Conduct Archival Research and Document Cultural Stories of the Hanford Site

Project ID: P25AC01108

Federal Agency: National Park Service

Partner Institution: Eastern Washington University

Fiscal Year: 2025

Initial Funding: $46,292

Total Funding: $46,292

Principal Investigator: Le Bar, Ann

Agreement Technical Representative: Burghart, Rebecca

Abstract: 

Background:

Tribal people of the Columbia Plateau have lived and traveled through the area that is now called the Hanford Site since time immemorial. The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and Nez Perce Tribe signed treaties with the US government in 1855 that guaranteed them access to land in the mid-Columbia for traditional and accustomed uses including hunting and gathering resources such as salmon, game, and medicinal plants. With the arrival of the Manhattan Project in 1943 Tribes, including the Wanapum Band who did not sign a treaty with the federal government, were excluded from ancestral homelands and areas established in the Treaties of 1855 for traditional and accustom uses when the government built the Hanford Site to produce plutonium for Manhattan Project.

Project Summary:

This project aims to create a technical report and public education materials that share the unique perspectives and experiences of the four above-listed Tribal nations (referred to as the Hanford Tribes) with a focus on the Manhattan Project era. This project seeks to facilitate dialogue, education, and understanding among the public about the implications of the Manhattan Project at Hanford on Indigenous lands, cultures, and futures.

The project will be carried out by faculty at Eastern Washington University (EWU) in collaboration with cultural resources specialists from the Hanford Tribes and Manhattan Project National Historical Park staff.