Lomakatsi’s Tribal Stewards summer training program comes to a close in the Oregon Badlands Wilderness

Bend, OR (KTVZ)- Tribal Stewards finished up their summer program on Tuesday. The program works on culturally informed ecological restoration projects on Oregon’s public lands while providing young participants with valuable field experience.

The Lomakatsi Restoration Project, Burns Paiute Tribe, Oregon Natural Desert Association, and other partners collaborated September 2nd to expand opportunities for tribal and rural youth in Oregon through a technical forestry exercise in an old-growth juniper forest.

The summer program is made up of an 8-member inter-tribal crew that work on things like fish and wildlife habitat restoration, native seed collecting, monitoring surveys, and fence maintenance. The program provides indigenous youth with the knowledge, skillset, and ability to obtain employment in natural resource management while helping to create healthy landscapes in Oregon’s high desert.

This year’s crew was led by former Tribal Council Chair Gabe First Raised, citizen of the Burns Paiute Tribe, who now serves as Tribal Workforce Development Manager with Lomakatsi.

“Lomakatsi is excited to be invited as a partner in implementing the Tribal Stewards program,” said First Raised. “It is inspiring to see the next generation of leaders pursuing natural resource careers and reconnecting with traditional lifeways, and we look forward to the future successes of our partnership and the youth through this program and beyond.”

Alexis First Raised, a member who participated in the program this summer shared with KTVZ that she enjoys the opportunity to work and learn outside through the summer. She shared that seed collecting was her favorite part.

This year’s program was extended through August, through Lomakatsi’s Indian Youth Service Corps initiative with funding and in-kind support from the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Think Wild, Friends of the Malheur, and Oregon State University – Cascades, in addition to in-house contributions from ONDA and Lomakatsi.