Author: Gena Goodman-Campbell | Published: October 10, 2024 | Category: Look Back
This article originally appeared in the Fall + Winter 2024 Desert Ramblings
Wrapping up the fifth season of our Tribal Stewards program.
This summer, nine Indigenous young adults with ancestral ties to Oregon’s high desert spent six weeks immersed in Oregon desert wildlands completing vital stewardship actions such as restoring streams, collecting native seeds and monitoring wildlife as part of ONDA’s Tribal Stewards program.
“I am extremely excited to see this opportunity for youth to work on our ancestral lands,” said Tracy Kennedy, Chair of the Burns Paiute Tribe. “This is a great partnership and program that serves our youth, who represent more than half of our current membership, and paves the way for future projects that we can co-manage with our federal, state and local partners.”
Oregon Natural Desert Association’s Tribal Stewards program was launched in 2019 at the request of our Tribal partners to provide opportunities for Indigenous youth and young adults paid experience in conservation careers. This initiative helps build partnerships, supports emerging tribal leaders in conservation, provides a pathway to elevating tribal perspectives in land stewardship and opens the door to broader representation in the environmental sector.
ONDA carefully crafts each restoration project to blend the sharing of foundational conservation concepts with completing meaningful improvements to the landscape. Tribal Stewards work closely with ONDA staff, our partners at the Lomakatsi Restoration Project, as well as land management agencies and Tribal members, to gain multiple perspectives on land management. Supported by crew leaders and paid a competitive hourly wage, participants tackle some of the most challenging environmental problems facing Oregon’s high desert, such as drought, invasive species and climate change.
By weaving their new experiences working in the desert with their Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge—the time immemorial knowledge base acquired by the Northern Paiute and other Indigenous people through direct contact with their environment—these emerging leaders are uniquely poised to ensure that Oregon’s high desert lands and wildlife thrive for generations to come.
Learn more and hear from past Tribal Stewards at ONDA.org/tribal-stewards-program/.
