Photo credit: Evan Benally Atwood
Hanford Journey Field Trip Builds Cross-Generational Connection
By: Simone Anter, senior attorney & Hanford program director
There’s a power in bringing together generations to connect with the land and water. To be together and experience a piece of the world that history tried and failed to erase. Power emerges and unfurls when we so defiantly belong where we always have, to fight for our resources, and to pass on knowledge to those who will carry the fire long after we are gone.
On May 28th, 2025, Columbia Riverkeeper and Yakama Nation’s Environmental Restoration Waste Management Program (ERWM) partnered with White Swan and Sunnyside High School to create an out of classroom experience for high school students. The Hanford Journey Field Trip brought over 50 students to the Hanford Reach. Here students and teachers experienced the beauty of the Columbia River and learned about the toxic legacy of the Hanford Nuclear Site.
While Columbia Riverkeeper, ERWM, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife contributed technical expertise to the day, the real expertise came from the Yakama Nation Tribal Elders, who led boat tours up and down the Reach and took students to the White Bluffs.
Elders shared traditional ecological knowledge about the area: the role of Hanford in the Yakama Nation cultural landscape, the fight to preserve cultural resources and sacred sites impacted by contamination, and the legacy of individuals like Atwai Dr. Russell Jim, whose invaluable work continues to inspire.
Hear from Students and Elders at Hanford Journey:
Connecting Yakama Nation Elders and young people goes beyond the textbook. It teaches the history of Hanford as a living history, one that impacts us all today. It ensures that the memory of the past stays alive with us today, passing knowledge down through generations.
ERWM and Columbia Riverkeeper will continue to create meaningful multi-generational connections and events to raise awareness about Hanford cleanup and what’s at stake if the federal government cuts cleanup corners.
This fight will outlive us, but it can’t be won without us.
This product is funded through a Public Participation Grant from the Washington State Department of Ecology. Ecology reviewed the content for grant consistency but does not necessarily endorse it.
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A Day of Reflection: Nuclear Remembrance in the Yakama Community
August 1st, 2025