{"id":933,"date":"2025-10-15T20:39:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T20:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cofinternational\/?p=933"},"modified":"2025-12-09T19:35:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T19:35:43","slug":"indigenous-connections-across-continents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cofinternational\/2025\/10\/15\/indigenous-connections-across-continents\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous Connections Across Continents"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Forest Management, OSU<\/p>

Norah Steed<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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“Connection between humans is what we need the most.” – Tom\u00e1s Olivares Linco\u00f1ir<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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It\u2019s a sunny day in Frutillar Bajo, Chile, and most of the students living and studying at Estaci\u00f3n Experimental Frutillar are outside tossing a football around, happy to be done with classes for the day. However, inside the combination classroom\/common space\/dining room, Eliza Porter (OSU, Environmental Science) and Tom\u00e1s Olivares Linco\u00f1ir (Universidad de Chile, Forest Engineering) are sitting in front of a whiteboard, deep in conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eliza and Tom\u00e1s come from Indigenous backgrounds, the Yakama Nation of Washington and Mapuche of Central Chile, respectively. Over the course of their term-long OSU College of Forestry faculty-led program in Chile, they began to see similarities between their respective cultures and histories. Eliza remembers, \u201cPeople began to join the conversation, which was really cool and, I think, an important dialogue to have, especially to establish that sort of connection between us and see how invested the rest of the class was in learning about Indigenous people from both Chile and the US.\u201d Tom\u00e1s would later describe this cross-culture dialogue as a highlight of the program for him: \u201cI really had so much fun just talking and sharing experiences with everyone. In these times of biblical apocalypse, connection between humans is what we need the most.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tom\u00e1s and Eliza found similarities between the beliefs of Mapuche and Yakama culture. \u201cI understood that we have the same connection to the Earth and the rest of the living beings,\u201d with different ways of describing \u201cwhat \u2018mother earth\u2019 is.\u201d The largest difference he noted was \u201cthe particular ways of showing that connection.\u201d He also noted \u201creverence for the animals\u201d not just as a source of food, \u201cbut as a role of the creature in a reciprocal relationship, as we humans must defend and take care of the animals.\u201d Eliza put it this way: \u201cIt\u2019s similar in the way we view everything as interconnected, and it seems like we are very cognizant of balance and not taking more than is needed. Also ensuring this to make sure future generations are taken care of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During an excursion to Chilo\u00e9 Island, students visited the Regional Museum of Ancud, which features historical artifacts with the goal of preserving the culture and heritage of the island. Eliza recalls, \u201cIt was really interesting to see the similarities between different indigenous peoples and their culture based on the locations we visited having similar climates to those in the PNW. For instance, when we were in Chilo\u00e9 at the museum it was cool to see how similar the art, canoes, and other cultural artifacts were to some of the coastal tribes or Alaska native tribes in the US.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Representaci\u00f3n
Traditional Chilo\u00e9 canoe, from the collection of the Regional Museum of Ancud<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Traditional Chilo\u00e9 pottery, from the collection of the Regional Museum of Ancud<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, Eliza and Tom\u00e1s compared the legal treatment of Indigenous groups in Chile and the US. Eliza recounts that \u201cin the US, federally recognized tribes often have more legal access and ownership to some of their traditional homelands and territories than in Chile. It\u2019s different in the US based on type of recognition (federal, state, non-recognized) but overall, I think because of the treaties with the US, for many tribes there is more access to land and practicing their culture in usual and accustomed areas.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom\u00e1s reports, \u201cI learned that even if we are from such distant parts of the world, the history of Indigenous peoples have some powerful similarities, like the longing to be recognized as equals, but being portrayed as part of the modern nation-states.\u201d Tom\u00e1s laments \u201cthat In the USA several First Nations have federal recognition, something that does not exist in Chile.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Left: The official seal of the Yakama Nation (CRITFC 2025). Such federal recognition is nonexistent in Chile. Right: The flag of the Mapuche people (Wikimedia Commons).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Like Eliza and Tom\u00e1s, the other students found that their learning didn\u2019t stop at the end of class. Living side-by-side with Chilean students eager to share their culture with visitors, the students from OSU became immersed in the Chilean way of life. They enjoyed Chilean staples at dinner, including charquic\u00e1n, pastel de choclo, and lots of fresh pan amasado. They learned from Chilean professors, both from OSU and various Chilean universities. In the evenings, they would walk into town, exploring the area, enjoying a completo from a food stand, and playing volleyball on the beach with locals till dark. On weekends, they would hop on a bus and take off to explore nearby cities or go on day hikes, free to travel and get to know the area.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Students returned to OSU with a deeper understanding of the culture and people of Chile, of their own cultures, and of where they fit into the world. If you\u2019re interested in an experience like Eliza and Tom\u00e1s had, consider applying to the CoF faculty-led program \u201cWhere the Andes Meet the Sea<\/a>\u201d for next Winter term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Connection between humans is what we need the most.” – Tom\u00e1s Olivares Linco\u00f1ir It\u2019s a sunny day in Frutillar Bajo, Chile, and most of the students living and studying at Estaci\u00f3n Experimental Frutillar are outside tossing a football around, happy to be done with classes for the day. However, inside the combination classroom\/common space\/dining room, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14956,"featured_media":931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,14,71,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chile","category-faculty-led-programs","category-student-voices","category-uncategorized","has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cofinternational\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cofinternational\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cofinternational\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cofinternational\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14956"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cofinternational\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cofinternational\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1003,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cofinternational\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions\/1003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cofinternational\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cofinternational\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cofinternational\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cofinternational\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}