DOI/NPS Partnership

The Madrona Institute has a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, and San Juan Island National Historical Park that provides for joint educational programs, seminars, retreats, and other programs of mutual interest.  San Juan Island National Historical Park commemorates the peaceful resolution of an international dispute between Great Britain and the United States in 1859.

This summer, a Civil War lecture series will be co-sponsored by the National Park, San Juan Island Library, and the Madrona Institute.  Of particular note are several guest speakers on the following dates:

July 20 — Dr. Lorraine McConaghy of the Seattle Museum of History and Industry, and noted author of three excellent Pacific Northwest histories, will discuss the impact of war on families by conducting an interactive program wherein the audience reads letters from families to soldiers and vice versa.  She will also talk about the book she wrote about a young slave who ran away from his master, the adjutant general of the Washington Territory and found refuge in Victoria, BC.

August 10 — Historian Candace Wellman will talk about Native American families who trace their roots back to white U.S. Army officers (including Capt. Pickett) and boundary survey officials.  These men engaged in American Indian marriages, then went back east to fight in the wars or return to practice or scholarship and never returned.  One officer was responsible for the later massacre at Wounded Knee Creek.

August 17 — Bruce Brown, author of Mountains in the Clouds (salmon on the Olympic Peninsula) will talk about Native American oral histories as they relate to the battle at the Little Bighorn.  The program entitled Conversations with Crazy Horse explores why white historians, until recently, discounted American Indian testimony, but how this testimony now reveals how the battle developed.

In August of 2009, the Madrona Institute and San Juan Island National Historical Park conducted a lecture series on issues of war and peace in commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of the Park.

In September of 2011,  San Juan Island National Historical Park held an Island Prairie Symposium to involve the public and stakeholders in preparing for island prairie stewardship, identify the complex array of challenges and opportunities associated with island prairie stewardship, and better understand the effort and commitment needed for successful stewardship. The Madrona Institute worked closely with the Park in planning this symposium.

The summer of 2012, San Juan Island National Historical Park and the Madrona Institute sponsored a lecture series  on “Native Americans & Stewardship”.  The series ran from June through September, with two speakers per month from around the region and state.  If you missed the lecture series, DVD’s of the lectures are available at the San Juan Island Library.