Forty interpretive banners now wind through Portland State University's campus, from the Native American Student and Community Center to the Vernier Science Center. Each one names a native plant growing nearby — camas, Oregon grape, evergreen huckleberry, among others. Together, the signs mark the Oak Savanna District, a network of interconnected spaces across campus rooted in Indigenous land stewardship.
The Oak Savanna district originated roughly 16 years ago, when Indigenous students working with Judy BlueHorse Skelton, associate professor of Indigenous Nations Studies, sought a place on campus to gather and connect with land, plants and one another. At the time, the land was an open field with existing Oregon white oaks but no formal use. Students began meeting there as an outdoor classroom experience centered in Indigenous teachings, scattering native seeds, observing pollinators and building natural structures that would come and go over the years.
"It sounds like it's just a label or a district, but at the heart of it, it's a relationship with place and people," said BlueHorse Skelton, who has guided the project since its earliest days. "It's a relationship that helps introduce people to what is an oak savanna."
From a single gathering site to a campus district
The origins trace back to capstone courses BlueHorse Skelton taught, which eventually grew into what is now PSU's Indigenous Traditional Ecological and Cultural Knowledge (ITECK) certificate program.
"They wanted a place to gather on the land that wasn't just a tiny green space in between a bunch of buildings," said Emma Johnson, ITECK coordinator. "They wanted it to be a place where native plants could be planted — really just a community gathering space."
The land already had Oregon white oaks growing on it, a defining species of the oak savanna ecosystems that once covered much of the Willamette Valley before European settlement.
"How could they work with those white oaks to make what we call an urban oak savanna?" Johnson said.
The first major visual installation, a gathering circle, went in during winter 2022. A willow dome and micro prairies followed about a year later. Today, students in the ITECK Program use the space every term, and it has become part of regular coursework, tours and events.
Students and community members pass through the district every day, often without realizing what's around them. The banners offer a way in, a chance to notice native plant relatives on campus that BlueHorse Skelton said are often "hiding in plain sight."
Banners tell the land's story
The new signage grew out of a partnership with PSU's Center for Public Interest Design, housed in the School of Architecture, which has worked with the Oak Savanna District project since 2019. Designers worked with ITECK staff and students to identify which plants to feature and how to represent them.
For BlueHorse Skelton, the banners serve a purpose beyond identification, they challenge the assumption that Indigenous land practices are a thing of the past.
"Native people — this is what we used to do, this is where we used to live, this is what we used to know, this is who we used to be — no. We are doing this now," BlueHorse Skelton said. "It's very now. We are here. We are actively engaged."
Oregon grape, the state flower, is one example. "She's an amazing healer, and she's evergreen and highly desirable," BlueHorse Skelton said. "She’s resilient, enduring. You will find her at the Fred Meyer parking lot. You will find her everywhere. But if we look at her closely, she's very powerful medicine for things that people have a hard time treating today."
A remnant landscape, and a growing vision
Oak savanna ecosystems once stretched across the Willamette Valley into Washington and California, but development has reduced them to a small fraction of their historic range.
"Oak savanna predates the Oregon Trail and settlers and colonization," BlueHorse Skelton said. "We are in a remnant. One percent is left. We're losing it rapidly."
BlueHorse Skelton envisions the district eventually connecting green spaces across Portland. The first step is already underway: PSU's Office of Planning & Sustainability is thinking about how to create a wider Oak Savanna District landscape masterplan for campus, and ultimately, the city.
“With an Oak Savanna District we can start to link other Oak Savanna places in the city through interpretive signage all along the way,” said Sarah Heinicke, director of Planning & Sustainability.
The vision is to one day connect PSU to the Oaks Bottom Refuge, going along SW Lincoln to the Tillicum crossing, past the Center for Tribal Nations, down the Springwater Corridor to Oaks Bottom.
“Universities have created similar landscape guidance in tune with indigenous land characteristics to great effect and benefit,” Heinicke said. “Namely a more resilient and climate adaptive environment for the urban environment, but more importantly, we can create a visual episodic narrative on campus and beyond.”
Johnson sees that vision extending to people as well as place.
"We all live in this region, on this land, whether we have ancestral connections or not," Johnson said. "We have all these plant and animal relatives that we have a responsibility to — because if we're here living on this land, we should know who they are and take care of them."