The annual Wallowa Gathering event is a handful of consecutive days each spring where Wallowa Land Trust provides logistical support and funding for Indigenous gatherers and their families to travel to Wallowa County to gather First Foods and medicines on privately owned lands.
Our goal is to connect willing landowners with Native gatherers to learn about Indigenous land stewardship practices, build relationships and provide access for traditional root gathering.
About this year's event:
We begin setup on site (the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland grounds in Wallowa) on Wednesday May 6th. Setup continues on Thursday May 7. Tribal members begin arriving Thursday afternoon. We will be checking them in and providing dinner.
Friday activities start early with breakfast. Folks come to eat and pack their supplies for a day in the field gathering. They will be visiting several different sites outside Wallowa and out on the Zumwalt. Everyone returns in the afternoon and we have a potluck dinner together with the community.
Saturday is much the same as Friday. The evening dinner is not open to the public like it was on Friday.
Sunday we are feeding people breakfast and wrapping the event up.
Volunteers are an integral part of helping us pull this significant community gathering off. We expect at least 170 tribal members from Idaho, Oregon and Washington to attend. Our jobs are to make everyone feel welcomed, honored and respected.
Thank you from the botttom of our hearts for being a part of this event! We truly could not do it without you!
Shoutout to our partners and funders for making the 2026 Wallowa Gathering possible!
- Braemar Charitable Trust
- City of Enterprise
- Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts
- Land Trust Alliance
- Meyer Memorial Trust
- Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland
- Pacific Power Foundation
- Roundhouse Foundation
- The Nature Conservancy
- Yellowstone to Yukon Initiative
THANK YOU!