Seeds, oral histories, and agricultural practices have long flowed through Native American trade networks in the Southwest, and the Trust’s intertribal gatherings reignite this long-held tradition. We facilitate the Colorado Plateau Intertribal Gatherings, where tribal members, community leaders, and cultural experts come together to share ideas, develop initiatives, and strengthen tribal voices in local conservation.
The gatherings include tribes from and around the Colorado Plateau, including: the Kaibab-Paiute, Hualapai, Havasupai, Navajo, Hopi, Ute Mountain Ute, Southern Ute, Uinta Ouray Ute, White Mountain Apache, Zuni, Acoma Pueblo, and Laguna Pueblo tribes.
Practice water conservation through spring restoration and dry-farming techniques
Preserve songs, stories, and teachings that perpetuate land protection ethics
Develop networks, resources, and tools for effective, long-term protection of sacred sites
Support better health by revitalizing traditional farming, foods, and exercise
At the gatherings, participants discuss traditional farming, harvesting, and food preparation as tools to adapt to climate change. Farmers share knowledge of dry-farming techniques and natural pesticides that have been used for generations across the Colorado Plateau. Meet master farmer Rose Marie Williams ›
Hopi and Navajo farmers are keeping traditional farming practices alive in the Tuba City and Moenkopi communities. They share techniques and seeds, teach younger farmers, and provide fresh, healthy produce for their communities.
The learning center is dedicated to sharing traditional ecological knowledge around agriculture and climate change. It includes an indoor classroom, exhibit space, and garden, and also serves as a gathering place for farmers markets, tours, and workshops.
The gathering group is looking at how the international framework called the Rights of Nature, which asserts that nature has legal rights, can be advanced by tribes to address environmental concerns across tribal lands and the Colorado Plateau.
Relationships are at the heart of the intertribal gatherings, and the alliances we've built through the years provide a foundation for much of the Trust's work. Because of the gatherings, we've supported projects across Native America with our tribal partners leading the way.
We caught up with Sunny Dooley at a recent gathering to hear her ideas on why it’s important for tribes to get together, escaping the “non-profit industrial complex,” and caring for bloated goats.
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Fourteen contemporary Puebloans eliminated all pre-European contact foods, including sugar, alcohol, wheat, beef, chicken, and even chili.
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Native people from across the Southwest and from as far away as Canada and South America attended the first-ever Indigenous Peoples’ Gathering for Healthy Communities, Culture, and Climate.
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