Tribal Stewards

Sage Brown   Website

ONDA’s Tribal Stewards program offers Native American young adults an introduction to conservation careers and provides hands‐on experience and opportunities for personal growth within a culturally relevant framework. This program was created in partnership with  Northwest Youth Corps, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Burns Paiute Tribe and federal agencies.

Through an immersive field‐based program, participants restore streams, uplands and trails on federal and tribal lands and conduct scientific research. In addition to gaining practical restoration and research experience, the tribal stewards receive mentorship from natural resources professionals and explore potential career pathways.

This program, which offers paid positions with education awards upon completion, was created to address underrepresentation in conservation and land management careers and a lack of opportunity to gain professional skills needed to enter the natural resources field. For decades, ONDA has worked to protect and restore culturally significant public lands, and ONDA recognizes that to improve the effectiveness of this work, we must deepen our relationships with tribes and embrace their priorities.

listen

Owyhee Canyon Swallows Sparrows and Rushing Water

Owyhee Canyon Swallows Sparrows and Rushing Water

voices

Aaron Tani, Sage Society Member

Aaron Tani, Sage Society Member

“It feels good to support ONDA on a monthly basis, because I know they never stop supporting our public lands. ONDA works to help make our lands a better place for the future, and I feel like I’m a part of that every month with my support.”

voices

Jane Heisler, Sage Sustainers Member

Jane Heisler, Sage Sustainers Member

I love to travel and I love the desert! Supporting ONDA monthly allows me to hit the road without forgetting Oregon’s high desert—even when I’m not there.

Lace Thornberg

Sage Brown

Sage Brown   Website

Our Aim

To inspire tribal young adults to pursue careers in the conservation field while supporting the restoration of eastern Oregon wildlands.

Our intended outcomes include:
  1. Participants gain marketable career skills and forge new connections to place.
  2. Tribal members become better represented within the field of conservation.
  3. The on-the-ground work accomplished makes meaningful improvements to fish and wildlife habitat throughout Oregon’s high desert.

Tribal Stewards Projects

Since 2019, the Tribal Stewards crews have worked across eastern Oregon on a range on restoration projects, including:

  • Retrofitting fence to be wildlife friendly and maintaining trails at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
  • Improving upland habitat through juniper abatement and seed collection on Burns Paiute Tribe’s Denny Jones property
  • Restoring native fish habitat along headwater creeks of the John Day River by building and maintaining beaver dam analogues and planting native vegetation in the Malheur National Forest
  • Completing fish surveys and native plant projects at Burn Paiute Tribe’s Logan Valley property
  • Building fences to protect headwater springs and creeks of the Malheur River in the Malheur National Forest

Tribal Stewards Program
Provides Career Mentorship

In early July, a crew of young adults – CeCe Andy (Warm Springs and Yakama), Monique Moody (Wasco and Northern Paiute) and Dakota Pablo (Pima and Navajo) led by Tiyana […]

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The Creation Story
and the Malheur Cave

For the Paiute of the Great Basin of the American West, winter is storytelling season. Around the fires of Paiute camps and villages, storytellers passed on tribal visions of the […]

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