Archives & Special Collections Events & Exhibits

Coming Home: How the Nez Perce Tribe Regained Their Cultural Heritage

Belongings deeply important to tribal communities are often housed in museums far away from those communities. In this talk, professor and author Trevor Bond shares how the Nez Perce Tribe and their allies purchased the largest and oldest collection of Nez Perce material culture—including dresses, shirts, and other regalia— from a museum over 2,000 miles away from their homeland. This hopeful story of cultural resiliency and making amends for past injustices explores issues surrounding collection and curation, and the changing relationships between museums and Native communities. It’s a story that transcends the efforts of one Northwest tribe to show how many indigenous communities are reuniting with their heritage.

Racing Silences: Lumber, Labor and Atemporalities in 1910s and 1920s Whatcom County

Janna Haider, a PhD candidate in the Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara and 2023 James W. Scott Fellowship recipient, discusses the history and narratives of race, racism and organized labor in Bellingham and the larger region with specific reference to the 1907 race riots, and the challenge of silences in the archives about South Asian and non-white workers and race.

'Command the Air and You Command the Market’: The Story of KVOS v. Associated Press (1936)

Dr. Helen Knowles, 2020 James W. Scott Research Fellow, presents on Pacific Northwest broadcasting pioneer Rogan Jones and the landmark 1936 U.S. Supreme Court case of KVOS v. Associated Press.

In Conversation with Robert Ashworth and Betty Desire: Unboxing a Local Queer History, 1975-1995

What insights about Queer experience can we gain from looking at our recent past? What key comparisons can we draw upon to understand Queer experience today?

WWU Associate Professor and Chair of Secondary Education, Dr. A Longoria (Woodring), facilitates a conversation with long-time community members Robert Ashworth and Betty Desire about the history of local LGBTQ+ activism and Queer community in Bellingham from 1975-1995.

Making and Unmaking Histories of Settler Violence and Colonialism in the Pacific Northwest

How has settler colonialism and violence been documented in narratives about communities, indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in the Pacific Northwest? And what are the roles and responsibilities of historians and educators in addressing those as they explore and present the past?

Panelists Marc Carpenter, (PhD candidate in the University of Oregon’s History Department), Dr. Josh Cerretti (WWU History Department and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies), Michelle Vendiola (Community organizer, educator, and member of the Walker River Paiute Tribe of Nevada), Laurel Ballew (WWU Executive Director of American Indian/Alaska Native and First Nations Relations & Tribal Liaison to the President), and Dr. Jennifer Seltz, moderator (WWU History Department), engage in a facilitated conversation about past, present and future approaches to the telling of local and regional history.

Women in High Places: To Annapurna and Beyond

Dr. Arlene Blum, biophysical chemist and mountaineer, has led successful expeditions to some of the world’s most challenging mountains. She is the author of the mountaineering classics, Annapurna: A Woman’s Place and Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life, and is also engaged in efforts to protect human health and the global environment. In this talk, Blum shares images and stories from her climbs of several high peaks, and speak about her scientific research and policy work.

Place Matters: Understanding Sense of Place for Communities, Policy, and Planning

Dr. David J. Trimbach, 2018 Recipient of the James W. Scott Regional Research Award and a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University, discusses sense of place and how it relates to communities, policy, and planning. He highlights examples pulled from various pertinent case studies and his research on minority Russian speakers in post-Soviet Estonia, and his current collaborative regional ecosystem recovery work with the Puget Sound Partnership, particularly the agency’s use of sense of place as a social measure or metric of human well-being in the Puget Sound region.