In this excerpt, Antone Minthorn talks about the beginning of Confluence and it’s role in teaching the next seven generations.
Bio: Antone Minthorn has served for more than twenty years with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) in various roles, from chief planner to chair of the board of trustees. He is a founding board member of Confluence.
Transcript:When we first did it, came up with that idea, of Confluence and why do we need to participate? Well, the American needs to know where the tribes, where the Native Americans are today. They need to understand that. It was very narrowly Umatilla when we initially talked about it, but now when the Confluence of the six, seven projects that were going down the river were starting to communicate with the whole basin, the mid-Columbia basin, about tribes and about the management of natural resources…And there’s tremendous, wonderful things happening like that She-Who-Watches presentation. Big things are happening there. But again it started from this idea but its people that make it work. It’s people that can make the goals of building strong economies and preserving natural resources over the next seven generations because these little guys are learning about it.