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In recent conversations with four Native American staff, they shared with me what it\u2019s like to work in this field \u2014 in some cases on their ancestral homelands \u2014 and how Native Americans are shifting the field\u2019s perspective on stewardship.
Aurora Roemmich, my direct supervisor here in Alamogordo, New Mexico, is the Botanist for the entire Lincoln National Forest. She is Lakota and a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. She built a career for herself working many years as a seasonal employee with the Rocky Mountain Research Station in the Black Hills of South Dakota before becoming a permanent employee with the Forest Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs far as the Southwest goes, it has been one of the most diverse areas in the U.S. Forest Service, even just the mix in leadership positions has been a lot more diverse than what I\u2019ve seen elsewhere,\u201d Roemmich said in a conversation with me.
The presence of Native American communities is quite visible here in the Southwest as opposed to other parts of the county where the U.S. government forced Native Americans to relocate far away from their ancestral homelands, sometimes to very small reservations. In California \u2014which has some of the most coveted coastal land in the nation \u2014 many Native American communities do not have large reservations or tribal status. However, here in the Southwest, many tribes live in large reservation systems that are on parts of their ancestral homelands.
Another manager who I work with is Jennifer Hickman, the Soil Scientist for the Lincoln National Forest. She is Navajo and Mississippi Choctaw. A tribal member of Navajo Nation, Hickman grew up in Crownpoint on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico.
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\u201cMaybe [we] are seeing more representation in the Forest Service here in the Southwest because of the exposure that the Southwest brings. In New Mexico and Arizona, we have our reservation lands,\u201d Hickman said. \u201cA land base helps provide that exposure. A lot of tribes in other states may not have a very large land-based reservation.\u201d
I feel it\u2019s important to acknowledge that all public lands have rich, long histories that predate European settlement. It\u2019s also important to acknowledge that many Native tribes may have lived on what we now call public lands right up until the point that the lands were designated as National Forests, a National Park or another type of public land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>Erica Enjady (pictured left), a member of the Mescalero Apache tribe, is on temporary assignment as the Natural Resources Staff Officer and has worked with the Forest Service since 2016. The land that the Lincoln National Forest manages are the ancestral homelands of the Mescalero Apache.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really great opportunity to be home and having to oversee the natural resources of my tribe’s traditional homelands,\u201d Enjady said. \u201cIt is important to have that Native American voice in the agency.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
There are culturally significant places across that country that are now located on Forest Service land, that are now managed by the National Park Service, or on Bureau of Land Management land. Enjady explained that there are sacred places, former ceremonial grounds, or even current ceremonial places on public lands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important for employees and the general public to understand that connection so that we are able to protect that and manage the landscape responsibly,\u201d Enjady said.
LaTasha Wauneka-Anderson is the Assistant Recreation Staff Officer and has worked on the Lincoln National Forest for five years. She is Din\u00e9 from Window Rock, Arizona. She shared that given the history of U.S. policies with Native Americans, she felt conflicted and was not sure if she wanted to work for the U.S. Forest Service. This country\u2019s history with Native Americans is filled with war, genocide, forced relocation, the establishment of a reservation system and the forced removal of children from their families to live in boarding schools.
\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure if I wanted to work with the agency given that history, but the more I worked within the agency, the more I felt like that was kind of my tool, my way of taking back the space for Natives,\u201d Wauneka-Anderson said. \u201cWe have that space to make our voice heard, to bring awareness to native issues, to bring awareness to the history of the federal government and native communities and that of land management from a tribal perspective, especially the traditional ecological knowledge aspect of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Western trained practitioners and academics are starting to acknowledge the importance of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). According to one definition by the National Park Service<\/a>, TEK is the \u201con-going accumulation of knowledge, practice and belief about relationships between living beings in a specific ecosystem that is acquired by indigenous people over hundreds or thousands of years through direct contact with the environment, handed down through generations, and used for life-sustaining ways.\u201d Native American professionals share perspectives on land management and working for the U.S. Forest Service in Southern New Mexico. Continue reading
Prescribed fire or a controlled burn is an example of land management that emerged from TEK. As large-scale fires ravage the West and become a major contributor to carbon emissions, land managers are now beginning to explore and implement prescribed fire as a solution. Enjady explained that there is a long history of fire suppression in land management that has often resulted in unhealthy forest conditions like being overly dense and having a higher risk for wildfire and insect and disease outbreaks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/image-6.png\")
\u201cFor the past 20 years or so the [Mescalero Apache Nation] has really been working on trying to correct that and restore the health and conditions of the forest,\u201d said Enjady.
Before joining the Forest Service, Enjady worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a forest manager and oversaw forest management on the Mescalero Apache Reservation which borders the Lincoln National Forest.
In this age of mass extinction, the list of rare, threatened and endangered plants continues to grow, and rare plant conservation is on the rise. Hickman suggested that key ceremonial species should also be considered when developing conservation plans.
\u201cWith all the climate change, with all the decline of wetlands, we are also seeing a decline in some key ceremonial species that have been used for generations and generations,\u201d said Hickman.
\u201cFor me plants are a big part of my cultural background,\u201d Roemmich said. \u201cThere are a lot of plants that we use for medicinal purposes and our oral tradition is rich with legends featuring different aspects of the natural world, including plants, wildlife and the night sky. The ethnobotanical use of plants really drove me to become a Botanist and seek a career with the Forest Service.\u201d
The U.S. Forest Service has supported the development of employee resource groups for employees of diverse backgrounds. Here in the Southwest, Native American employees have led the way in creating an employee resource group for Native American and Alaskan Natives across the agency.
The resource group aims to provide mentoring opportunities, support, recruitment, and retention of Native American employees in the agency. Enjady, Hickman and others across the Southwest have encouraged the development of this group. \u201cWe recognize that oftentimes, people of color, not just Native Americans may find themselves the only person of color working in their district or unit,\u201d Enjady said. \u201cAnd so we hope to provide that support system and we hope to grow to be a voice for the agency, and a voice to the agency as a collective group.\u201d
It was a privilege to interview these professionals, as much as it is to be here working in the Southwest. Here are some takeaways I got from my conversations with these women: No matter what field we work in, and especially in the areas of environmental conservation and land management, we should educate ourselves about what ancestral homelands we are living and working on. Land acknowledgements are also important but shouldn\u2019t solely be symbolic, one-time acts untethered from real connections with tribes. We should learn the history of Native peoples, their tribes, and tribal affiliations. When reading up on the history of Native Americans, it\u2019s recommended to read work from Native Americans authors.
To learn more about the ancestral lands that you are living on, visit this website: https:\/\/native-land.ca\/<\/a> .<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/image-7.png\")