Grand Coulee Dam: The Intersection of Modernity and Indigenous Cultures

FAIN: BH-267057-19

Eastern Washington University (Cheney, WA 99004-1619)
Dorothy Zeisler-Vralsted (Project Director: February 2019 to November 2020)
David Pietz (Co Project Director: August 2019 to November 2020)

Two one-week workshops for 72 school teachers on the construction and impact of the Grand Coulee Dam.

“Grand Coulee Dam — The Intersection of Modernity and Indigenous Cultures” These workshops, serving teachers in grades K-12, will explore how different social groups experience history – actual historical events and the memory of those events. More specifically, the project will unpack the history of Grand Coulee Dam as a landmark of contested narratives. One narrative celebrated the social, economic and cultural power of modernity. The other focused on the loss of indigenous cultural identities and practices. Participants will explore these historical dynamics in discussion with experts, site visits, and engagement with primary historical material including oral histories, art, song and photographs. The project’s goal is to equip teachers with unique and meaningful analytical frameworks to engage their humanities and social science students in conversations centered on how social groups experience and interpret transformative changes of the landscape.