Sowing Stewardship in Southwest Colorado
In September, TWP delivered dozens of native plant species to their new home at the Kwiyagat Community Academy (KCA) in Towaoc, Colorado. Grown by Tribal partners within the Santa Ana Native Plant Nursery, these plants will be integrated into KCA’s efforts to develop culturally-relevant education and sustain Native stewardship values.
The Kwiyagat Community Academy is Colorado’s first charter school established on a Tribal reservation, and is owned and managed by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe (UMUT). TWP has partnered with UMUT since 2020 to restore Tribal lands and improve the availability of culturally significant native species.
As native plants have become less abundant on Tribal lands – affected by climate change and outcompeted by invasives – understanding of their cultural importance and uses has been more difficult to pass on. In addition to engaging youth directly in restoration of Mancos Canyon, the Tribe is working to revitalize this critical knowledge through development of a native plants garden and curriculum on the KCA campus.
“The purpose of the native plants garden project is to connect kids with elders, with traditional uses of plants and animals. We have teachers who can teach both the language and the culture about the plants once we get them located around the campus. The idea is that we will also have corresponding signs in Nuchiu and in English that describe the traditional uses of the plants so it becomes a sort of living cultural curriculum.”
From the medicinal importance of Rocky Mountain Juniper, to the use of Three-Leaf Sumac in dyes and weaving, to the role of Clematis in attracting pollinators, the species planted within the KCA garden hold deep cultural significance and important uses for the Tribe.
Youth engagement in the garden is about much more than returning native species to the ground; it’s also a practiced affirmation of Nuchiu heritage, values, and sovereignty. As the Tribe understands deeply, stewardship is an ongoing practice and an intergenerational effort – its continuance is grounded in the values passed from one generation to the next.
These values are not always told, though. Often, they are learned through experience, sustained through ongoing relationship to land, and carried forward by the small hands that, today, hold soil and seedlings.
“The youth are going to be able to learn about these plants that go back, you know, historically – these are their own plants. Their people, for thousands of years, have been using these. It feels good to know the young people will be able to learn about their importance.”
