Investing in Young Indigenous Leaders is Environmental Justice

 by Amber Benally, Rising Leaders Manager

As snow caps Dook’o’oosłííd (the San Francisco Peaks) and the smell of burning wood fills the air outside my grandmother's home, I know it is time to share stories of winter with my family. This time of year, as the sun sets earlier and we spend more time in our homes, it is also time for reflection.  

Since 2020, the Grand Canyon Trust’s Rising Leaders Program has increasingly focused on working with Indigenous youth, and this year, we achieved a feat years in the making. Each of our projects hosted cohorts of all-Indigenous young leaders. 

Through internships, the annual leadership training program called LeaderShift, and our first multi-generational, all-Indigenous Grand Canyon river trip, we served 38 young Native leaders from Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Hualapai, and many communities in between. Together, we met entrepreneurs who are building new businesses, learned about cultural ties to the Grand Canyon, helped elders winterize their fields, and more. 

Why does it matter?

To be a part of the first Native cohort is really special because we don’t have to over explain ourselves — like what it means to be sacred, or holy. We just know.

– Kiana Etsate-Gashytewa, LeaderShift 2022 participant

Speaking from experience, representation of Native American and Alaskan Natives in the conservation field is low. I remember sitting in my undergraduate environmental studies seminar and being the only Indigenous student and one of the few women in my program. 

But Native peoples have always been soil scientists, land stewards, ecologists, and conservationists. Our goal through the Rising Leaders Program is to prepare young Indigenous leaders to take a seat at the table in future environmental decision-making. 

The land as our classroom 

I would fully encourage Native youths to participate in what this program has to offer because with Leadershift, you learn about the ecology, the history of different landscapes.

– Autry Lomahongva, LeaderShift 2022 participant 

We believe those who feel the effects of climate change first should be those who we train in environmental and social justice advocacy, so they can go back and uplift their own communities.

LeaderShift, our week-long training program, takes young Indigenous leaders across the Colorado Plateau to learn about the exploitative history of coal mining on Navajo and Hopi lands. Students meet with coal miners who worked at the Black Mesa and Kayenta mines. They meet business owners who are building the foundation of healthier economies. They get to see the likeness of themselves in those people and know they have the power and skills to enact change in their home communities.

Reconnecting to cultural spaces

We’re walking in the footsteps of our ancestors.

– Tryston Wakayuta, RIISE Grand Canyon river trip participant

As we make space for young Native people in conservation, we must open the landscapes we love and provide opportunities for young Indigenous leaders to come home. 

In July 2022, a group of 14 young Indigenous leaders and four knowledge holders from Grand Canyon-affiliated tribes floated through the Grand Canyon on an eight-day river trip — one of only three known all-Indigenous youth river expeditions in more than 150 years of river running in the Grand Canyon. 

Together, we learned stories, teachings, and songs of the Grand Canyon. Trips like this help build community grounded in teachings of our tribal identities and work toward a world of inclusion for young Native people.

Identity as an asset

I think it was the inspiration I got from seeing how passionate and dedicated other Indigenous people are about these issues. It gave me a lot of hope to see such intelligent people doing the most they can regardless of the hurdles. I was with people who think like me about the things I think about, so I feel more validated and confident in my thoughts about how we can change the future. It’s intimidating alone, but unity makes us stronger.

– Joanie Finch, 2022 intern

One thing I learned this year working with all-Indigenous cohorts is that there is a need for truth telling to move toward healing. The land is intertwined with lifeways of Indigenous communities — harm to this landscape is harm to bodies and minds of Indigenous people. 

So we make space with the Rising Leaders Program — space for young Indigenous leaders to share the harder stories of this land with each other, space for them to try new skills and build each other up, space for them to thrive in their own knowledge and experience the sensations of being on their homelands. 

We make space for rising Indigenous leaders to grasp that their biggest asset in life is the identity they carry.

When we invest in young people, we invest in our communities

Each young person I met this year demonstrates where we are going as Native nations and the power we have to build better futures. In 2023, we will continue to build programs that prioritize young Indigenous leaders and facilitate training that uplifts rising leaders. 

As the Earth quiets down, I am excited to think about all the ways young Indigenous leaders will create ripple effects through our communities.

Axhé'héé' (many thanks) to those who I had the honor to work with in 2022. I look forward to our continued growth and to watch your paths develop.