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Photo: Roy Kady sits in southwestern Colorado, adorned by a textile he wove from the wool of a Navajo-Churro sheep. (Chris Clements / KSJD)

On the Navajo Nation, a rare breed of sheep is treasured by herders and weavers.

The sheep were once nearly driven to extinction by the U.S. government.

Chris Clements and Clark Adomaitis visited a community celebration of the breed in southwest Colorado.

Navajo-Churro sheep, a breed considered sacred to the Navajo, are a source of community and artistic expression for a group of herders and weavers in the Four Corners region.

At Fozzie’s Farm in Lewis, Colo., Tyrrell Tapaha wove the beginnings of a Navajo tapestry with a loom.

He used wool from flocks of Churro sheep that he dyed brilliant shades of lavender, red, pink, and orange.

“In the summer times, I’ll pull 16-hour days weaving. It’ll be like three in the morning. This is my whole life. This is how I make my income.”

Tapaha, a member of the Navajo Nation, is part of a group of apprentice weavers in the Four Corners region who are herding Churro sheep.

In the late 1500s, Spanish colonists brought the Churro to the region, and Navajo people came to depend on them for the breed’s meat and uniquely durable wool.

But Churro sheep almost became extinct — twice.

During the Long Walk of the Navajo in 1863, the U.S. military forced the tribe to relocate as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

U.S. government livestock reduction policies during the Dust Bowl decimated the breed again.

Roy Kady is a master fiber artist and sheep herder from Goat Springs, Ariz. He led the group of apprentices, including Tapaha.

Kady spoke to around 20 community members at Fozzie’s Farm about the history of Churro sheep.

He and his apprentices were at Fozzie’s as part of a partnership with Montezuma Land Conservancy, a land trust that manages the farm.

They allowed Kady and his apprentices to graze their sheep at the farm. In return, the weaver provided education on the breed to the general public.

“Not all of the Navajos went on the Long Walk. The ones that didn’t were the ones that helped save this breed of sheep. They took it with them across the San Juan River, hid high in the mountains, and some down in Canyon de Chelly.”

Tapaha described the responsibility he feels to keep the tradition of sheep herding and fiber weaving alive.

“We don’t own it. It’s knowledge that we should pass on since we don’t have ties to it in that way. You don’t have to practice this. You don’t have to live this way, but just as long as you know.”

For lunch, the weavers roasted a sheep they slaughtered earlier in the morning.

Attendees gathered around the grill and watched the fire hiss and sputter as the mutton cooked.

Above the flames, wisps of grayish-yellow clouds slid over the farm and nearby Sleeping Ute Mountain.

Kady discussed sheep herding’s importance to generations of his family.

“I’m filling these big shoes that my mother wore as an agro-pastoralist. I continue those traditions with the next generations to come. In caring for the land, in turn, the land takes care of you.”

Kady said that today, younger generations don’t need to weave rugs and textiles solely to sell products, as was common during the trading post era.

“That was imposed on us as a part of colonization because this was being woven for the trading post, for their sole purpose to sell it to the tourists and to profit from three or four times fold. Now, you’re the artist. Now, you’re in control of your own artistry, your interpretation of what you want to design and to weave.”

Tapaha is one of Roy Kady’s many fiber-weaving apprentices. He’s grateful for Kady’s leadership.

“There’s always a teacher and a student, and I think that dynamic has always been positively enforced in my life.”

Kady added: “I was once them, their age, and I was once taking that unknown path and wondering where my life would be. Continuing that journey in my life into old age makes me happy. It fulfills me.”

The legacy of Navajo-Churro sheep herding and weaving will live on in similar community celebrations.

They’re happening all across the Navajo Nation, most recently at the Dził Ditł’ooí School of Empowerment, Action, and Perseverance (DEAP) in Navajo, N.M., where Kady visited last week to give weaving demonstrations to students.

Kady and his apprentices continue to educate the public about spinning and dyeing Churro wool, and the history that lives in between each thread.

A new mobile clinic is now serving about 2,000 Tribal patients in rural Nevada.

It’s one of the latest beneficiaries in the region of a federal grant program.

KUNR’s Maria Palma reports for the Mountain West News Bureau.

The unit will provide services to both the Lovelock Paiute Tribe and the Yomba Shoshone Tribe.

Without a mobile clinic, medical staff would make weekly trips in multiple vehicles covering hundreds of miles to provide medical services. 

Cathi Williams-Tuni, Chairwoman of the Fallon Paiute Shoshone Tribe, says it’s a dream come true. 

“We have the remote locations at Yamba and Lovelock and sometimes to go out to Lovelock, they always have to take the four by fours, because of the roads. Much of the road is dirt.”

Clinical nurse Joy Schultz says the mobile clinic will bring people immunizations, lab testing, physician and nurse visits, wound care, prescription medicine distribution and education.

“We can say we’ve actually saved lives, we’ve saved limbs, we’ve saved communities from COVID.”

The new mobile clinic was funded through a $670,000 Rural Emergency Health Care grant, provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

 

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(Photo: Ken Lund via Flickr)

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Tribes in California are celebrating after state officials approved the renaming of more than 30 place names containing the derogatory S-Q word across 15 counties.

Jacob Resneck reports.

Most of the place names are county roads but also at least one cemetery and a building containing the S-Q word that only in recent years has universally been recognized for what it is: a racial slur against Native American women.

“It will undo the derogatory language that is not only defamatory but erases our history and hence us as a people.”

That’s Greg Sarris, chairman of the Federated Indians of the Graton Rancheria north of San Francisco Bay.

“And, you know, there’s a lot in that sentence, but it’s so true. I mean, I don’t think people understood that the S-Q word is comparable to for us to the N-word.”

The renaming initiative is the fruit of Assembly Bill 2022. Under the legislation passed two years ago the geographic places will be renamed in consultation with California tribes with priority given to honoring tribal cultures and Indigenous languages.

With a second Trump term near, tribes in Oregon and elsewhere are concerned for their environmental restoration efforts.

KLCC’s Brian Bull reports.

In his first presidential term, President Donald Trump opened up lands considered sacred to Native people for development, as well as rolling back dozens of environmental protections.

In a call with tribal officials, Gov. Tina Kotek (D-OR) said she’ll stand with Oregon values as the White House changes hands again.

“My hope is that we’ll see respect and cooperation from the federal administration to work with our tribes.”

Gov. Kotek said she’s focused on the Columbia Basin Initiative, which worked with President Joe Biden to restore fish runs.

William Ray Jr., chair of the Klamath Tribe, then spoke about protecting salmon and two species of sucker fish.

“Our biggest concerns about the incoming administration is the water delivery systems and how it’s gonna affect our endangered species of C’waam and koptu mullet species.  If all the water delivery agreements are gonna be fulfilled at 100%, extinction becomes real viable.”

President Trump has discussed diverting water from the Columbia River to California, and also questioned the need for protecting the endangered Delta smelt there.

A new study shows that wildlife migration routes in the West will likely shift because of climate change.

That’s why researchers worked with biologists from the Southern Ute Tribe to find out how to tackle the problem.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel reports.

Researchers used GPS data from dozens of elk collared by the Southern Ute Tribe in southwestern Colorado. 

They analyzed their current migration patterns – and projected how they will look in 2050 as temperatures rise and precipitation declines. They also considered continued growth and development and the traffic that comes along with it. 

They found elk could be more spread out in the winters as snowpacks shrink. And in the summers, herds could be more compacted as their range is cut by about half. 

That means new wildlife crossings – like bridges and tunnels – will be needed, says Caitlin Littlefield.

She’s with Conservation Science Partners and the study’s lead author.

“Wildlife crossings can enable continued access to new or expanding ranges, or continued access to resources like, say, forage that’s shifting in time and space.”

Littlefield says the study shows state and federal agencies the need to invest in wildlife crossings that consider the climate’s impact on animal movements.

 

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Photo: Hanging Flume in the Dolores River Canyon near Uravan, Colo. (Simon Foot / Flickr)

President Joe Biden has created more national monuments in a single term than any president since President Jimmy Carter left office in 1981.

Tribes and environmental advocates are pressing him to do even more.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Rachel Cohen reports.

After President Donald Trump shrunk the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante monuments in Utah, Biden’s first step was restoring them. 

“And because of that, he really started thinking about monuments right from the get go. So you see much more activity than you usually see during the first term.”

Justin Pidot is a professor at the University of Arizona law school, who worked in the Biden and Obama administrations.

He says Biden has had a particular focus on monuments proposed by tribes. That includes Avi Kwa Ame established last year in Nevada. It’s a site sacred to the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, among others.

Before leaving the White House, Biden could designate more national monuments.

Local campaigns are advocating for protection of the Owyhee Canyonlands on the border of Oregon and Idaho and the Dolores Canyons in southwest Colorado.

The Alutiiq Museum received about $150,000 to revamp the Koniag Cultural Library.

The grant comes as it’s finishing construction on its new building.

As KMXT’s Brian Venua reports, staff say it’s good timing to have even more to show off at its future grand reopening.

The Alutiiq Museum has been closed for over a year for an expansion to nearly double its size.

Museum officials plan to display more items from its collections as well as feature more art from contemporary culture bearers.

But now with this grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the museum will make it easier than ever to access its library, too.

“In the past, we had a library – I don’t think anyone knew that.”

That’s Amanda Lancaster, the museum’s curator of collections.

Since 2018, the library has served as the official tribal library of Koniag, Kodiak’s regional Native corporation.

“It was in the basement, it was very inaccessible, you had to make an appointment, you had to have a staff member with you just because it was in the basement and sort of more of a staff space.”

The library features thousands of printed materials, hundreds of audio/visual items, and well over 10,000 photos as part of the collection for people to research Alutiiq culture.

The new funding will help the museum pay for renovations for a more friendly library space.

Lancaster says they’re aiming to have matching shelving units, furniture for a seating area and computers for research.

Patrons won’t need appointments or staff supervision just to be in there – they’ll just need to check in and use the library at their leisure.

‘We’re just hoping that it will make it much more accessible so that people will want to come and use it.”

While the new money won’t cover new acquisitions, it could make room for future donations.

“It’s going to be much larger and much more spacious and (have) space to sit and read.”

It’s also a reason to recatalog and reorganize all of those resources.

“I’m just really excited to have one sort of dedicated project where we make sure everything’s in the right space.”

After the renovations, the grant will also pay for an outreach effort to solicit comments on how to make the library as useful as possible.

The Alutiiq Museum is set to have a grand reopening in May.

California will remove the S-Q word, a derogatory term for an Indigenous woman, from more than 30 sites.

The state’s Natural Resources Agency announced last week, the L.A. Times reports.

In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed a bill into law requiring the term to be removed from all geographic features and place names in the state.

It follows a similar move by the U.S. Interior Department.

In 2021, Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) declared the term derogatory and established a process to remove names from federal lands.

Renaming in California is expected to take place in early 2025.

 

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The National Park Service (NPS) held a recent symposium on the cultural impacts on Tribes by the 1924 establishment of Wupatki National Monument.

KNAU’s Richard Davis attended the event at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff and has this report.

Central to the day was a panel to elevate Indigenous perspectives of Wupatki’s federal management.

The panelists recognized efforts by the Park Service to incorporate tribal history and asked for better representation in administrative roles and increased education on Wupatki’s true history.

Stewart Koyiyumptewa, Hopi Cultural Preservation Office director, took issue with the very creation of the Monument and the perception of Hit’satSenom structures as “ruins”.

“Wupatki, as it is known today, we have never waived our right to that place. We still call that our home. It’s not abandoned as archaeologists, anthropologists and even the Park Service may think. We still have deep connections to that area.”

Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Officer Richard Begay condemned regulations that hinder religious practices.

“We have to have permission from Park Service to access our sacred sites, to collect plants. If that plant only grows on Wupatki … if it is restricted then the knowledge of those plants and the rituals associated could easily be lost.”

NPS staff recognized the impact the management of Wupatki has had on Indigenous people.

Amy Horn, cultural resources program manager for Flagstaff Area National Monuments, is looking towards the future.

“It’s a painful part of our monument’s history. We want to acknowledge it and make sure that they are heard so that we can have a collaborative relationship in the future.”

The monument’s official 100th anniversary is December 9.

The Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage is known for its exhibits and cultural programs.

But as Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA tells us, the center’s Indigenous awareness programs are growing in popularity, especially during Native American Heritage month.

Almost 700 students filled the auditorium at East Anchorage High School this month to learn about Alaska’s many different Native cultures and their values.

The team from the Alaska Native Heritage Center had a warm reception from students for two separate programs this month.

“We do a lot of amazing stuff. It fills my cup.”

Chris Delgado manages the Heritage Center’s cultural awareness programs and says they can be customized to meet the needs of a wide variety of organizations.

“We have National Park Service. We’re working with the FBI. We are working with the United States Air Force.”

Maureen Cronin, an academics coach at East High, is not surprised that companies want to invest in programs that raise their employees’ cultural awareness.

She says cultural literacy is important everywhere, but especially at East, which has students from fifty different cultures and is one of the most diverse schools in the nation.

“It’s really important to demystify cultural generalities, and it’s important to develop cultural understanding.”

And cultural appreciation for what the Heritage Center calls the genius of Indigenous culture, or “Indigi-nuity”.

“That’s how we survived out in the Arctic, back in the day.”

Colton Paul, a six-time gold medalist at the Arctic Winter Games who demonstrates traditional Alaska Native games at the workshops, says the athletes and their feats of strength and endurance epitomize “Indigi-nuity.”

“They can jump so high. They can kick way above their heads. I remember when I was a little kid, I would see these other kids kicking way above their heads, I would think, ‘That is right above the stars. That’s so high.’”

The cultural awareness trainers at the Heritage Center say they’ve noticed that when people gather to learn about another culture, they also learn to build better relationships with each other.

 

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The National Park Service this month issued a first-ever director’s order to strengthen its consultation with tribes.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel has more.

The new order comes from National Park Service Director Chuck Sams (Cayuse and Walla Walla).

He’s the first Native American to lead the federal agency.

Sams says too often tribes experience a lack of collaboration.

“Where a federal agency just kind of tells you what’s going to happen to a particular piece of land that they manage that tribes may have interest in. And this director’s order actually brings much more meaningful discussion with tribes up front before all the decisions are made.”

That includes respecting that tribes see the plants and animals populating their lands as cultural resources. The order also calls for honoring tribes’ sovereignty and oral traditions.

Sams says some national parks already have strong relationships with tribal nations.

Yellowstone National Park has agreements with tribes to support bison restoration and management.

And Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve in Idaho last month worked with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes to create displays with Indigenous history and perspectives.

President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda for “energy dominance” could impact leaders in the sector, including the state of Wyoming and tribes.

But some say the industry might have limited tolerance for blanket policy shifts, as Kathleen Shannon reports.

Before the election, the University of Wyoming hosted this year’s Tribal Energy Summit, where major themes were carbon capture, rare earth elements and critical minerals, and community engagement.

After the election, there are questions about how far Trump will sidestep the nation’s momentum toward renewable energy.

Daniel Cardenas with the National Tribal Energy Association expects the next Trump administration to look similar to the last one.

“They weren’t outright anti-renewable. They were just preaching an ‘all-above’ strategy, with more of a focus on fossil energy. But I think that’s probably the route that things will go, which supports what Wyoming’s already doing during Gov. [Mark] Gordon (R-WY)’s administration, is ‘all-the-above.'”

Cardenas says despite campaign rhetoric, industry leaders see opportunities in a varied approach to energy production.

ExxonMobil’s CEO this week urged Trump to stay in the Paris Climate Agreement, which Trump promised to back out of in 2017.

A vast majority of the U.S. reserves of key energy-transition metals are located within 35 miles of Native American reservations, according to the investment firm MSCI.

Cardenas says Tribes have been left out of the conversation on the energy transition – which he calls the “energy evolution” – but that they could be key partners.

“Collectively, tribes are the largest private landowners in the United States outside the federal government. So no matter what, if the country needs and wants to develop more infrastructure, the path to that is through Indian Country.”

Investments in clean energy – especially in “red” states like Wyoming – are foundational to President Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which Trump has called a “green new scam.”

Trump’s power to change Biden’s law, however, may be limited by Congress.

In California, the Yurok Tribe, Del Norte County Superior Court, and District Attorney’s Office recently signed an agreement to allow Yurok citizens, who are adults, facing certain criminal charges an opportunity to defer prosecution.

They’ll instead enroll in the tribal court’s wellness program, which uses a holistic approach.

The Yurok Tribal Court, along with the District Attorney or Superior Court, will determine if an individual is eligible to participate.

If the individual qualifies, the tribal court will develop a wellness plan and oversee its implementation through culturally integrated case management.

Diversion periods are often set at six months to two years.

 

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(Photo courtesy Michael Sherman / Spring Fed Media)

Regrowth and renewal were the themes of a special replanting ceremony in Blue River this weekend.

As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, the event was also to highlight the history of Native Americans in the McKenzie River Corridor.

About 30 people gathered to accept white oak seedlings that were blessed and sprinkled with tobacco.

Dietrich Peters of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde coordinated the event.

“Come on up, we’ll get you some tobacco, and you can offer your prayers as well.”

Katherine Wilson of the group McKenzie Reel said while much of this was to help restore Blue River’s landscape after the devastating Holiday Farm Fire of 2020, it was also to highlight the activity of Native people who crossed through before colonization.

She said there was one clear takeaway from the event by those present.

“Well, by the sounds of the sobs, the healing. The river and the land just seemed to be so joyous. It was healing, and I didn’t expect that.”

Attendees took oak tree seedlings to plant across the region. Wilson says she’ll hold similar events soon, to complement Blue River’s natural rejuvenation as it keeps building homes and facilities.

Hundreds of volunteers from Utah and Idaho gathered recently to help the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation restore the site of the Bear River Massacre.

For the Mountain West News Bureau, Clarissa Casper of the Salt Lake Tribune and Utah Public Radio has more.

Rios Pacheco stood on the land where, in 1863, his ancestors were victims of one of the deadliest massacres of Native Americans in United States’ history.

Behind him, across the site of the Bear River Massacre, hundreds of volunteers planted native shrubs and trees –– a collective effort to heal what was taken from both the land and the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation.

For Pacheco, who serves as the tribe’s spiritual leader, planting native plants on the land where hundreds of his ancestors’ lives were stolen is a way to not only restore the ecological balance of the area but also to heal the spirits of his people.

Once you plant something in the ground, he said, life is restored.

Through the plants, he feels connected to his ancestors.

Planting native species on this sacred ground is a way for his people to return and heal –– much like a plant regenerates from its own seeds.

In reconnecting with the land and honoring the memories of those who survived, the plants offer both renewal and forgiveness for the past, he said.

“That’s just like the plants. When you plant them, the forgiveness comes by taking care of them, fertilizing them, watering them, so that way that plant will grow again.”

The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation began its journey to ecologically and spiritually restore the site of the Bear River Massacre in 2018 when it purchased approximately 350 acres of their ancestral land just north of Preston, Idaho.

This is the second year the tribe has held a planting weekend at the site for volunteers, and the second time hundreds of individuals from both Utah and Idaho have dedicated their time to the effort.

The Bear River Massacre occurred during one of the coldest winters his ancestors experienced at the site, Pacheco said.

His people would camp in the valley where the attack occurred during winters because of the warmth the area provided with surrounding hot springs.

The tribe’s efforts to heal the site –– named “Wuda Ogwa,” which directly translates to “Bear River” –– are also meant to honor the plants that used to be abundant in the area and aided Pacheco’s ancestors in a variety of ways.

Because Wuda Ogwa is primarily a wetland habitat, many of the native plants that volunteers planted on Friday and Saturday were water-based and will help filter the river,

Pacheco said the tribe has also made efforts to build beaver analogs to hopefully bring beavers back to the area to perform their beneficial river duties.

As volunteers worked, Pacheco observed them and heard them share stories about the plants they planted last year and the friendships they have developed through the effort.

“You’re not just elevating the landscape. You’re elevating your inner spirits.”

Although the tribe has only involved the broader public in its project since 2023, a great deal of work has been done to prepare the land for the new plants.

For the past three years, the Utah Conservation Corps has been removing thousands of invasive Russian olive trees that have invaded Wuda Ogwa’s floodplain since the massacre.

This tree, according to UCC Northern Regional Coordinator Ben Borgmann-Winter, outcompetes the native vegetation the tribe hopes to revive in the area.

Russian olives also serve as “junk food” for wildlife, Borgmann-Winter said, as their olives are high in sugar and not nutritionally valuable.

In addition, these trees channelize and hold riverbanks in place, leading to various issues, including lowering the water table and decreasing moisture levels in the soil.

They also siphon an estimated 75 gallons each day from the Bear River that could ultimately make its way to the Great Salt Lake, Borgmann-Winter said.

“This is a really special space, a sacred space. Look at how many hundreds of volunteers are here right now from all over Utah, all over Idaho. It’s a pretty special project. We’re very honored to be involved in that.”

The tribe’s big-picture vision for the land includes planting 300,000 native shrubs and trees, cleaning up the land’s creeks, and restoring degraded agricultural fields into wetlands abundant with life.

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