Eleanor Williams
Email: ella7597@gmail.comPopulation: 4,3,000
Meet Eleanor Williams:
Eleanor graduated with honors from the University of Oregon with a B.S. in Environmental Studies and a minor in Legal Studies. She also graduated from the Clark Honors College, though which she wrote and defended a thesis titled: “Miscarriages of Justice: Examining Environmental Reproductive Injustices within Native American Communities.” As an Oregonian with a passion for environmental justice, Eleanor is very much looking forward to serving with RARE this year.
Community and Organization:
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation is a union of three tribes; Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla Tribes. The people of these tribes have lived in the Columbia River Region for more than 10,000 years. The current Umatilla Reservation is the product of a 1855 Treaty in which the three tribes ceded over 6.4 million acres to the United States of what now makes up northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington. The current Reservation is about 172,000 acres and is located primarily in the town of Mission, about 5 miles east of the city of Pendleton. With over 3,100 tribal members, about half live on the Reservation where the main employees are the Nixyaawii Governance Center, Wildhorse Casino, and Cayuse Technologies.
Project:
During her 11-month term at CTUIR, Eleanor served within the First Foods Policy Program of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), whose mission is to “protect, restore, and enhance the First Foods…by utilizing traditional ecological and cultural knowledge and science.” Eleanor’s contribution to this work focused on food systems and food safety analysis. Part of this project included working with Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center and People of the Sacred Foods group to develop a Food Systems Assessment survey organized in line with the First Nations Development Institute Food Sovereignty Assessment Tool. This survey distribution and proceeding assessment provided a clearer sense of the accessibility limitations and resources surrounding First Foods. Eleanor also worked with the Tribal Planning department to produce a feasibility report for a community kitchen on the Reservation. Finally, Eleanor worked alongside the fisheries department to ensure that Tribal fish distribution methods align with the Food Safety Modernization Act and ensure the highest nutritional value for Tribal members.