Chief Timothy Park was completed in 2015 and is the easternmost Confluence site, located on an island with a spectacular view of the Snake River near Clarkston, Washington and Lewiston, Idaho. Here, Nez Perce people lived and fished long before Lewis and Clark arrived in 1805. Maya Lin oversaw the construction of a “Listening Circle,” a large outdoor amphitheater with curved basalt benches etched with quotes from Clark’s description of the nearby locations, taxonomies of plants and animals, topographical information, and a record of encounters between the Corps of Discovery and the local Native tribes. The Park is named after Chief Timothy Tamootsin, a leader of the Alpowai (or Alpowa) band of the Nez Perce and one of Presbyterian missionary Henry Spalding’s first Christian converts. Chief Timothy’s connection to Spalding makes him a controversial figure. 

Lin was guided to this site by Nez Perce leader Horace Axtell, who also led a blessing ceremony at the location. Both Lin and Axtell expressed hope that the Listening Circle will inspire dialogue and reflection about the region’s Indigenous cultures. “Maybe we’ll be able to tell the story of our people,” Axtell has said. “And people will understand that we were the ones who were here before—when our language was the only one heard in the canyons.”