As the school year came to a close, so did the first Native American Friday Academy, made up of high schoolers and one middle school student from Montezuma-Cortez and Southwest Open schools.
“It’s a new experience,” said SWOS student Shey Siles. “I never thought I’d be here, right here.”
Every Friday for a month, about a dozen students convened and learned a new skill to better equip them for higher education, said Sherrell Lang, a Native American success coach at Pueblo Community College Southwest.
“If it’s not college, what’s their interest post-high school,” said Lang.
The inspiration for the Friday Academy was in thinking about that next step.
“How can we be more aware and more connected with ways our Indigenous students learn? How can we assist and support their transition to higher education?” said Lang.
Throughout the academy, students pursued paths, like cooking and nutrition, STEM and resume building, said Greg Felsen, who helped organize and lead the academy with Lang and PCC.
“Today’s theme is the environment,” said Felsen.
That morning, students met in the commons area at Pueblo Community College near Mancos and sat in a talking circle, checking in with how they were feeling, things they were looking forward to.
Some reported feeling tired, while others expressed excitement for the day ahead.
In the circle, Felsen explained how they were going to private property on the Mancos River and plant traditional crops, an extension of the Montezuma Land Conservancy’s Traditional Harvest Project.
That project, which started in the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s Environmental Department, “addresses habitat loss and degradation on tribal lands and increases tribal access to culturally significant plants on ancestral homelands off the reservation,” according to MLC’s website.
At PCC, students piled into vans and drove out to the property, where people from the Montezuma Land Conservancy, Trees, Water & People and the landowner gathered in another talking circle.
“It’s an opportunity to give back. Our ancestors harvested on this land,” said Treston Chee, an Indigenous Lands Program Content Creator at Trees, Water & People.
“And it’s about giving tribal access to homelands they haven’t had access to in a long time,” said Chee.
Jesse Ramirez, an environmental consultant at Ramirez Natural Resources Stewardship LLC., explained how the land has “taken a hit” from things like agriculture and grazing.
That’s why they were going to plant poles of willow and cottonwood – “basically a stick in the ground” – along the banks of the river that afternoon, said Ramirez.
“It increases habitat and cools the water,” he said. “We’re giving back – being on the land is special.”
While planting, Chee encouraged students to “Speak to the water, the land. As hippy as it sounds, it’s healing.”
Before students traded their sneakers for muck boots, Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, the cross-cultural programs director at MLC, burned sweetgrass as her father gave a blessing that went in and out of their native tongue.
Afterward, Lopez-Whiteskunk said that her father weaving in and out of English and their native language a “challenge.”
“They must gain that traditional knowledge to know the full story and share our language,” she said.
Lopez-Whiteskunk added how the “intergenerational work is phenomenal.”
Engaging youths has historically been a challenge for the tribe, and the Friday Academy has helped mitigate that challenge, she said.
“I’m excited that curiosity arrived in the youths today and that curiosity is leading to action,” she said. “For me, this is my reward. I get to see something I nearly lost hope in.”
Plus, with all the partners who showed up to make it possible, they’re able to “braid the process of conservation with traditional knowledge,” said Lopez-Whiteskunk.
“For so long those were separate, spoken in silos,” she said. “I feel so strong the solutions have been there, they’re just dormant.”
The private property in Mancos they were on that day is “surrounded by easements,” meaning they’re permanently protected with the Montezuma Land Conservancy, said Austin Easter, the conservancy’s conservation director.
Three neighboring landowners are all participants in the Traditional Harvest Project, which makes up nearly a mile of the river corridor. Importantly, he said, the conservation work is “a blend of Western science and traditional knowledge.”
“It’s a pretty incredible project,” Easter said. “With pretty incredible landowners.”
Ron Osborn, the property owner, said it was a “great opportunity” to restore the land. He added it’s been “amazing” that water flow and riparian habitat have improved.
He became teary-eyed when he talked about to people and place that his involvement in the Traditional Harvest Project has fostered. “It feels like community,” he said.
Felsen and Lang at said they hope to secure more funding to continue the Native American Friday Academy.
“At the heart of it is success,” Felsen said. “I’ve seen students open their eyes to educational opportunities they haven’t thought about before.”
“This work goes beyond a year, a season,” Lopez-Whiteskunk said. “One day, they’ll be able to walk this land and see what they contributed.”
