Southwest

Southwest, broad region

$4.5 million program to explore agriculture and water management on tribal lands, USDA-funded 'Native Waters on Arid Lands' brings together scientists, 1862 and 1994 land-grant institutions and tribal communities of Great Basin and Southwest to address agricultural water challenges
By: Jane Tors
Nevada Today
March 24, 2015
http://www.unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2015/native-waters

Colorado Plateau
How a Navajo Scientist is Helping to Restore Traditional Peach Horticulture
By: Susan Dolan
NPS
June 22, 2022
Key words: Navajo Nation, Pueblos, Hopi Tribe, Zuni Tribe Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona, peaches, traditional horticulture, heritage preservation, biodiversity conservation
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/how-a-navajo-scientist-is-helping-to-restore-traditional-peach-horticulture.htm
Reagan Wytsalucy, of the Navajo Nation, studied the Navajo peach as part of her Masters program at Utah State University. Years-long research and working closely with tribal elders has led to significant discoveries about traditional horticulture in arid environments and the resiliency of the Navajo peach. This genetically distinct peach has a storied history that will hopefully live long into the future as Wytsalucy sets to create educational programs based on demonstration orchards in Canyon de Chelly and sustainable farms in Indigenous communities.

Food is ‘a living, breathing being
By: Katelyn Reinhart
Aug 5, 2020
Cronkite News
Keywords: Food insecurity, Navajo Nation, traditional foods, sustainability, Covid-19, sheep https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/food-is-a-living-breathing-being-JgizeXkzokWqMP-Kx9pktw
The pandemic of 2020, which has been particularly bad on the Navajo Nation, has highlighted the issue of food insecurity for Indigenous Americans. Community members are using the opportunity presented by the crisis to distribute seeds of traditional foods like corn and squash, and also sheep to increase food sovereignty and sustainability. Community leaders also hope the projects address historical food inequities and the resulting health problems toward which Native Americans are particularly susceptible.

Praying for Rain
By: Tim Folger
April 21, 2020
Food & Environment Reporting Network
Key words: Zuni, Hopi, water, Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, seeds, heirloom seeds, salt, Zuni Salt Lake, drought, petroglyphs, conquistadors, Black Rock Dam, farming
https://thefern.org/2020/04/what-do-ancient-southwest-farming-cultures-tell-us-about-climate-change-drought
The Zuni Tribe is experiencing effects of drought. Climatologists are concerned that people today in the United States do not understand nor have they experienced the types of longterm droughts the Southwest could experience again. After many centuries of successful farming and adapting to seeds and methods for dryland farming, Euro-Americans changed Zuni farming practices to align with theirs. As climate conditions have changed, these methods and resources, like Black Rock Dam, no longer serve the Zuni. A heritage seed bank and traditional farming methods are being revived as Zuni farmers contend with less rainfall and drought conditions.

On the Trail of Tiny Tubers: This Four Corners Potato was a Staple of Native American Diets
By: Andrew Gulliford
Jan. 10, 2020
The Journal
Keywords: Apache, Hopi, Navajo, Pueblo, Southern Paiute, Zuni, Zia, traditional foodways, Solanum jamesii
https://www.the-journal.com/articles/on-the-trail-of-tiny-tubers-this-four-corners-potato-was-a-staple-of-native-american-diets/
A small potato identified in archaeological sites is being reintroduced by Native American communities. The size of a penny, the potato has more protein than russet and other modern varieties. The potato is drought and disease resistant and has the potential to be a significant food source.

The Resiliency of Hopi Agriculture: 2000 Years of Planting
By: Michael Kotutwa Johnson and Bill Carter
2019
Key words: Hopi, dry farming, faith, Colorado Plateau, Arizona, corn, squash, culturally-based agriculture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28gAFESNGMU&feature=youtu.be
Michael Kotutwa Johnson posted a 4-minute video about some of his work on Hopi as it relates to dry farming. "This is what we do. Farming is not about economics but about faith, so we can provide for the Hopi people today and well into the future," he says.

A record of change - Science and elder observations on the Navajo Nation
Prepared in collaboration with the Navajo Nation
By: Margaret M. Hiza-Redsteer and Stephen M. Wessells
2017
General Information Product 181
https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/gip181
https://youtu.be/47ufP_a9hPE
This piece combines Navajo elders' observations with Western science for a better understanding of changing environmental conditions on the Navajo Reservation.

Biogeochemical Studies of a Native American Runoff Agroecosystem
By: Jonathan A. Sandor, Jay B. Norton, Jeffrey A. Homburg, Deborah A. Muenchrath, Carleton S. White, Stephen Williams, Celeste I. Havener, and Peter D. Stahl
Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, Vol. 22, No. 3, 359–386
2007, ©2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Published online in Wiley Interscience
DOI:10.1002/gea.20157
https://www.uwyo.edu/esm/faculty-and-staff/adjunct-emeritus/stephen-williams/geoarch07Zuni.pdf
Researchers studied the soil of Zuni Tribe's maize fields and found that the careful placement of fields suggests knowledge and management of the soils.

Hopi-Kaibab National Forest Springs Restoration Project
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detailfull/kaibab/home/?cid=FSEPRD501001&width=full
The National Forest Service and the Hopi Tribe have partnered in a natural spring restoration effort within the Kaibab National Forest. The restoration effort and management plan for the natural springs are informed by Hopi elders' traditional ecological knowledge and is implemented through youth engagement and training.

Safeguarding Species, Languages, and Cultures in the Time of Diversity Loss: From the Colorado Plateau to Global Hotspots
By: Nabhan, Gary Paul, et al.
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, volume 89, issue 2, on pages 164 - 175
2002
https://biostor.org/reference/13158
Hotspots of biodiversity have become priority areas for land conservation initiatives, oftentimes without recognition that these areas are hotspots of cultural diversity as well. Using the Colorado Plateau ecoregion as a case study, this inquiry (1) outlines the broad geographic patterns of biological diversity and ethnolinguistic diversity within this ecoregion; (2) discusses why these two kinds of diversity are often influenced by the same geographic and historic factors; and (3) suggests what can be done to integrate traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous peoples into multicultural conservation collaborations. Published in Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, volume 89, issue 2, on pages 164 - 175, in 2002.Hotspots of biodiversity have become priority areas for land conservation initiatives, oftentimes without recognition that these areas are hotspots of cultural diversity as well. Using the Colorado Plateau ecoregion as a case study, this inquiry (1) outlines the broad geographic patterns of biological diversity and ethnolinguistic diversity within this ecoregion; (2) discusses why these two kinds of diversity are often influenced by the same geographic and historic factors; and (3) suggests what can be done to integrate traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous peoples into multicultural conservation collaborations.

Desert Southwest
Our Land: Ancestral Connections
PBS - video
April 25, 2024
Key Words: Pueblo of Santa Ana, land purchase, restoration, wildlife
https://www.pbs.org/video/our-land-ancestral-connections-2lxgvq/
Staff of the Pueblo of Santa Ana show recently purchased ancestral land and efforts they are undertaking to restore this heavily depleted ecosystem.

The Distribution of Cultural Lac Scale Use (Tachardiella spp.) in the Arid Southwest
By: Marilen Pool, PhD.
AmerindFoundation
August 12,2023
Key words: Lac scale, cultural uses, insects
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho-1eTYQ1vU
In this presentation, Dr. Pool discusses lac scale insect in the arid Southwest and the distribution of its cultural use. Three species, Tachardiella fulgens, Tachardiella larreae and Tachardiella pustulata are those most known to have been utilized by the Indigenous peoples of the region from as early as the Archaic period to the modern era as an adhesive, mastic, and coating for the fabrication of tools, weapons, musical instruments, kicking balls, ornaments, and amulets. It was also used for hermetic sealing of containers to protect foods and seeds from pests and as a repair material for mending pottery.

‘Time honored’ harvesting knowledge altered by climate change
By: Carina Dominguez
Indian Country Today
August 8, 2022
Key words: Tohono O’odham, Akimel O’odham, Tuscon, saguaros Baidaj (saguaro fruit), Baidaj harvesting, climate change, ancestral knowledge, environmental sustainability, rain ceremonies
https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/time-honored-harvesting-knowledge-altered-by-climate-change
O’odham people have long harvested Baidaj, the saguaro fruit, during the summer as a celebration before summer rains and the start of the O’odham New Year. However, in recent years Baidaj have noticeably been flowering earlier than expected, sometimes months earlier than usual, disrupting traditional harvest times. Earlier flowering may be linked to increasingly earlier and hotter summers and shifting rain seasons.

Pueblos in New Mexico turn to goats for fire management
By: Wufei Yu
High Country News
October 29, 2021
Key Words: New Mexico, Albuquerque, Sandia Pueblo, Rio Grande, invasive plants, overgrowth, fire prevention, goats
https://www.hcn.org/articles/south-wildfire-pueblos-in-new-mexico-turn-to-goats-for-fire-management
Overgrowth of invasive plant species along the Rio Grande is a serious hazard for fast-spreading wildfires. The Sandia Pueblo needed an innovative method to clear all the brush along the Rio Grande in their territory. They partnered with a local rancher to bring goats to help get rid of the brush for fire prevention. The goats eat the overgrowth and churn the soil. Governor Stuart Paisano is pleased with progress and other Pueblos may implement a similar program, too.

Native American fire management at an ancient wildland urban interface in the Southwest United States
By: Christopher I. Roos, Thomas W. Swetnam, T. J. Ferguson, Matthew J. Liebmann, Rachel A. Loehman, John R. Welch, Ellis Q. Margolis, Christopher H. Guiterman, William C. Hockaday, Michael J. Aiuvalasit, Jenna Battillo, Joshua Farella, and Christopher A. Kiahtipes
PNAS, 118 (4) e2018733118
January 26, 2021
Key words: fire, wood harvesting, smoke, Jemez Mountains, Hemish peoples, geoarchaeology, anthropology, dendrochronology, paleoecology, modeling, wildland urban interface
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2018733118
As the number and intensity of wildfires increase in the west, this multi-disciplinary research project informs us how fire on the landscape for the last 1,000+ years has shaped the ecosystem and provides opportunities for future management in wildland urban interface areas.

It’s Gonna Be Okay: Faith and Climate on a Hopi Drylands Farm
By: Michael Kotutwa Johnson, as told to Kimi Eisele
July 9, 2020
Border Lore
Keywords: Corn, dryland farming, Hopi culture, traditional ecological knowledge
https://borderlore.org/its-gonna-be-okay-faith-and-climate-on-a-hopi-drylands-farm/?fbclid=IwAR1sWQ22XjGmrg8hjA_eoX-LU0fxfAWEHvVbfAlA9vP4VbXPyC3s27JoqTM
Hopi dryland farmer Michael Johnson describes his life in a moving and evocative essay. Johnson discusses the interconnectivity between farming, culture and spirituality. He frames the seasonal rounds of planting, weeding, hoping for rain and eventual harvest as a meditation: each act a ritual, accompanied by prayer and humor.

Ndee Bikiyaa – The People’s Farm
By: First Nations Development Institute
Keywords: White Mountain Apache, food sovereignty, youth, traditional foods, community farming, way of life, sustainability
https://www.firstnations.org/videos/ndee-bikiyaa-the-peoples-farm/
The average Native American farmer is 54 years old. This short, well-made video that describes an effort to reintroduce traditional farming practices to Native youth, while fostering healthy lifestyles.

Case Study: Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute) Ancestral Territory, Spring Mountains National Recreation Area and Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Nevada, USA
By: Jeremy Spoon and Richard Arnold
Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas, IUCN
Key words: Landscapes, habitats, plants, harvest, shared governance, co-management, intergenerational knowledge transmission, pinyon-juniper
https://csvpa.org/library/nuwuvi-ancestral-territory/#1466988272395-15918ac2-ea14
The Nuwuvi collaborated with the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on two properties contained within the Nuwuvi ancestral territory to develop a co-management agreement that includes continued use and involvement in management activities through bi-annual meetings. The land is sacred and contains six vegetation zones of importance to the Nuwuvi.

The Legacy of theTrees: Preserving the Historical Edible Landscapes in Arizona
By: Jesus M. Garcia
Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Heritage
November 19, 2019
Key words: Tuscon, Arizona, Mexico, Sonoran Desert, harsh environment, fruit trees, vegetables, grains, food sustainability, biodiversity, Mediterranean, traditional knowledge
https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/preserving-historical-edible-landscapes-arizona?fbclid=IwAR2aqGSKqG7tiyTdubbnq1ABCN6oxOtNW4GvH7V0g5CYd0zq-NT6Zk-Jytg
This article discusses the changes from 4,000 years of farming through different cultures and introduced species to the present times when we are facing food scarcity, a changing environment, and high intensity farming of mono-crops. This story speaks of returning to past successful species adapted to the environmental conditions and which provide greater diversity and flavor.

Native Seeds: A Reflection of Time
Cocopah Now
July 2018
Keywords: plants, agriculture, traditional plants, reclamation, reintroduction of indigenous varieties, sustainable, Arizona
The Cocopah community will reintroduce indigenous plant varieties from the 1800s that their people had farmed using traditional techniques. Tepary beans and sweet corn had been important crops and they now hope to make use of traditional and sustainable techniques that have been lost and help children to learn about these sacred plants.

Ancestral Pueblo logging practices could save New Mexico pinelands
By: Maya L. Kapoor
High Country News
December 11, 2017
Key words: ancestral ways, fire, logging, drought
http://www.hcn.org/issues/49.21/wildfire-ancestral-pueblo-logging-practices-could-save-new-mexico-pinelands
Adapting ancestral ways of forestry management to modern practices may be the solution to limiting the number of highly destructive fires.

Fire in the Jemez
By: Thomas W. Swetnam, Regents’ Porfessor of Dendrochronology, Emeritus
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, Jemez Mountains Tree-Ring Lab. Jemez Post
March 21, 2017
This article from the Jemez Post describes the FHiRE (Fire and Humans in Resilient Ecosystems) project. This collaborative research project was started in 2011, and involved a group of scientists, forest managers and Jemez community members. It aimed at reconstructing the long-term human, forest and fire histories on the Southern Jemez Plateau.

Resilience Garden Bringing Traditional Agriculture Back: Indian Pueblo Cultural Center teaching traditional agriculture to tourists and locals
By: Frances Madeson.
Indian Country Media Network
March 6, 2017
https://ictnews.org/archive/resilience-garden-bringing-traditional-agriculture-back
The Resilience Garden at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico is a place where tourists and locals can meet like family, plunging their hands into sandy loamy soil to help bring forward the three sisters—corn, beans and squash. From March through October on the second Sunday of every month, for $5 per class, gardeners, foodies and cultural historians of all levels, can come together to learn about thousand year old Pueblo agricultural practices that still promote successful growing seasons.

Episode 1024: Traditional Pueblo Foods
By: New Mexico in Focus, a Production of KNME-TV
KNME-TV, New Mexico on YouTube
Dec. 9, 2016
Key words: Food traditions, health, ways of cooking, cooking as art, teaching, cultural transmission, seed regeneration, reclamation, place
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9zy9pRfrRA
In this 15-minute video, New Mexico in Focus’s Megan Kamerick interviews Roxanne Swentzell (cookbook author, Pueblo) and Lois Ellen Frank (professional chef, Kiowa and Sephardic) about their personal as well as teaching experiences concerning traditional foods of native cultures. Roxanne discusses the health benefits of eating a diet of only foods that would have been available before European contact. Food is connected to one’s place of origin and ancestors, culture, and health.

Archaeology Southwest Magazine, Fire adds richness to the land, The Jemez FHiRE Project
Volume 30, Number 4
Fall 2016
https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/product/asw30-4/
This issue is devoted to the Jemez FHiRE project, which involved researchers from a number of disciplines and tribal members to research fire useage over history to determine how past actions could influence future forest management. It honors traditional knowledge.

Senator works with Pueblo youth, NPS >Program takes young people to ancestral sites
by Arin McKenna
lamonitor.com
Saturday, July 4, 2015 at 10:00 am (Updated: July 7, 11:23 am)

Connecting geology and Native American culture on the reservation of Acoma Pueblo, New Mexcio, USA
By: Darryl Reano and Kenneth D. Ridgway
GSA Today
August 2015
This article discusses the connection between geology of Acoma and cultural uses of various strata.

Tradition & Technology: San Carlos Apache Tribe's Food Database
By: R. Blauvelt
November 17, 2014
Key words: San Carlos Apache Tribe, traditional foods, database, First Nations Development Institute, diet
http://indiangiver.firstnations.org/nl141112-04/
A traditional food database, developed by the San Carlos Apache Tribe, was initiated to promote a pre-reservation diet. Apache elders believe this relationship with food will diminish diet-related diseases, as well as strengthen the tribe socially and politically.

Lois Ellen Frank Keynote at FUZE.SW 2014, Food and Folklore Festival, Santa Fe
By: IndianArtsCulture channel on YouTube
The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture
Sept 19, 2014
Key words: revitalization, plants, ancestral foods, traditional culture, planting, TEK, connections, Spanish contact, change in diet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRjA0N3kwdg&feature=youtu.be
The video presents a 47-minute keynote presentation by Native chef, author, and culinary anthropologist Lois Ellen Frank. Her presentation explores the health benefits and cultural values that native plant foods contain and how reinvigorating foods is a means to revive culture. She explores how Spanish contact changed the plant-based foodways indigenous to America and gives suggestions for how to revitalize ancestral foods.

Drought forces some Native Americans to choose which tradition to save
By: Carrie Jung
Aljazeera America
March 20, 2014 5:00AM ET
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/20/drought-forces-someinindiancountrytochoosewhichtraditiontosave.html
Kewa (Santo Domingo) Pueblo elders discuss the choice between farming or irrigating in the traditional way.

Learning to farm from native drylanders, Puebloan cultures perfected early domesticated corn
By: Jim Mimiaga, staff writer
The Journal
Article Last Updated: Thursday, August 22, 2013 5:33pm
https://www.the-journal.com/articles/learning-to-farm-from-native-drylanders/

Restoring and Maintaining Resilient Landscapes through Planning, Education, Support, and Cooperation on the San Carlos Apache Reservation
May 8, 2013
http://forestry.scat-nsn.gov/publicweb/AZ_SCA_Report_Final.pdf
As a study of fire on the landscape, this report identifies fuel treatments' effectiveness and certain cultural values at risk, and makes suggestions for the future, regarding a return to a natural fire regime.

Case Study: Caring for the Trees: Restoring Timbisha Shoshone Land Management Practices in Death Valley National Park
By: Catherine S. Fowler, Pauline Esteves, Grace Goad, Bill Helmer, and Ken Watterson
Ecological Restoration, 21:302-306; doi:10.3368/er.21.4.302
December 2003
https://er.uwpress.org/content/21/4/302.full

Case Study: Destruction of an Ancient Indigenous Cultural Landscape: An Epitaph from Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
By: Gary Paul Nabhan
Ecological Restoration, December 2003, 21:290-295; doi:10.3368/er.21.4.290
https://er.uwpress.org/content/21/4/290