A record-setting round of Oregon Cultural Trust grants is directing significant funding toward Warm Springs, with the Warm Springs Community Action Team set to receive $30,000 to support traditional cultural education for Tribal youth.
The Oregon Cultural Trust announced this year it is distributing $4.5 million in grants statewide — its largest distribution in the organization's history. The Warm Springs award will fund trips connecting up to 120 Tribal youth with Elders and traditional teachers, with activities centered on gathering First Foods such as roots, salmon, and huckleberries.
Rooted in Tradition
The First Foods gathering program reflects the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs' long-standing commitment to passing traditional ecological knowledge from one generation to the next. For the Warm Springs, Wasco, and Paiute peoples whose ancestral territory spans from the Cascade crest to the Deschutes River canyon, knowledge of the land — when and where to harvest, how to prepare and preserve — has been central to cultural identity for thousands of years.
The grants come as tribal communities across Oregon continue efforts to strengthen cultural transmission to younger generations, particularly following disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additional Funding for Native Arts Across Oregon
The Warm Springs Community Action Team award is part of a broader investment in Native culture statewide. The Portland-based Confluence Project also received more than $22,000 from the Oregon Cultural Trust to host Native-led arts workshops across Oregon, pairing Indigenous youth with artists to learn crafts including regalia making, beadwork, filmmaking, and photography. Trust funds will also support an Indigiqueer comedy production touring tribal communities statewide.
Poet Laureate Visits the Reservation
Separately, the Warm Springs community this week welcomed Joy Harjo — renowned Native American poet, musician, author, and three-term U.S. Poet Laureate — for an evening of poetry and conversation at the Wyam Youth Center. The free community event featured a reading, storytelling, and an interactive Q&A session.
For more information on the Warm Springs Community Action Team's youth programs, contact the organization through the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs at warmsprings-nsn.gov.