Planning Urban Indigenous History: Cultural Competency and Housing in Portland, OR

59 pagesEXECUTIVE SUMMARY According to the U.S. Census 71% of American Indian and Alaska Natives (AIAN) live in urban areas. Portland, Oregon – one of the largest metropolitan areas in the Pacific Northwest -- comprises the fifth densest AIAN off-reservation population in the U.S (Urban Indian Health Institute, 2020). Indigenous planning and design scholars recognize that Indigenous peoples continue to be one of the most marginalized, subjugated, poor, and overall vulnerable communities. Additional support is necessary to ensure how urban housing can meet their cultural, social, and quality of life needs, outside of sovereign nation territories. In 2020, Nesika Illahee, the nation’s first off-reservation affordable urban AIAN housing project was opened in Portland, Oregon with support from Indian Housing Block Grant funds and rental preferences that establish housing options dedicated to the American Indian Alaska Native population. This research report seeks to understand the processes, policies, and design decisions used to collaborate with a politically sovereign nation and Native American advocacy organizations to ensure a successful and model AIAN-oriented housing project. Conversations and interviews were conducted with the primary policymakers, advocates, and designers of the development project to grasp how culturally appropriate Native approaches were used throughout the timeline of development. The result of this descriptive phenomenological research, combined with content analysis of key documentation, lead to primary findings oriented around policy, processes, and design. Policy findings found that the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians’ sub-recipient relationship of the IHBG created a blanket option of AIAN preferencing on all units, establishing a sovereign political relationship for preferencing and not race based. Process findings illustrated that development protocol that use decolonial communication practices that reflect and plan for Tribal Council timelines and iterations honor the Indigenous sovereignty. Design findings recognized the importance of creating a ‘Native place’ through architecture and placemaking while also offering locational assets and resources for supporting Native families. These findings show the collective considerations of the Nesika Ilahee project’s reach toward an aesthetic, resource assets, and engaged planning process that facilitate Native envisioning