Our AmeriCorps Climate Resilience Corps Member, Max Yusen comments on his experience:
Growing up in Missouri, I had minimal contact with Tribes and Indigenous Peoples given the state’s violent history of expulsion and extermination. Instead, Native Peoples were relegated to objects of the past, such as the disappeared inhabitants of the Cahokia Mounds ruins – which was, 1000 years prior to European contact, once the largest Mississippian urban settlement. Now that I live in Arizona, my relationship with and proximity to Native Peoples has changed completely. They are Peoples trying to assert their sovereignty, culture, and traditions in the present moment. This effort was abundantly clear at the Arizona Tribal Fire and Climate Resilience Summit, which I had the privilege of attending. At this event, Tribal members from across the Southwest gathered in the same place to build relationships with each other as well as with partners from state and federal agencies and nonprofits. As a workshop co-host, I witnessed important developments in self-determination and asserting treaty rights in the context of natural resource management by Tribes with the support of their allies.
However, by far the most impactful part of the conference was the two field trips. In the Highway Tanks Field Trip, we observed the cross-boundary collaboration between the San Carlos Apache Tribe and the Tonto National Forest in fuel reduction and prescribed fire projects. This growing partnership is a model for fire management in the Southwest and beyond, as well as a crucial foundation in government-to-government relationships. The Apache Natural World field trip was a sampling of Traditional Knowledge by an Apache Elder. We tried important cultural foods, learned about edible plants, and visited sacred sites. I feel extremely grateful to have been given the opportunity as a non-Native person to learn San Carlos Apache culture and traditions. The difference in worldview and perspective of the Apache from our dominant Western culture was a breath of fresh air, not just at this field trip, but throughout the entire conference. I highly recommend attending future Tribal Summits to learn about the important work Native people are doing in the Southwest that can benefit us all.