Author: Gena Goodman-Campbell | Published: September 18, 2025 | Category: Notes from the Desert
This article originally appeared in the Fall + Winter 2025 Desert Ramblings Newsletter.
ONDA’s ongoing partnership with Tribal and Indigenous communities
Oregon’s high desert is the homeland of a diversity of Tribal and Indigenous people with deep cultural, religious and spiritual connections to the landscape. Across the nation and in eastern Oregon, much of what is now public land was taken from Tribal and Indigenous people by force, confiscation or coercion. Today, historic and current injustices often hinder these same people from fully engaging in public lands conservation and stewardship.
For decades, Oregon Natural Desert Association has engaged with Tribal and Indigenous communities in our stewardship projects and conservation campaigns. In these conversations, ONDA has learned that young people seek more opportunities to steward their ancestral lands.
To address this need and support Tribal and Indigenous leadership in the conservation sector, ONDA launched the Tribal Stewards Program in 2019. Tribal and Indigenous program participants gain professional experience in the conservation field while working on culturally informed ecological restoration projects in Oregon’s high desert. ONDA currently partners with the Burns Paiute Tribe and Lomakatsi Restoration Project on this effort.
The Tribal Stewards program emphasizes the integration of Indigenous Knowledge with conservation practices based on Western science. Participants are mentored by ONDA staff, Tribal staff, and federal land managers to learn about career pathways in natural resource management. Visits with Tribal elders and community leaders provide important cultural context for the restoration work.
Working on both public lands and tribally owned properties, Tribal Stewards participants have completed restoration projects in some of the most ecologically important places in Oregon’s high desert, including the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, and Pine Creek Conservation Area. Projects have included streamside planting to enhance native fish habitat, restoring greater sagegrouse habitat, collecting native plant seeds to support rehabilitation of burned areas, and conducting wildlife surveys to inform future management.
These activities bolster the ecological health of Oregon’s high desert, while creating important partnerships and fostering the leadership and professional development of participants.
An Interview with Tribal Stewards Participants
Ahead of the 2025 season, ONDA sat down with Gabe First Raised (Burns Paiute, Fort Belknap and Shoshone), who led the 2025 Tribal Stewards crew, and three returning participants—Lane Hawley, age 24, (Burns Paiute and Duck Valley Shoshone), Dell Marsh, age 19, (Burns Paiute, Fort McDermitt, and Duck Valley Shoshone), and Jordan First Raised, age 21, (Burns Paiute, Fort Belknap and Shoshone)—to hear about their experiences with the program.
ONDA: What initially drew you to participate in Tribal Stewards?
Lane: I just really wanted to learn about the land and what we can do to help it.
Gabe: I want to give our youth the opportunity to steward our ancestral lands. The younger generation doesn’t use these lands as much as I’d like, probably because a lot of them haven’t been taught how to hunt or fish and where and when to find roots. I like working with young people, mentoring the youth of our tribe.
ONDA: What was your knowledge of natural resources or conservation prior to Tribal Stewards? Has this experience changed your perspective on the field at all?
Lane: We did not have a lot of knowledge when we started. Before, I wasn’t looking at plants or learning about all of the seeds and what they can do to help after a burn. I thought that was pretty interesting.
Dell: It has made me more aware of what I could do. Sometimes when we’re just driving around and seeing dense forests or other issues like that, I think about what we can do to help.
Jordan: It has opened my eyes to fire risk and what we can do to restore areas after a burn.
Gabe: I grew up in Burns, and have lived on the [Burns Paiute Tribe] reservation for the majority of my life. The summer after eighth grade, I started working for the Tribe’s Youth Opportunity Program as a fish tech and worked there for four seasons until I graduated high school. I went to college for a few years and left. It turns out I didn’t want to be a fish biologist! The fish biologist who was my boss in the Youth Opportunity program was a mentor to me, but I didn’t know anyone within the Tribe who was working in fisheries. There’s a cultural learning curve for non-tribal staff working with tribal youth. The objective of my job now is to strengthen the workforce within the Tribe. Partnering with ONDA and Lomakatsi has helped the Tribe with the capacity issues we’ve experienced and has helped me learn more about the lands we’re working on, what we are doing, and why we’re doing it.
ONDA: Are there traditional stewardship practices of the Burns Paiute Tribe that you’re curious about or think could improve the health of the places where you are working?
Gabe: A big one for me that I’ve heard stories of is cultural burning. For example, they used to periodically burn the area around Malheur refuge to remove dead tule plants and bring up new shoots, which they would use for building wickiups or tule huts.
ONDA: What are some favorite memories from last year and what are you looking forward to this season?
Jordan: It’s been good to get to see the mountains: Jefferson, Mt. Hood, Broken Top, and the Three Sisters. I’m looking forward to doing bat surveys at the Malheur refuge this year.
Lane: When we were out in Fossil, OR that was all new to me. It was cool to drive by the Painted Hills and see new places. I’m just looking forward to anything new. I want to keep learning.
ONDA’s Tribal Stewards Program is an important initiative that aims to promote partnerships and support Tribal and Indigenous leadership in Oregon’s high desert. It is gratifying to see ecologically important restoration projects spark interest in conservation and provide a means to explore traditional stewardship and cultural practices. We look forward to expanding our efforts and continuing to engage Tribal Stewards in critical restoration work in the years ahead.
