Whitman Stories

This vibrant celebration of Native American culture and community will feature dancing, drumming, singing and special competitions, with participation from tribal nations across the Pacific Northwest. The powwow and three educational presentations leading up to the event are free and open to the public.

Enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and former Director of the National Park Service, Chuck Sams will speak at Whitman College’s 2025 commencement ceremony on May 25.

Whitman College hosted the First Foods Festival on Nov. 9. The event offered activities and education about the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation and their exciting initiatives for environmental stewardship.

Whitman College welcomed visitors to campus for Family Weekend last month. President Bolton kicked off the events with an informative Q&A, touching on the curriculum, campus climate and more.

The Whitman alum returns to campus this week as a featured author for the 2024–2025 Visiting Writers Reading Series. In his memoirs, Álvarez explores his relationship to nature, spirituality, and his Mexican and Indigenous heritage.

Three Native American students received the Šináata Scholarship created in partnership by Whitman College and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

As a student, recent graduate Quinn Miller ’24 created a biology course, Campus Landscape: A Living Laboratory that was offered to fellow students in Spring 2024. The course and lab focused on developing projects that helped reintroduce native plants and Indigenous culture into the Whitman College campus.

With a combination of film screenings, tribal speakers, cultural performances, traditional salmon bake, and ceremonies, the Salmon Film Festival is designed to educate, inspire and celebrate the heritage of regional Indigenous communities. All festival events, taking place April 12 and 13, on Whitman’s campus, are free and open to the public.

Roger Amerman ’80 is a Choctaw beadworker who brought his expertise to the Marvel series "Echo." Now he's returning to Whitman as the O'Donnell Visiting Educator in Global Studies for Spring 2024. Amerman will teach a new course delving into the paleo-history, history and ethnogeology of salmon-centric Tribal Peoples in the southern Columbia River Plateau.

Whitman College, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) and Walla Walla Community College partnered to host the inaugural Pášx̣apa Powwow. More than 400 people came from three states and five tribal communities to attend this monumental event.

Whitman College sophomore Lindsey Pasena-Littlesky will be honored at the 2023 Indigenous Leadership Awards in Portland, Oregon in recognition of her significant contributions as a member of the CTUIR Youth Council.

Whitman College faculty and CTUIR partnered to provide STEM education to local Tribal youth in special summer school. During four weeks of immersion, students were very active in their science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. Classes took place in Pendleton, Oregon near the Umatilla Indian Reservation where the students could attend in their own school district.