As our Indigenous Lands Program Content Creator, Treston Chee unites his background, his love of the outdoors, and his talent for film and photography to connect the stories of our partners and supporters.

We’ve partnered with the Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA) and Coordinadora de Mujeres Líderes Territoriales de Mesoamérica (CMLT) over the past two years to support community-based organizations in strengthening their institutional capacity.

On March 4-6, within the ancestral homelands of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, we had the privilege of co-hosting the 2025 New Mexico Tribal Forest & Fire Summit. The gathering brought together nearly 200 Tribal foresters, natural resource experts, hydrologists, community leaders, and representatives from NGOs, state and federal agencies, academic institutions, and conservation businesses to focus on successes, futures, and associated challenges for Indigenous-led conservation.

In 2024, Trees, Water, and People (TWP) provided scholarships to four CSU students, all Indigenous women, working towards careers in natural sciences and conservation. Scholarships sustained three students’ work with the Laramie Foothills Bison Conservation Herd, and supported one, Lizzy Osterhoudt, in leading research that honors her experience as a Pueblo woman.

Traditionally, the Núchíú (Ute people) were nomadic, moving across vast ancestral lands to steward the resources, including native plants, that supported their lifeways. Today, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe (UMUT) members are restricted to less than 600,000 acres of Reservation and Fee land from which to collect traditional plants, year after year.

Indigenous lands are ancestral lands. Ancestral lands are all lands.

This is an echo of the survival and resiliency of our ancestral lineage from the elders to the youth. In New Mexico there are twenty three sovereign Tribal nations that steward the land for preservation, restoration, protection, education and peace. These are the same beliefs our ancestors upheld and passed on through generations.

Prior to the 19th century, these gentle giants roamed the Earth freely and abundantly, with population estimates ranging anywhere from 10 million to over 100 million at their peak. It’s harrowing to learn the history of how European settlers drove this species to near extinction; by 1889, only a few hundred remained.

The Association of Agroecological Promoters of Jalapa (ASOPROAJ), an indigenous organization of the Xinca people in Guatemala, represents a light of hope in the country's Dry Corridor, especially in the municipality of San Carlos Alzatate. Since its legal constitution in 2022, ASOPROAJ has grown to 80 promoters between men and women distributed throughout the region, there are currently 15 active members in leadership positions.

From five thousand to ten thousand feet in elevation the landscape changes rapidly with every plant species and types of soil. Hundreds of sagebrush and cottonwoods sweep over the lower elevations, while ponderosa pines and douglas fir reach for the skies as they seem to blanket the mountainside.

It is satisfying to know that people around the world are intrigued with Indigenous Peoples and support the feats being endured. Working with Trees, Water & People (TWP), I have learned that this is one of our best and strongest virtues. We bring like-minded people to the table and our organization to move our mission and virtues forward.

In November 2023, I had the opportunity to participate in the Gathering of Agroecological Promoters, titled "Land, Water, and Seeds: Millenary Heritage for Good Living." The event was collectively developed by a diverse group of 80 promoters representing approximately 13 indigenous communities.

In the last two decades, wildfires have ravaged Tribal lands and its protective boundaries. As the fires were suppressed and recovery plans started to percolate, one key restoration item was never brought up - replacing and updating the pre-existing fence line.

Trees, Water & People (TWP) was honored to co-host Fort Collins’ 2023 Indigenous People’s Day Celebration at the site of the new mural painted to honor the ancestral homelands of Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Pawnee, Lakota, Ute and other Plains and Rocky Mountain Tribes.

At Trees Water and People (TWP) we recognize and value the fundamental role that women have historically played in agriculture, food production, and the development of their communities. To make decisions in these areas they have faced diverse challenges for the enjoyment and equality of rights for a dignified life.

My last few months have been filled with exciting adventures and experiences. I was blessed to visit Central America in February, followed by a spontaneous trip to Washington DC last week. Both trips provided me with the opportunity to expand my lens in relation to what Indigenous Sovereignty means on a national and international scale.

One of Trees, Water & People 's priorities is to defend Indigenous sovereignty, where Indigenous communities have a say in any decisions that affect their land, resources, people, culture and governance.

In Honduras, the Indios Laborios de la Aldea de Suyapa are on the verge of a big win for their sovereignty, in declaring 5,000+ hectares of their communal forest a nationally registered Wildlife Reserve, to be co-managed by local communities.

What is Indigenous sovereignty? The Merriam-Webster online dictionary tells us that indigenous sovereignty is “supreme power especially over a body politic,” or “freedom from external control.” But in practice, Indigenous sovereignty means much more than that, and means different things to different people.