First Foods & Indigenous Cultural Lifeways of the Columbia River Basin

Friends of Tryon Creek Executive Director Gabe Sheoships is an enrolled citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. He has spent the past two decades working on behalf of the restoration, protection, and education of Indigenous First Food resources. As part of the LO Reads program, he will share a broad cultural history of the region and discuss how this informs his work at Friends of Tryon Creek. Gabe will also share why Indigenous land management practices are crucial to address modern climate change challenges and other environmental adaptation strategies.

Friends of Tryon Creek is a 52 year old 501©(3) organization dedicated to the 660 acre urban forest within the boundaries of SW Portland and Lake Oswego, Oregon. Environmental education, community engagement and landscape restoration have been the focus of the organization’s mission, in partnership with Oregon State Parks. The organization has taken strides to recognize the Indigenous narrative of the land, and to serve the forest and human community through the relationship of an Indigenous worldview. Tryonfriends.org

Gabe has spent his life along the travel corridors and pathways of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers, following traditional migratory routes of his ancestors. Gabe has dedicated his life’s work to protecting Indigenous First Foods, encouraging healthy ecosystems and empowering people to act as stewards of the land and water. In the Portland metropolitan area, Gabe has roots and relationships with Black, Indigenous, Immigrant and Refugee communities that date back to the 1980s. Through these relationships Gabe has built and advocated for change and continued support to meet community needs that have shifted and grown in his 20 years of work.

Gabe is a Commissioner for the City of Portland’s Planning and Sustainability Commission. In other volunteer roles, Gabe serves as the Co-Chair of Nesika Wilamut, and is a board member for the Center for Diversity and the Environment and Freshwaters Illustrated, nonprofit organizations. Gabe has an MSc in Fisheries Biology from Oregon State University.

Oswego Heritage House, 398 Tenth St.; 10 a.m. 

Membership to AAUW is not required to attend this presentation.

American Association of University Women (AAUW) Lake Oswego-OR Branch is a not-for-profit whose mission is advancing equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. For additional information on this group: https://lakeoswego-or.aauw.net/(link is external)