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).

Day 1: Consent and Community Lecture Session

Indigenous communities globally are often the epicenter of testing for geoengineered “climate solutions,” and many initiatives do little or nothing to meaningful secure consent from these communities. Here in the Columbia River basin, the situation is similar as geotechnical solutions are being funded to proceed in a test phase, with little planning to meaningfully engage local communities and Columbia River Treaty Tribes around the initiatives. This lecture session examines what it means to meaningfully engage with Indigenous peoples and some international mechanisms like the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) that provide a framework that can be used by those seeking to secure consent for these projects. 

• “Consent in Carbon Mitigation Projects”
  Presented by Denise Fernandes, Whitman College

This lecture session was designed to locate our discussions of carbon mitigation in a global context, examining how Indigenous communities around the world are being impacted by large carbon removal/mitigation projects that have been implemented at the objection of local and Indigenous communities. [More details from Denise’s lecture]

No recording is available of this lecture to respect requests of presenters to privacy.

• "International Law: American Tribes"
  Presented by Carl Merkle, Salmon Recovery Policy Analyst, CTUIR DNR FFPP

Federally recognized Tribes in the United States have access to unique legal and policy mechanisms as protections secured during the Tribal treaty signing era. There are also some international mechanisms that may be available to Tribes in the United States to try and protect cultural practices and places, and to build on existing Treaty rights and protections, U.S. policy, and other successes in securing Tribal sovereignty and practices. Presentation slides for this lecture are available for download at the link below. 

Please find the recording of this lecture at the Youtube channel: [link]

[Carl's video]

Day 2: Hot Topics Lecture Session

Day 2 Hot Topics Lecture Session

Accelerated implementation for industrialized approaches to carbon removal have been funded for the Columbia River basin and surrounding lands. As this technology moves rapidly into a planning and development phase, many communities within the affected region have not seen meaningful opportunities to provide consent or rejection of these approaches, including 1855 Treaty Tribes. This rapid motion towards these technologies are one of the galvanizing reasons for the organizing and implementation of this Symposium.

To address these technologies and concerns around consent and Tribal Treaty Rights, the Hot Topics Lecture Session was offered without any competing activity mid day on the main Day 2.

• “Geological Carbon Sequestration in Oregon: An Update on State Investigations, September 2025”
  Presented by Jason McClaughery, Richard Walker, and Alex Lopez, Oregon Dept of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI)
  
  
• “Understanding Carbon Pricing Frameworks”
  Presented by Thomas Joseph, Carbon Pricing Educator with Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN)

Below are recordings from this lecture session, and associated presentation slides are available for download at the bottom of the webpage below. 

[DOGAMI video]

Day 3: PNW Carbon Policy Roundtable

On the event’s final day, we were looking towards the future. This day was an opportunity to bring together all the concepts and perspectives we learned about over the past two days, and explore different funding and policy mechanisms that exist and are coming online for the state of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest region.

Within this session, the following roundtable was held:

• “Carbon Sequestration in Oregon: Natural Climate Solutions”
  Presented by Alexa Schmidt, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB)
  
  
• “Oregon Department of Environmental Quality Climate Programs”
  Presented by Morgan Schafer, Climate Pollution Investments Coordinator, and Whitney Dorer, Climate Policy Community Engagement Coordinator, ODEQ

Below are recordings from this lecture session, and associated presentation slides are available for download at the bottom of the webpage below. 

[OWEB video]

[ODEQ video]