By Treston Chee

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.

Indigenous leaders here in the Southwest are approaching systematic oppression through Tribal-to-Tribal collaboration, continuing education within STEM fields, and exercising their rights as sovereign nations. Projects on Native lands by Native people for Native people are an inherent right we have exercised for milenia. From grant writing to field work, it is vital to have internal Tribal operations and staff. Within the Tri-Pueblo Fence Project, for example, Cochiti Pueblo, Santo Domingo Pueblo, and Jemez Pueblo all have internal labor and operations. Amongst the crews are members of the tribes who view this work as important and are deeply knowledgeable. Resources are then not only supporting work on the land, but supporting the communities who call that land home.

“Ultimately that is what our goal is as well, to preserve our land and keep it as good as we can with what little we have left.” - Jacob Quintana, Cochiti Pueblo Natural Resources Department

As Trees, Water & People (TWP) continues efforts to support tribal leadership and uplift community voices, it is part of a strong grassroots fight for the future of all lands. This is a time when Indigenous voices must be heard and supported. It is not a cry for help, but a demand for action.

“We don’t see any boundaries, we are all part of the landscape and this was something that was in place, which we want to reconstruct again.” - John Galvon, Jemez Pueblo Tribal Forest Manager