ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the messages of shared heritage and sustainability found in the Confluence Project, serve to assimilate the Native American story as one more component of the American master narrative, and perpetuate stereotypes of pristine nonanthropogenic landscapes. It examines the Confluence Project artworks; the Vancouver Land Bridge in Vancouver, Washington, which connects the Columbia River with historic Fort Vancouver, and the bird blind at the Sandy River Delta east of Portland, Oregon, where the Sandy River flows into the Columbia River. The messages of "celebration" and "shared history" may not, however, have been the most appropriate given the location of the Vancouver Land Bridge and the historical specifics of the region. While Fort Vancouver was serving as a headquarters for imperial and colonial actions against Native Americans, disease was devastating regional Native American populations. The Confluence Project seems to have followed more neutral, apolitical, and ahistorical focus on sustainability.
