Yosemite Ancestral Stewards Crew

Irene Vasquez, National Park Service cultural ecologist, and five members of the Yosemite Ancestral Stewards (YAS) Crew stand in front of a mountain range in Yosemite National Park.

 

Tribal Relations

• Tribal Relations
• Wahhoga Village Restoration
• Traditional Plant Gathering Agreement
• Black Oak Stewardship
• Little Fires Program & Cultural Burning
• Traditional Events
• Tribal Archeology & Cultural Heritage
• Tribal Resources

An acre of wetland revegetated, over a hundred black oak saplings planted, and a traditional ceremonial roundhouse restored. These are just a few of the projects the Yosemite Ancestral Stewards (YAS) Crew have completed since their inauguration in 2023. The crew, a group of 6-7 youth between the ages of 16-30, are recruited every year from the Traditionally Associated Tribes to live and work in Yosemite for two months in the summer. Read on to learn more about the program and their accomplishments!

 

 

Members of the Yosemite Ancestral Stewards Crew of 2023 working on clearing dead and down vegetation near black oak groves in the park.

Nellie Tucker

Building Connections

The Yosemite Ancestral Stewards (YAS) Crew is a stepping stone aimed at bringing more Native youth from the park's Traditionally Associated Tribes into Yosemite. Although the program is open to anyone between 16 to 30, its primary goal is to give Native youth from the Traditionally Associated Tribes the opportunity to work within their own homelands.

Crewmembers work on projects throughout the park, from within Yosemite Valley up to Tenaya Lake. Those projects are just as diverse as their locations, including anything from trail maintenance to black oak stewardship to wetlands restoration to cultural building repair. Much of the work the YAS Crew takes on is of particular importance to the crewmembers as well, whether because it involves culturally significant species or locations or because the projects were proposed by their own Tribal Elders.

 

Yosemite Ancestral Stewards Crew of 2023 gathered in El Capitan Meadow with NPS Cultural Ecologist Irene Vasquez.

Nellie Tucker

The program also fosters professional development. Members don’t just undergo the training they need to do their work safely, such as how to handle chainsaws or how to do wilderness first aid, but they also attend resume workshops and learn how to navigate federal job sites. By the end of the program, YAS crewmembers have the experience and knowledge needed to enter the federal workforce.

Through building connections within and outside of the crew to gaining the skills that will propel them through the workforce to stewarding their ancestral homelands, YAS crewmembers protect their legacies and work toward better futures for themselves and their Tribes.

 

Apply to the YAS Crew

Join the Yosemite Ancestral Stewards Apply Now

 

Members of the Yosemite Ancestral Stewards Crew work on repairing the roundhouse in the Indian Village.

NPS

Accomplishments

Below are just a few of the accomplishments the YAS Crew have achieved over the years:

• Restored two black oak groves, which involved planting 150 black oak saplings

• Built over 100 burn piles

• Removed thousands of encroaching conifers from sensitive habitat

• Revegetated 1 acre of wetland with 760 native plants

• Collected seeds of native plants for future projects

• Built and maintained 3 beaver dam analogs

• Completed workshops and trainings on topics ranging from chainsaw training to wilderness first aid to resume development

• Revegetated Tenaya Lake and Murphy Creek with over 2400 plants

• Collected materials to restore the traditional roundhouse and repaired or replaced the roundhouse poles and cedar bark covering

• Surveyed 79 acres of wilderness archeological sites, documenting 6 previously unrecorded sites and assessing 24 sites

• Collected data using LiDAR

• Worked on Puppy Dome Meadow restoration

 

Members of the Yosemite Ancestral Stewards Crew and the Nevada Conservation Corps assess some logs in Yosemite.

Learn More

• Learn about the Yosemite Ancestral Stewards Crew, their accomplishments, and how to apply for their next opening on their website.