Restoring youth: Restoring relationships to wildlife and wild places

Abstract

American Indian tribes recognize the most important resource for protecting the values of wild places is within youth. The Nez Perce Tribe, the San Carlos Apache Tribes and the Warm Springs Tribe are among many who have long emphasized the importance of initiating youth by providing experiences, activities and education in remote locations and carried that practice into modern day youth practicums. In addition, the USDA Forest Service has partnered with tribes through various federal training and youth programs. The Native American Fish and Wildlife Society continues to sponsor an annual national youth program for native youth and some regions have programs. The Los Padres National Forest in California also sponsored such a program in cooperation with the Santa Ynez Tribe for many years that provided a wilderness backcountry trip to complete restoration projects in the summer. The National Park Service joined the partnership one year to facilitate the program on the Channel Islands, bringing Chumash youth from the Santa Ynez Tribe back to the islands for the first time in many years. Access to federal lands is key in areas where tribes have small or fragmented land bases. This paper will focus on the intertribal native youth practicum that has been held for youth from multiple tribes in the Southwest region of the United States for the last eight years.

Parent Publication

• Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Eighth World Wilderness Congress symposium

Citation

Stumpff, Linda Moon. 2007. Restoring youth: Restoring relationships to wildlife and wild places. In: Watson, Alan; Sproull, Janet; Dean, Liese, comps. Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Eighth World Wilderness Congress symposium; September 30-October 6, 2005; Anchorage, AK. Proceedings RMRS-P-49. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 397-401