When Rivers Were Trails

When Rivers Were Trails is a point-and-click adventure game about the impact of colonization on Indigenous communities in the 1890's. It won the Adaptation Award at IndieCade 2019.

Full Description
When Rivers Were Trails is a 2D point-and-click adventure game in which Oregon Trail meets Where the Water Tastes Like Wine. An Anishinaabeg in the 1890’s is displaced from their traditional territory in Minnesota and heads west to California due to the impact of allotment acts on Indigenous communities, facing Indian Agents, meeting people from different nations, and hunting, fishing, and canoeing along the way as they balance their wellbeing.

Developers
Developed in collaboration with the Indian Land Tenure Foundation and Michigan State University’s Games for Entertainment and Learning Lab thanks to support from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and contributions from over thirty Indigenous writers, artists, and musicians.

The game features over thirty Indigenous contributors with creative directing by Nichlas Emmons, creative directing, design, and user interface art by Elizabeth LaPensée, art by Weshoyot Alvitre, and music by Supaman and Michael Charette.

Indigenous writers include Weshoyot Alvitre, Li Boyd, Trevino Brings Plenty, Tyrone Cawston, Richard Crowsong, Eve Cuevas, Samuel Jaxin Enemy-Hunter, Lee Francis IV, Carl Gawboy, Elaine Gomez, Ronnie Dean Harris, Tashia Hart, Renee Holt, Sterling HolyWhiteMountain, Adrian Jawort, Kris Knigge, E. M. Knowles, Elizabeth LaPensée, Annette S. Lee, David Gene Lewis, Korii Northrup, Nokomis Paiz, Carl Petersen, Manny Redbear, Travis McKay Roberts, Sheena Louise Roetman, Sara Siestreem, Joel Southall, Jo Tallchief, Allen Turner, and William Wilson.

The team from the Games for Entertainment and Learning Lab included Alex Hogan, William Johnston, Nathan Kellman, Ellie Locatis, Declan McClintock, Amber Ottarson, Kieran Peasley, Rebecca Roman, and Harrison Sanders.

The game also invited guest writers Toiya Kristen Finley and Cat Wendt.

Gameplay
Players are challenged to balance their physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual wellbeing with foods and medicines while making choices about contributing to resistances as well as trading with, fishing with, hunting with, gifting, and honoring the people they meet as they travel through Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and eventually must find a place to call home in California. The journey can change from game to game as players randomly come across Indigenous people, animals, plants, and run-ins with Indian Agents. Gameplay speaks to sovereignty, nationhood, and being reciprocal with land.

Websites

 * Official Site
 * Elizabeth LaPensée - Games
 * Indian Land Tenure Foundation
 * Michigan State University's Games for Entertainment and Learning Lab
 * IndieCade

Awards
When Rivers Were Trails was awarded for Adaptation at IndieCade Festival 2019, October 10-12, 2019, Santa Monica, California, United States. IndieCade is the leading international independent games festival.

Showings

 * When Rivers Were Trails curated for the "heart of the game" Exhibition, Hedreen Gallery, December 1, 2018–March 3, 2019, Seattle, Washington, United States.


 * When Rivers Were Trails curated for the "Narrative Innovation Showcase," Game Developers Conference, March 18–22, 2019, San Francisco, California, United States.


 * When Rivers Were Trails accepted to the "Indigital Play" Exhibition, Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Conference, University of Waikato, June 26–29, 2019, Aotearoa, New Zealand.


 * When Rivers Were Trails invited to "This IS Kalapuyan Land" Permanent Exhibition, Washington County Museum, Portland, Oregon, United States. August 15, 2019–present.


 * When Rivers Were Trails invited to "Indigenous Futurisms: Explorations in Art and Play" Exhibition, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, United States. October 2, 2019 – January 31, 2020.


 * When Rivers Were Trails accepted to IndieCade Festival 2019, October 10–12, 2019, Santa Monica, California, United States.


 * When Rivers Were Trails accepted to imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, October 22–27, 2019, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.


 * When Rivers Were Trails accepted to Game On! El Arte en Juego Festival 2019, November 22–30, 2019, San Martín Cultural Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina.


 * When Rivers Were Trails accepted to Serious Games Showcase & Challenge, Orlando, Florida, United States. December 2–5, 2019.


 * When Rivers Were Trails accepted to Open World Arcade, Akron Museum of Art, December 7, 2019, Akron, Ohio, United States.


 * When Rivers Were Trails invited to "Lines on the Land: Mapping Clackamas County" Semi-Permanent Exhibit, Museum of the Oregon Territory, Oregon City, Oregon, United States. January 2020 Opening.
 * When Rivers Were Trails invited to be exhibited at the Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, Missouri, United States. January 30, 2020.
 * When Rivers Were Trails accepted to be exhibited at the IndieCade Showing at E3, Los Angeles, California, United States. June 9-11, 2020 (Canceled Due to COVID-19).
 * When Rivers Were Trails accepted to be exhibited at A MAZE., Berlin, Germany. July 22-25, 2020.
 * When Rivers Were Trails accepted to be exhibited at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Arcade Indie Developer Showcase, Washington, D.C., United States. August 1-2, 2020.

Publications

 * Peer Reviewed. LaPensée, Elizabeth and Nichlas Emmons (2019). When Rivers Were Trails. Films for the Feminist Classroom, 9(1)


 * Peer Reviewed. LaPensée, Elizabeth and Nichlas Emmons (2019). Indigenizing Education with the Game When Rivers Were Trails. Amerikastudien / American Studies, 64(1), 75-93. Print.


 * Peer Reviewed. LaPensée, Elizabeth. (2020). When Rivers Were Trails: Cultural Expression in an Indigenous Video Game. International Journal of Heritage Studies.

Presentations

 * National. Peer Reviewed Conference. LaPensée, Elizabeth and Nichlas Emmons. "When Rivers Were Trails: Sovereignty and Nationhood in Game Design." 20th Annual American Indian Studies Association Conference, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. February 6–8, 2019.


 * International. Peer Reviewed Industry Conference. LaPensée, Elizabeth and Allen Turner. "Narrative Innovation Showcase." Game Developers Conference, San Francisco, California, United States. March 18–22, 2019.


 * National. Peer Reviewed Conference. LaPensée, Elizabeth and Nichlas Emmons. "Mapping Indigenous Sovereignty and Relationality in When Rivers Were Trails." Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, United States. April 3–7, 2019.


 * International. Invited Keynote. Peer Reviewed Conference. LaPensée, Elizabeth. "When Rivers Were Trails: Sovereignty, Nationhood, and Relationality in an Adventure Game." Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. May 16–18, 2019.


 * National. Peer Reviewed Conference. LaPensée, Elizabeth. "Relationality Mechanics and Land as Levels in Indigenous Games." Association for the Study of Literature and Environment Conference, University of California Davis, Davis, California, United States. June 26–30, 2019.


 * National. Peer Reviewed Conference. Emmons, Nichlas and Elizabeth LaPensée. "Indigenous Educational Intervention Through the Video Game When Rivers Were Trails." National Indian Education Association Convention. Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. October 8–12, 2019.
 * International. Peer Reviewed Industry Conference. Emmons, Nichlas. "Exploring Indigenous History in When Rivers Were Trails." Games for Change. Online. July 14-16, 2020.

Media

 * "When Rivers Were Trails Is An Educational Game About The Native Experience," Imran Khan, Game Informer, February 22, 2019.
 * "Real Native History in a Video Game: An Indigenous Take on The Oregon Trail," Adrian Jawort, Indian Country Today, March 5, 2019.
 * "New Video Game Features David Lewis' Narratives," Danielle Frost, Smoke Signalz, April 15, 2019.
 * "When Rivers Were Trails Puts Indigenous Spin On The Oregon Trail," Rob Ferrett, Central Time, Wisconsin Public Radio, May 13, 2019.
 * "Elizabeth LaPensée Taps Power of Gaming to Share Indigenous Experience," Ann Kammerer, ComArtSci News, June 13, 2019.
 * "ILTF Releases New Educational Video Game On Indigenous History," Native America Today, July 31, 2019.
 * "IndieCade Awards Honor Digital, Tabletop, Live Indie Games," Kevin Winston, Digital LA, October 14, 2019.
 * "Bringing Back the Stories They Tried to Erase,” Tiffy Thompson, She Does the City, October 22, 2019.
 * "IGR's Top Picks from IndieCade 2019," Indie Game Reviewer, November 12, 2019.
 * "The Next Chapter of Indigenous Representation in Video Games," Molly C. Beer, Polygon, February 25, 2020.
 * "Video Games to Boost Your Child's Education During COVID-19," Jack Gardner, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, May 18, 2020.
 * "Trailblazers: Iconic ‘Oregon Trail’ Video Game Gets an Indigenous Spin," Tamara Ikenberg, Native News Online, August 11, 2020.

Reviews

 * "Whose Land Is It, Anyway?" Laurel Reed Pavic, Oregon Artswatch, January 8, 2020.
 * "I Played When Rivers Were Trails as a (Mostly) Honorable Human Being," Anthony Brave, Indian Playing, January 25, 2020.