The Work of Reconnection
Most of the work TWP supports will need to carry on long after we are gone.
We face multigenerational challenges that require multigenerational responses, and bringing youth into leading them is the core of their continuity.
We’ve been honored to be a part of that continuity within the Traditional Harvest Project in Southwest Colorado. In collaboration with the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe (UMUT), Montezuma Land Conservancy (MLC), and other partners, the Traditional Harvest Project has supported Tribal members in planting and accessing culturally-significant plants and restoring riparian habitat along the Mancos River.
Rebuilding from a history of exclusion from their ancestral lands, UMUT members also brought forward the reconnection of youth to the area as one of their highest priorities. The majority of project efforts – including construction of river restoration structures and planting of hundreds of key species – were carried out by Native youth from local conservation corps groups. This was not only an important source of employment, but also a rare opportunity to connect to the lands of their ancestors.
“This is the way we would like for our young people to understand our life – it's not just one little important piece of reconnecting, but it's the idea of a whole… It's deeper than just restoring the river. It's also restoring millennia of culture and traditions. Without the plants, we wouldn't have that tradition or that culture, without the mountains, that wouldn't be there. So what are some reconnections that could happen, whether it's with the land or different plants or the mountains or the animals here, the birds, or even just the air that's blowing through right now with us?”
- Lisa Jacket, UMUT Member
Since completion of the first phase of the Traditional Harvest Project, the area has also served as a living laboratory for students and youth groups who continue to visit. Most recently, MLC and TWP staff hosted the SEEDs group, which brings students from Fort Lewis College, CU Boulder, and Colorado State University to community-based conservation and restoration sites throughout the state. Land stewardship must always be grounded in real places and real people, and making connections like these is what allows our efforts to continue.
Both in our work, and in our lifetimes, investing in young people is one of the most hopeful things we can do.
