About the Project

Nisqually Watershed Podcasts

The “Conceptualizing Native Place” program at The Evergreen State College used art and geography to explore Native and Western concepts about place. In Winter quarter of 2009, students in the full-time academic program created 10-minute documentary podcasts (audio tracks with accompanying still images) on the Nisqually River Watershed. The project had the permission and guidance of the Nisqually Tribal Council and Culture Committee to document tribal natural and cultural resource programs. These podcasts can be watched over the web, or downloaded onto iTunes and transferred to a video iPod player. They can be also played at a larger size on iTunes, though some of the small maps may be pixelated (fuzzy).

In order to create these podcasts about relationships between people, places, and species within the Nisqually Watershed in the southern end of Washington’s Puget Sound, students interviewed local people, researched archives and other published materials, learned to use audio recording equipment, learned to edit audio and photographic files, created their own maps and graphics, and obtained permissions to use anything they did not create themselves. They worked in three-person teams and produced these podcasts during a 10-week period. Most of them started with little or no digital media experience. Their final projects tell some of the stories of the Nisqually Valley and our place in it.

Our enduring thanks to the Nisqually Tribal Council, Culture Committee, tribal staff members, federal, state and local government staff, and tribal members and private citizens interviewed for these Podcasts. Thanks also to Evergreen technical staff for the computer application trainings and support. Finally, thanks to the awesome students of Conceptualizing Native Place for challenging themselves and forming a strong learning community to bring these documentaries to the world.

Dr. Lara Evans
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Dr. Zoltan Grossman
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Faculty, Conceptualizing Native Place program
Fall 2008 syllabus
Winter 2009 syllabus

Click on map and photo to enlarge

Base map by Nisqually Tribal Natural Resources Department,
adapted by Zoltan Grossman for the Conceptualizing Native Place program.

Photo by Cindy Marchand-Cecil

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