman College
• Carbon & Culture: International Law, Native American Tribes; CTUIR First Foods Policy Program

 

[Additional content coming soon]

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[Photo description, Credit Stephen Martinez, 2025]

Day 2 PM

Hot Topics

• Understanding Carbon Pricing Frameworks; Indigenous Environmental Network
• Geological Carbon Sequestration in Oregon: An Update on State Investigations, September 2025; Oregon Dept of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI)

 

 

Staff and contributors for Crow Shadow Institute for the Arts review and judge student poster competition entries .Credit: CTUIR DNR FFPP Sept 2025]

Day 3 AM

PNW Carbon Policy

• Oregon Department of Environmental Quality Climate Programs; ODEQ
• PNW Carbon Policy Roundtable; Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB)

 

 

Symposium attendees checked into the event at the welcome table ouside Founders Hall; thank you to First Foods Policy Program's Ermia Butler and Althea Huesties-Wolf for staffing the table and making everyone feel welcome! Photo Credit: CTUIR DNR FFPP 2025

Day 2 AM

First Foods as Climate Resilience; CTUIR DNR Cultural Resources Protection Program and, CTUIR First Foods Policy Program

 

Working Lands Science

• A First Foods Approach to Landscape Stewardship, Management, and Restoration; Oregon State University
• Understanding Carbon in Our Working Lands of Eastern Oregon; USDA ARS Burns Station
• Carbon Markets Finance Rangeland Health Assessment; The Nature Conservancy
• Soil Carbon in the Dryland Agricultural systems of the Columbia Basin: Lessons Learned at the Pendleton Research Station; Oregon State University

 

 

[Photo description, Credit: CTUIR DNR FFPP Sept/Oct 2025]

Day 2 PM

Lands and Systems

• Mountains to Oceans - How First Foods Salmon Weave Mountains, Oceans, Carbon and Culture Together; Global Ocean Health
• Carbon Stability in Oregon’s Dry Forests; The Nature Conservancy
• Refugia of the Blue Mountains; Wallowology
• Cultivating A Resilient Foods System: DEQ’s Initiatives in Food Waste Prevention, Rescue, and Recovery; ODEQ, with the NDTIA!P Team

 

 

[Photo description, Credit: CTUIR DNR FFPP Sept/Oct 2025]

Day 2: Celebration of Indigenous Joy

Centering the joy of Indigenous people in climate mitigation

[Photo description Jacy Sohappy Crow's Shadow. Photo credit: CTUIR DNR FFPP Ermia Butler Sept/Oct 2025]]

[Photo description, Gatherers Project featuring Brosnan Spencer. Photo credit CTUIR DNR FFPP Ermia Butler Sept/Oct 2025]

[Photo description, Credit CTUIR DNR FFPP Sept/Oct 2025]

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Symposium Proceedings Report and Confluence Series

 

Below is a DRAFT schedule for event follow up, we will be reaching out to event participants and organizing partners to develop materials resulting from this gathering. 

 

Fall 2025	·       Awards, stipends, and travel assistance paperwork and delivery – anticipated complete end of Nov ·       Thank you letters – Oct/Nov o   Let us know if you didn’t get yours! ·       Feedback survey – up currently, open to Jan 31, 2026 ·       Get slides from presenters/volunteers – Oct/Nov ·       Update website – Nov ·       Transcribe and publish notes on website -- Nov ·       Footage from Fungaia (Paul) – Dec --------
Winter 2026	·       Begin Commission/committee review – Dec/Jan o   Footage for Confluence series, Fungaia o   Proceedings Report input/concerns/guidance o   Ways to continue the conversation ·       Begin drafting Proceedings Report – Dec ·       Confluence Series/Video Content Development ·       Consent and content review with event participants – Jan/Feb o   What story do we want to tell? o   What format do we want it to look like? ·         ------
Spring 2026	·       Draft Proceedings Report available for review and comment – March/April ·       Revise report -- May -----
Summer 2026	·       Revised Proceedings Report available for final comment – June/July ·       Revise draft final report – Aug ·         ------
Fall 2026	·       CTUIR Board of Trustees review and adopt ~ Sept/Oct ·       Publish final report – Oct 2026 ·       Confluence footage/timeline TBD ------

 

Below is a copy of the past event's agenda

 

This event is the culmination of a partnership with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality associated with the EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) Program, spanning early 2023 to the event in Fall 2025, and ongoing. Below are links to materials that have been produced as part of this effort, and will provide you with a foundation of understanding of the information that will be covered during this working partnership.

Page updated 6.26.2026