For this Museum After Hours, Bobbie Conner will present on tribal place names in the Walla Walla Valley.

“Cáw Pawá Láakni, They Are Not Forgotten, Sahaptian Place Names Atlas of the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla.

Long before Lewis and Clark and their expedition arrived in this neighborhood in 1805 selecting waterways and places to rename, the places important to us had Tribal names and stories.  The book (title above) and database that capture this traditional knowledge of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation is a study in land tenure and a kinship with the land that will be carried forward by future generations.  We documented cultural meaning and attempted to erase boundaries to reach back to an understanding of how lives were lived here for millennia.”

Bobbie is the director of Tamástslikt[1] (Tah-MAHST-slickt) Cultural Institute, the 45,000 square foot tribally-owned museum on the Umatilla Reservation near Pendleton, Oregon, which opened in 1998.  The Institute serves three goals:  to accurately present the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla[2] peoples history, to perpetuate knowledge of their history and culture, and to contribute to the Tribal economy.

Bobbie is Cayuse, Umatilla and Nez Perce and is enrolled at the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla. She is a graduate of Pendleton High School, the University of Oregon, and Willamette University’s Atkinson Graduate School of Management.

She serves on the Eastern Oregon University and Oregon Historical Society Boards of Trustees and the Ecotrust and Oregon Community Foundation Boards of Directors.

[1] Tamástslikt (Tah-mahst-slickt) means turn, translate or interpret in Wallulapam.

[2] The three Tribes comprise the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR).