Carmen López Oral History Interview

López discusses her experience working as an office assistant at NAL and learning about Native cultures; the NAL booth on Earth Day; the Salmon Bake event; the importance of salmon and camas to the tribes of the Pacific Northwest and the need to better communicate the meaning of salmon, camas, and dream catchers to event attendees; her experiences as a non-Native member of the staff; her feelings on missing the old Quonset hut; her advice for future non-Native NAL staff and any staff working in cultural centers they don't racially or ethnically identify with; the significance of the full name of the new Longhouse; her ideas about the NAL collaborating with the 4Cs; and the positive effect of OSU on her personal identity as Latina, Mexicana, and Chicana.

At the time of this interview, Carmen López was an office assistant at the Native American Longhouse. A junior double-majoring in Human Development & Family Sciences and Spanish, López came to OSU from her hometown of The Dalles, Oregon.