Briana, (she, her) is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) and Afro-Puerto Rican. Her Indigenous name is Šápliš Hétsin (Shup-lish Hat-seen) which means “like a whirlwind”. She has been involved in activism since she was a child standing on the front lines on the streets or in board […]

Briana Spencer
Briana Spencer

Briana, (she, her) is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) and Afro-Puerto Rican. Her Indigenous name is Šápliš Hétsin (Shup-lish Hat-seen) which means “like a whirlwind”. She has been involved in activism since she was a child standing on the front lines on the streets or in board rooms with her family. She stepped into a more prominent leadership role as one of the lead organizers of Pendleton’s Black Lives Matter march. She has continued to support the movement and her community as the Founder of the Pendleton Community Action Coalition (PCAC), a Steering Committee Member for Luchadores por Cambio, and a Board Member for the Women’s Foundation of Oregon. Briana draws on her experiences of being a person of color, a woman/female presenting, living in poverty, being homeless and in foster care to be a strong advocate. She strives to show people with similar lived experiences that they too, can take up space and have a voice at the table.