Introduction

This introduction explains the history and origin of the Confluence Project. Over two decades ago, Maya Lin was invited by a group of arts patrons working in collaboration with Native tribes of the Columbia River Plateau and Pacific Northwest to commemorate the then-forthcoming bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The concept that developed was a series of earthworks to be built at historically significant sites along the Columbia River. It would be called the Confluence Project. Initiated as a commemoration of the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark's 1804–1806 Corps of Discovery expedition to the Pacific Ocean, the Confluence Project consists of five earthworks installed at important nodal points along the Columbia and Snake Rivers that address the transformation of the natural environment over the last two centuries and call attention to the urgency of our current ecological crisis.