August 2013 Green Fire Times by Sun Publishing

Native American Green August 2013

News & Views

from the

Indigenous Solutions

Sustainable Southwest

Vol. 5 No. 8

Green Fire Times â&#x20AC;˘ August 2013

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Green Fire Times â&#x20AC;˘ August 2013

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Vol. 5, No. 8 • August 2013 Issue No. 52 Publisher Green Fire Publishing, LLC

Skip Whitson

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Barbara E. Brown

Managing Editor Seth Roffman Art Director Anna C. Hansen, Dakini Design Copy Editor Stephen Klinger Webmaster: Karen Shepherd Contributing Writers

Dave Castillo, Anthony Fleg, Carolyn Gonzales, Maria González-Maddux, Susan Guyette, Samantha Honani-Antone, Walter McQuie, N. Scott Momaday, Jon Naranjo, Seth Roffman, Corrine Sánchez, Veronica E. Tiller, Susan Wotkyns

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c/o The Sun Companies PO Box 5588 Santa Fe, NM 87502-5588 Ph: 505.471.5177 info@sunbooks.com © 2013 Green Fire Publishing, LLC Green Fire Times provides useful information for anyone—community members, business people, students, visitors—interested in discovering the wealth of opportunities and resources available in our region. Knowledgeable writers provide articles on subjects ranging from green businesses, products, services, entrepreneurship, jobs, design, building, energy and investing—to sustainable agriculture, arts & culture, ecotourism, education, regional food, water, the healing arts, local heroes, native perspectives, natural resources, recycling and more. Sun Companies publications seek to provide our readers with informative articles that support a more sustainable planet. To our publisher this means maximizing personal as well as environmental health by minimizing consumption of meat and alcohol. GFT is widely distributed throughout northcentral NM. Feedback, announcements, event listings, advertising and article submissions to be considered for publication are welcome.

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Contents

A New World. . .. . .. . .. . .. . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 5 The Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 6 Climate Change Impacts to Tribes in the Southwestern United States. . .. . .. 7 The Indigenous Design and Planning Institute . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 9 Empowered to Succeed…or Fail: Sovereignty & Self-Sufficiency . . .. . .. . 11 Guided by Our Values. . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 12 Tewa Women United . . .. . .. . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 14 Everyday Green: Tribal Museums and Cultural Centers . . .. . .. . .. . .. . . 17 The Pueblo Kilt: Revival of an Ancient Art . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 18 The Natwani Coalition: Revitalizing Traditional Hopi Agriculture and the Hopi Food System . . .. 20 Learning to Grow Vegetables with Hasbìditó. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 23 Energy Development in Indian Country . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 25 Build It and They Will Come? The To’Hajiilee Solar Power Project . . .. . .. 27 Native Newsbites . . .. . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 29 New Mexico State Land Office and Sovereign Tribes Team Up. . .. . .. . .. . 29 Native Arts & Culture. . .. . .. . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 33 Newsbites . . .. . .. . .. . .. . ... . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 37 What’s Going On. . .. . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 38

A New World

N. Scott Momaday

s predicted, the world came to an end on 21 December 2012. It was clearly predicted in the Mayan calendars, and there was evidence besides. For some months before the event time began to warp. It was accelerated. There was a gathering awareness of the chronological disruption, the warp, subtle but unmistakable. At first I myself thought the disorientation was in my mind or metabolism, a by-product of aging, perhaps, or a veering of the imagination. But when I mentioned it to others, there was unexpected agreement, a kind of consensus, if you will. The experience was recorded in small talk, as usual, but there was a curious gravity to it: “Where did October go?” or “I can’t keep up with the time,” were uttered with an unfamiliar consideration. For the first time I felt that my blood was being pulled by a faster spinning of the Earth. Time was no longer marching but running on. And then the prediction came true. The world came to an end.

It was generally supposed that the moment would be cataclysmic, but in fact it was virtually unnoticed, and it was followed by an unremarkable transition. There was a silent and seamless passage into another dimension. One world was ended and another begun. It happens that the new world is a mirror image of the old, but there is a critical difference. There is the miracle of renewal; there is fresh hope and opportunity. There is a good chance that we the people of the new world will fare better than before, that we will climb higher on the scale of moral evolution, that we will realize more of our sacred potential, our human being. It is a chance not to be lost upon us. In 1969 N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa) received a Pulitzer Prize for his first novel, House Made of Dawn and in 2007 was awarded the National Medal of Arts for his writings and work that celebrate and preserve Native American art and oral tradition.

COVER: THE GATHERING by Lavelle Mahle (Hopi) • The drawing represents the uniting of

all Hopi clans through the Katsinas to pollinate Mother Earth with the blessing of Father Sky-Dawa-the Sun, to promote better health and strengthen the crops of the Hopi People. LavelleMahle@gmail.com

Green Fire Times is not to be confused with the Green Fire Report, an in-house quarterly publication of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. The NMELC can be accessed online at: www.nmelc.org

Green Fire Times • August 2013

The Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals and its Climate Change Program

The Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) was created in 1992 to act as a catalyst among tribal governments, research and technical resources at Northern Arizona University in support of environmental protection of Native American natural resources. Its mission is to “serve tribes through outstanding, culturally relevant education and training that increase environmental capacity and strengthen sovereignty.” Since its inception, ITEP has served over 500 of the 566 federally recognized tribes across the United States. ITEP’s Climate Change Program was formed in 2009 to build capacity of tribes to address climate change issues. Since the program’s launch, ITEP has led seven multiday, tribally-focused trainings on climate change adaptation planning. Each offering is tailored to the particular geographic region and is taught by an instructional team that includes staff from ITEP, federal agencies, universities and/or organizations, and most importantly the tribes themselves, who share their expertise and experience. These trainings provide an introduction to the adaptation planning process, and participants receive tools and resources, such as templates and spreadsheets, that tribes can use as they develop adaptation plans. One key feature of ITEP’s customized courses for climate change adaptation planning is the emphasis placed on traditional ecological knowledge during in the scoping and planning processes. Other resources from ITEP’s Climate Change Prog ram include the monthly Tribal Climate Change Newsletter, climate change fact sheets, and the Tribes & Climate Change website with basic climate change information, tribal profiles detailing climate Sand dune erosion control change adaptation and mitigation efforts of tribes throughout the United States, a Resources Library, and much more. To learn more about the program and to access these resources, visit https://www4.nau.edu/itep/climatechange/.

EPA Grant Funds Navajo Workers for Uranium Mines Cleanup

The US EPA is awarding $200,000 to Northern Arizona University’s Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) to establish an Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training program for the Navajo Nation’s workforce to clean up abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation. The grant application received strong support and advocacy from Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly and a broad base of supporters. Said Shelly, “We will provide skilled workers with additional training to clean up radioactive and hazardous materials; and we will provide the specialized training to ensure their safety. This training program will be incorporated into the ongoing work the Navajo Nation is doing with the federal government to address the legacy impacts of uranium mining and milling. With over 500 abandoned uranium mines that will be cleaned up, environmental jobs will be available for a long time.” NAU President John Haeger said, “Environmental workforce development and job training is both a great opportunity and a challenge. Through this grant NAU’s ITEP program will have a critical role in helping address these challenges. Neither NAU nor the Navajo Nation can address these challenges alone.”

Tribal Lands Forum

The Tribal Lands and Environment Forum is celebrating its fourth year. This annual event is coming to New Mexico for the first time, and will take place at the Pueblo of Santa Ana’s Tamaya Resort August 19-22, 2013. This forum, co-sponsored by the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals and the US EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Response, brings together over 200 tribal professionals from Alaska to Alabama, and Maine to California, as well as their federal colleagues. This event features a series of intensive trainings, multiple plenary sessions, and over 40 breakout sessions, all focused on the fields of solid waste, hazardous waste, Brownfields, Superfund, underground storage tanks, and emergency response programs. This year ITEP will also be incorporating several sessions dealing with the effects of climate change on tribal lands. For more information please visit ITEP’s website at http://www4.nau.edu/itep/conferences/confr_tlf.asp.

Green Fire Times • August 2013

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Climate Change Impacts to Tribes in the Southwestern United States Susan Wotkyns and Cristina María González-Maddux Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals

limate change threatens to alter the natural environment in a myriad of different ways. For the Southwestern United States, these changes include a trend toward hotter and drier conditions, and importantly, disruptions to major hydrologic systems and processes. In the National Climate Assessment’s1 (NCA) most recent report on the Southwest, “Assessment of Climate Change in the Southwest US2”, the authors describe the region—Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah—as being among the most “climate-challenged” in North America. It’s not surprising then that many climate change impacts are already being felt in the Southwest: rise in average temperature, changes in precipitation and snowpack, and prolonged drought. These phenomena signal both the urgent need to mitigate climate change through a reduction in fossil fuel combustion as well as a clear imperative to prepare for the anticipated impacts and develop sound adaptation strategies.

For Southwestern tribes, the impacts of climate change threaten local infrastructure, access to culturally significant plant and animal species, food sovereignty, water resources and traditional lifeways. As the authors point out in the NCA report, Southwestern tribes face a host of unique challenges in the face of climate change3. Many of these challenges stem from longstanding inequities such as natural resource distribution (i.e. water supply), habitability of designated tribal lands and political marginalization. Compounding the potential vulnerability of tribes to climate change are the close relationship and cultural ties between tribes and their traditional lands. Altered timing of seasons and early snowmelt, for instance, can have repercussions for tribes that observe traditional harvesting cycles. One final, yet important obstacle that tribes may encounter in the face of climate change is limited climate monitoring data to inform baseline conditions and establish changes over time. Although there is limited climate monitoring data presently available, other mechanisms for tracking climate change must be seriously considered—both oral accounts and traditional knowledge are crucial resources that can help to reconstruct historical conditions and inform climate-driven changes. Dr. Margaret Hiza Redsteer of the US Geological Survey is frequently referenced in discussions on climate science and Southwestern tribal lands. For the past decade, Hiza Redsteer has studied4 climate change-induced migration of sand dunes across the Navajo Nation. In addition to utilizing tools typically associated with a research geologist, like lidar measurements and meteorological monitoring stations, Dr. Hiza Redsteer and her colleagues have also worked to chronicle oral accounts from Navajo elders on the area’s natural history—landscape features, vegetation, 1 Th e third National Climate Assessment report is scheduled for completion in early 2014. In January of 2013 the draft report was released for public and expert comment. 2 Assessment of Climate Change in the Southwest United States, 2013. <http:// swccar.org/sites/all/themes/files/SW-NCA-color-FINALweb.pdf> 3 Assessment of Climate Change in the Southwest United States, 2013 - Ch. 17. Unique Challenges Facing Southwestern Tribes. 4 Margaret Hiza Redsteer, Rian C. Bogle, and John M. Vogel – US Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2011-3085. <http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2011/3085/>

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wildlife, and land management practices over time. Her work on dune migration highlights the immediate dangers that climate change poses for tribal lands in the way of damaged infrastructure (roads and homes), reduced arable and rangelands, and compromised public health due to dust storms. However, it also ser ves as a case study on the utility of melding western science with traditional knowledge and oral histories to weave a far more informative narrative of natural history on tribal lands. Over the past four years, the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) at Northern Arizona University has worked with tribes to chronicle and publish accounts of the regional impacts of climate change through profiles and fact sheets. In addition, ITEP produced the 2010 “Tribal Climate Change Efforts in Arizona and New Mexico” report5, which highlights tribally led climate change projects in Arizona and New Mexico and also illustrates some of the unique challenges faced by tribes throughout the Southwest. These monumental challenges resulting from global climate change, which include increased frequency of wildfire, increased water scarcity, loss of traditional grazing lands, increased prevalence of invasive species, and changes in precipitation patterns (primarily early snowmelt), are being met with extraordinary ingenuity and tenacity by Southwestern tribes. Nonetheless, climate change poses serious consequences for tribes, who are among the most vulnerable to its impacts. It is in light of this fact that some tribes have started the climate change adaptation planning process (see ITEP Climate Change Program sidebar), which requires assessment of climate impacts and vulnerabilities of tribal natural and cultural resources, social services, infrastructure, and lands, and enables tribal staff to build climate resiliency into their communities by way of strategic planning and cross-sector preparedness. In its ongoing effort to support tribes as they prepare for climate change impacts, ITEP has scheduled an adaptation planning training during the 2013 Tribal Lands and Environment Forum hosted by the Pueblo of Santa Ana in New Mexico. i Susan Wotkyns is Climate Change Program manager and Cristina María Gonzales-Maddux is research specialist at Northern Arizona University’s Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals. WEB SITE: www4.nau.edu/itep/conferences/confr_tlf.asp. 5 T ribal Climate Change Efforts in Arizona and New Mexico. 2010. <http:// www4.nau.edu/itep/climatechange/docs/SWTCCEffortsAZNM_12-14-11.pdf>

Green Fire Times • August 2013

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Indigenous Design and Planning Institute Builds Capacity Statewide, Beyond

Carolyn Gonzales

he Indigenous Design and Planning Institute, iD+Pi, at the University of New Mexico, was created to educate and inform policy leaders, students, professionals and communities within and outside the university about culturally appropriate design and planning practices. Community and Regional Planning Distinguished Professor Ted Jojola, from Isleta Pueblo, directs the program. In the short time since iD+Pi was established, Jojola has received many requests to aid indigenous communities in New Mexico and the surrounding areas. The institute is in the end stages of providing design assistance for Ysleta del Sur in El Paso, Texas. The tribe lost many of its traditional tribal lands, especially in its historic housing district because many tribal members took advantage of US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) housing, not realizing they were replacing traditional

Grace Vicuna, iD+Pi graphics designer

tribal assets. The tribe bought properties throughout El Paso when it had casino money. The state of Texas closed the casino, but they remained undaunted when it came to preserving their culture. Jojola and his planning colleagues, Moisés Gonzales, Tim Imeokparia and their students, developed a cultural corridor plan. It included elements like signage and design standards used to give visitors a sense of awareness they have entered tribal lands.

Architecture is storytelling. Requests from other communities in Nambé, Tohatchi, Cochiti and Taos, among others, have rolled in. Jojola is busy preparing grant applications so as to advance their assistance. One, to the Graham Foundation, will help them to reproduce color photos for inclusion in a book on contemporary indigenous architecture that will be published by the UNM Press. Another went out to the Fetzer Foundation, to support work in design and environmental justice with the Red Water Pond Road community near Church Rock, NM. Jojola said that final working details are in place to begin creating a communit y master plan for the town of Crownpoint. “We are

Design and planning charette at Ysleta del Sur Pueblo in El Paso, TX

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looking at the issues holistically,” he said, adding that they’d like to establish a field site presence at the Crownpoint Institute of Technology, creating a place where iD+Pi can work on the ground with their faculty, students and citizens, thereby enabling local planning capacity. Cochiti wants a plan to preserve its historic plaza. For Cochiti, the students in Jojola’s class on Human Settlement will begin the effort by exploring its historic context, reviewing archival materials and looking for historic photos of the plaza. Similarly, “Nambé wants revitalization Original Indigenous Architecture team of its historic plaza in a manner that (l-r): Lynn Paxson, Eleni Bastea, Marth addresses the major contemporary issues Becktell, Ted Jojola, Amanda Montoya the fall of 2014 at the Indian Pueblo that have been wrought by social and Cultural Center. “We partnered with environmental change,” Jojola said. “That museum studies to assist with the will result in a summer field studio.” conceptual elements of the exhibit,” Taos Pueblo is currently undertaking he said, noting that a major theme will a community-driven comprehensive be “architecture is storytelling.” The plan,” he said. Taos has withstood storytelling will also be digitized with the test of time, but it is challenged the launching of iD+Pi’s new website. by controlling new growth and The website entails indigenous news, development outside its historic village. planning and architecture, and shares iD+Pi has already done a Planning the voices of all those who are affiliated 101 session for the pueblo’s planning with iD+Pi and its projects. committee and hopes to be involved The School of Architecture and in the community meetings that will Planning’s iD+Pi program has longer be held to inform the process. arms. “We are also collaborating with Jojola and another team are preparing the Latin American & Iberian Institute a proposal to HUD about the role and the University of Wisconsin, Green of traditional adobe as a sustainable Bay, on a winter field school on Inca housing material. architecture in Ecuador,” Jojola said. “We have six contracts and seven in queue. Because demand has been so great, we need to build more internal capacity,” Jojola said, noting that hiring a student program manager position to assist Amanda Montoya, iD+Pi program specialist, would be next. “We have the need to hire students for each project,” he said. That really adds to our workload. That position will also be strategic to recruiting new native students interested in tribal community design and planning. With the Institute of American Indian Arts, iD+Pi is helping develop the firstever museum exhibit of contemporary indigenous architecture. It is slated for

And in capacity building, the school hired Dr. Laura Harjo, Muscogee (Creek), University of Southern California geography graduate, as a visiting professor. She joins the faculty permanently in the fall. Her areas of expertise are geographic information systems (GIS) and indigenous planning. “This marks UNM as the only tier 1 university with two native faculty in its planning program,” Jojola said. i Carolyn Gonzales is a senior communication representative at the University of New Mexico. Among the topics she writes about for UNM are architecture, planning and ethnic studies.

Green Fire Times • August 2013

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Sustainable Development

Empowered to Succeed…or Fail The Double-Edged Sword of Sovereignty & Self-Sufficiency Dave Castillo Editors Note: Sustainable development is often thought about in terms of building new physical structures with limited adverse impact on the environment – in other words, environmentally sustainable development. However, even the thought of “developing” on tribal lands is complicated by limited access to funding as the result of a complex political and economic history between the United States and tribes. The following article reflects upon the work of Indian and other organizations working to facilitate economically sustainable development that is inclusive of environmentally sustainable projects.

“H

ow is it that the US can put a man on the moon but not a bank on an Indian Reservation?” In 1999, during the Clinton administration, a tribal official asked a version of this question at a tribal event attended by prominent federal officials to launch an initiative for increasing access to private-sector financing for projects on tribal lands. Reflecting back on that question now, it’s clear that practitioners in Indian Country have begun to ask: Should we rely on the US to build that bank, or does the goal of tribal self-sufficiency require tribes to build it? The reason for the latter question comes from the fact that progress has been made since 1999 in increasing access to capital for tribal projects. In select areas of Indian Country, tribes have successfully used Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, New Markets Tax Credits, started their own loan funds (CDFI’s) to support local entrepreneurship, and raised private capital to acquire or develop revenue-generating enterprises (other than tribal casinos) that even include small regional banks. Moreover, a number of Indian as well as non-Indian nonprofit and for-profit entities have developed capacity to better serve the needs of tribes as they engage in development across a wide variety of business sectors.

Who will pay the costs for roads, housing, infrastructure, hospitals, renewable energy resources and job-creating enterprises in demand across most of Native America?

Therefore, it’s a good time to revisit the issue of how tribal nations can achieve selfsufficiency, given both the success that has been achieved, but also because of the persistence of static tribal economies and the social distress in tribal communities. Despite progress, there is much left to do. How and who will pay the costs for the needed roads, housing, infrastructure, hospitals, renewable energy resources and job-creating enterprises that remain in demand across most of Native America? No doubt, anyone who has played a role in the activities of tribal governance has a tribal community- or economic development story. Yes, there are many success stories but there are still too many that relay the difficulties and challenges that are unique to Indian Country. Native Home Capital was established to focus exclusively on addressing one of these specific challenges—that of increasing access to private-sector financing for tribal projects.

New Native American Business Center in Santa Fe

In March a new business center was created by the federal Minority Business Development Agency. The business center, which received $1,275,000 from the MBDA to work with the state’s tribes for five years, is housed in the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department in the Wendell Chino Building, 1200 St. Francis Dr. in Santa Fe. The center will assist the Native American business community with client services, program promotion and advocacy, and operational and performance management.

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Stepping Stone Place, Phoenix, Ariz.— mid-construction, May 2013

Since our establishment in 2005, Native Home Capital realized that it cannot, on its own, meet the financing needs for housing and community development on tribal lands. In any case, Indian Country should not have to rely on lenders of last resort. Therefore, from the beginning, we set upon the task of increasing access to multiple sources of capital for tribal projects. Initially, we sought out robust partnerships with conventional banks. Although our efforts had limited success, banks remain an important and vital resource for the development of vibrant economies—including tribal economies. However, as of today, and even with the aid of federal legislation to incentivize banking services in Indian Country, the amount of bank financing flowing to tribes for housing and community development remains dismal. Therefore, one of our goals is to establish access to alternate forms of capital for tribal projects. Public sector entities have been and remain strong partners. However, through our work, nonprofit intermediaries, foundations and global private sector financial institutions have begun or expanded commitments to Indian Country. Earlier this year we partnered with the Rural Community Assistance Corporation, a nonprofit organization serving rural communities in 13 western states. RCAC is a top-rated Community Development Financial Institution, and in May 2013 together we funded a HUD (Title VI) guaranteed tribal homeownership project in northern New Mexico. In addition, we’ve partnered with the Southwest Native Green Loan Fund, a foundation and philanthropic-led initiative that provides mission-related and impact investing options for foundations and philanthropists seeking social and environmental, as well as financial return. Most recently, we’ve partnered with Next Era Capital, a hedge fund with a vision that global private sector capital shall be as readily accessible and in use by tribal nations as any other developing nation in the world. What we’ve learned is that “the bank” or any tribal community development effort can be more successful not by relying just on the US government or just on the tribe alone but in partnership with a wide range of people and organizations. Although we work primarily in the southwest US, there are many other organizations — and of course tribes — that have arrived at the same conclusion and who are likewise continued on page 12

Green Fire Times • August 2013

Empowered

continued from page 11

forging strong partnerships to address the dire needs of Indian Country. Yes, tribal leaders should continue to demand that the US government honor its trust responsibility and the promises enshrined in treaties made in exchange for land that was ceded by tribes during the colonization of this continent. However, if those of us charged with the specific task of community and economic development in Indian Country were to rely on the US government alone, tribal communities would continue to wait too long and likely with disappointing results.

Sign showing the wide range of partners involved in a Native nonprofit affordable housing development

Tribes can and should access the readily available resources and networks that will provide necessary expertise and assistance. Federal legislation (now law) known as the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act and similar Indian legislation actually mandates such efforts! Moreover, tribal leaders have stated that if tribes want to be sovereign, they must act sovereign. Similarly, if tribes want to be economically self-sufficient, they must work toward becoming selfsufficient by developing partners other than the US government. The image above illustrates the wide range of partners that contribute to the typical community development project we help finance. Many more have experience working with tribes or are willing, able and available to learn how to do business in Indian Country—but only so long as tribes are willing to embrace the task of achieving self-sufficiency and themselves learn how private-sector and nonprofit entities can help them rebuild Native America. i To learn more about financing development on tribal lands in the Southwest or secure referrals for other areas of Indian country, contact Dave Castillo, CEO, Native Home Capital. www.nativehomecapital.com

Green Fire Times • August 2013

Guided by Our Values

Anthony Fleg

s a coordinator for the Native Health Initiative, I want to reflect on a few things I have learned from the people and organizations working with us:

One of the most fundamental ways that we show love in this world is by protecting the only true asset that we will give to future generations: Mother Earth. Indigenous communities are not focused on tomorrow or 2014 and do not run from one election to the next. Instead, there is the Seven Generations perspective, looking forward to how our actions today reflect what is best for the seventh generation to come. What will our Earth be for our great-grandchildren’s great-grandchildren? That perspective makes us think deeply and clearly when we are deciding whether to mine sacred sites for uranium, destroy rich ecosystems for oil, water our golf courses and lawns while fields that could be growing local food go dry. Youth are today’s future, not tomorrow’s. We had the pleasure of supporting a group of local youth called the Walatowa Green Stars. These young people from Jémez Pueblo started a recycling program f rom the ground up, representing the potential of our youth to create change. We often underestimate the insight and abilities of youth to lead, Water tank on Navajo land paying lip ser vice to the phrase “youth are the future.” Well, the future is now, and all of us need to find young people in our programs and communities to learn and then lead alongside us! Let us grow our movement based on what we believe in, not based on the injustices we are trying to overcome. With NHI, we are very intentional in this realm, feeling that once we succumb to “fight the system,” “fight the man,” “fight the oil companies,” etc., we become a victim ourselves, on the road to burnout and depletion. Instead, let us grow a green movement based on the values that guide us—love for Mother Earth, Father Sky and everything in between… respect for all living beings, an understanding that no monetary value can be given to water, air and other gifts from Creator. Let us grow a movement that is loving and replenishing to us as we work to heal the Earth. i Anthony Fleg is a family physician with the Albuquerque, NM-based Native Health Initiative. www.lovingservice.us

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960-C Highway 550 Bernalillo, NM 87004

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Tewa Women United Indigenous Women United in Heart, Mind and Spirit Corrine Sánchez

Sengi tamu. (in Tewa) — Good day to you.

ewa Women United (TWU) is a collective of intertribal, multicultural women who reside in the Tewa Pueblo homelands of northern New Mexico. The organization started in 1989 as a support group for women concerned with the traumatic effects of colonization leading to issues such as alcoholism, suicide, domestic and sexual violence. In the safe space we created, we transformed and empowered one another through critical analysis and by embracing and reaffirming our cultural identity. In 2001 TWU transitioned from an informal, all-volunteer group into a formal nonprofit organization for educational, social and benevolent purposes, particularly with the intention of ending violence against Native women, girls and Mother Earth, and to promote a culture of peace in New Mexico.

Sovereignty is living truth from the heart.

In honoring our roots, TWU wanted to develop a curricula /program that draws upon our cultural values, language and strengths as Tewa/Pueblo peoples. It comes from our journey to share with our children, our love and dreams for them to grow into powerful, loving, caring and nurturing beings guided by their minds, hearts and Spirits, with ancient and new ways of knowingness.

Vision and Mission

The spirit of TWU is embodied in the Tewa concept of wo watsi, “the breath/spirit of our work.” Our heart’s breath guides our path of life into our daily work. Our breath is our commitment to live life as a prayer and to view life as a cycle, knowing that what we do with unconditional love is exponentially honoring all. TWU’s mission is to provide safe spaces for Indigenous women to uncover the power, strength and skills we possess to become positive forces for social change in our families and communities. As Native women leaders, we also work to reduce harmful environmental impacts, strengthen families and reduce poverty. Every day we work to address the root causes of many health and social justice disparities. i For more information or to provide some support for Tewa Women United, call 505.747.3259, email info@ tewawomenunited.org or visit http://tewawomenunited.org Corrine Sánchez is executive director of Tewa Women United.

Green Fire Times • August 2013

POEM

Beata Tsosie-Peña

Stories of resilience and survival Flow through our remembrance as we search For springs of wellness within our homes Opportunity that reflects our cultural strengths Poor, struggling families Polarized into focusing only on jobs Destructive industries that split them away from their first relationship Their first environment of woman Furthering agendas of disconnection, decimation Continued dislocation to land, air, and forever Testimony from grandmothers releases our tears Speaking what was silenced decreases our fears Earthen embrace of forested wisdom Asks for our collective grief To untangle our relatives from their mistakes and tribulations Energy cleared for the 7th generation of healers We are battling for the reclamation of memory An end to cycles of damage that begins With violence towards our Mother And ends with violence towards her daughters.

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TEWA WOMEN UNITED’S PROGRAMS

Valuing Our Integrity with Courage, Empowerment and Support

V.O.I.C.E.S. is a culturally based response to sexual violence and trauma in the diverse communities of Río Arriba, northern Santa Fe County, and the Pueblo and Tribal Nations of New Mexico. V.O.I.C.E.S. has two projects: Spirit of Butterfly offers assistance to adult survivors of sexual violence 18 years and older. Brave Voices is for children 3-17 who are impacted by sexual violence. Each project offers advocacy, case management, referrals to community services, education, peer support groups, access to holistic healing, counseling, prevention services and outreach.

Indigenous Women’s Health and Reproductive Justice

TWU’s IWH program encourages Pueblo women to become active participants in their healthcare, including their reproductive health. This program utilizes traditional indigenous knowledge and practices. Yiya Vi Kagingdi is a community-based doula initiative that supports mothers and their families from conception through the first few months of postpartum. YVK addresses cultural and social barriers to maternal and child health. In the context of the great range of economic, geographic and systemic challenges in a county with just seven people per square mile, we provide a connection to knowledge, services, resources and support that simply would not exist without this program.

Environmental Health & Justice

TWU’s environmental justice programs emphasize cultural lifeways—Native sovereignty and eco-sustenance to take care of Mother Earth and protect all our relations. With the dispossession of Native peoples from our ancestral homelands and sacred spaces, and as a result of the culture of violence engaged in perfecting weapons of war “for profit,” we are directly impacted by the harm posed by the contamination of land, air and water. It is an Indigenous concept to see women as “the first environment.” The outdated model of “Reference Man,” an adult, 154-lb. white male in an urban setting is commonly used to set standards of acceptable levels of exposure to various contaminants. Through our unique gendered and cultured lens, TWU has been calling for a model that protects the most vulnerable in our communities. For us, this is a pregnant Native woman farmer. Community members known as Tres Ríos Environmental Justice are the spirited water metaphor of TWU’s work. In the Española Valley there are three rivers that come together and join as one with the Río Grande, a sacred conjunction in our Indigenous ways of knowing. Like these rivers, our group consists of mixed backgrounds and heritage. We face many challenges as we come together to protect, defend and care for our beloved lands and waters. T WU hosts the annual Gathering for Mother Earth at Pojoaque, NM. GME is an all-ages, all-cultures call for male a n d f e m a l e The 17th Gathering for Mother Earth: Sept. 21-22, 2013 unity, as well as Earth and water wellness. The gathering provides information about community-based gardens, seed sovereignty, food security and alternative energy. This year the 17th gathering will take place on September 21-22.

Women’s Leadership and Economic Freedom

Poverty impacts our capacity to make healthy choices in all aspects of daily life. This program builds upon women’s and girls’ natural leadership and entrepreneurial abilities to help fight the pervasive poverty in our communities. We provide critical analysis tools to identify the root causes, and support pathways that provide financial self-sustainability. Thanks in part to a grant from the US Health & Human Services Department’s Tribal Personal Responsibility Education Program for Teen Pregnancy Prevention, the A’Gin Healthy Sexuality and Body Sovereignty Project helps young people develop skills and experiences to be able to make decisions to support their overall wellbeing. We give them accurate, honest and truthful information on sex, sexuality, contraception and relationships. The Circle of Grandmothers is another interwoven thread throughout TWU’s program areas. The COG is the nurturing breath that infuses and inspires the work of TWU. The grandmothers’ circle is a gathering of supportive elders who act as cultural wisdom-holders and mentors for survivors and community organizers.

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Tribal Tourism

EVERYDA Y GREEN © Anna C. Hansen

TRIBAL MUSEUMS and CULTURAL CENTERS

Susan Guyette

reserving the diversity of traditions, lifeways and cultural values is a core concern in New Mexico’s rural and tribal communities. Tribal cultural centers and museums are important places for cultural learning, employment, and a source of cultural pride—as well as places for the public to participate and interact with tribal communities. One primary benefit of tourism is the stimulus for developing a museum, interpretive or cultural center. As a place to communicate about culture and ecosystem knowledge, a center may become the focal point for interpreting local history and traditions, as well as a hub supporting cultural revitalization and language retention. With in-depth community participation, these centers can not only enhance the visitors’ experience—they can also provide direct benefits for a community beyond just jobs and economic support.

Meeting Cultural Needs

Cultural retention, more than an idealistic notion, is a practical necessity for sustainability. Mainstream, urban museums tend to focus on exhibits, collections and archives. As an alternative approach, a living museum may serve other community-based uses such as classrooms for cultural teaching and a conference room for gatherings and meetings. Housing a teaching collection—items that are replaceable, yet are excellent examples of traditional art for students to study in classes—is one important way that a museum can serve traditional communities.

In most traditional communities, teaching the culture within the community depends upon involvement by the elders, the keepers of the traditions. Regarding the teachings in a respectful way empowers elders willing to teach. In relation to tourism—involving elders in defining the types of information appropriate to share and deciding who is allowed to learn certain types of restricted information is a guiding process.

Living Museums

In traditional communities, living museums are learning places for the community, as well as visitors. With a focus on the community in the present, exhibits and educational programs incorporate information about the past, when relevant to understanding a contemporary people and living cultures. This differs from a common mainstream museum focus on objects, their history and a public-at-large audience. For example, in the Indigenous setting, time may be portrayed as cyclical rather than linear, by showing the link to traditional activities in the seasons.

Immediate action to provide urgently needed cultural teaching is the primary way to prevent cultural loss. Following tradition is a path seen by most cultures as the best solution for nurturing youth toward positive community involvement, good health, caring for family, caring for the sacred environment, and life away f rom negative influences. These approaches are basic for cultural retention in rural and reservation areas today. White Buffalo dancers at the Poeh Center

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Frederica Antonio, Acoma Pueblo

Poeh Cultural Center and Museum, Pojoaque, New Mexico

Museums planned to support cultural continuance are attractive to the general public. A “museum with life,” or living museum, shows not only history, but also the learning programs in the present plus an anticipated cultural future for the community. Changing exhibits showing student work and interactive exhibits are two features appreciated by the public. In turn, when the public becomes involved, support for a center is likely to follow.

New Mexico Examples

Art sales, tours and other services of cultural entrepreneurs support the retention of cultural traditions. Two New Mexico examples of tribal museums known internationally as models for cultural continuance are Pojoaque Pueblo’s Poeh Center and Acoma Pueblo’s Haak’u Museum. The Poeh Cultural Center and Museum (www.poehmuseum.com), located at the Pueblo of Pojoaque, 15 miles north of Santa Fe, trains over 100 Native artists each year through a curriculum merging the cultural arts with business skills. By identifying the arts at-risk of being lost, the initial phase of the cultural center focused on teaching those arts, intergenerational involvement and use of Native languages. The uniqueness of this model is reflected in a living museum concept, with changing exhibits reflecting the

ongoing progress in renewing Native artistic traditions. Integrating value-based business skills into the arts curriculum and assisting cultural entrepreneurs with employment linkages are other unique features of the Poeh Center. My book, Planning for Balanced Development, documents this successful cultural revitalization effort.

Every day is precious in the process of cultural retention.

Many American Indian tribes and Indigenous people internationally are learning from the Poeh Center. In one collaborative interchange, the Guaraní Paraty Indians (Indigenous Association of AWA Ropedju) in the State of Río de Janeiro, Brazil visited the Poeh Center. The renowned Pueblo potter Roxanne Swentzell then traveled to Brazil and taught pottery-making methods to Guaraní tribal members, assisting in revitalizing their tradition. The renewal of weaving traditions is also a focus of the Guaraní. Their center provides for the preservation of their culture through workshops, traditional crafts, music and dance, legends, medicinal herbs and stories—inspiring quality-of-life through the expansion of international markets. continued on page 18

Green Fire Times • August 2013

The Pueblo Kilt Revival of an Ancient Art Jon Naranjo

he Pueblo Men’s Weaving Group, now in its third year, with help and instruction from Louie Garcia (Piro/Tiwa), has fulfilled a feat that may not have been accomplished since the turn of the century in the Eight Northern Pueblos: We have learned the ancient techniques and woven, from scratch, a traditional Pueblo men’s kilt that will last, possibly, 10 lifetimes.

continued from page 17

Subsequent volunteer coaching on cultural center development by Poeh Center staff traveling to Brazil and through internet communications, as well as assistance from the National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, DC)—supported the Guaraní in developing their cultural center. Exhibits there explain the revitalized Indigenous basket and pottery traditions. They also feature an exhibit on the Poeh Center as a “sister” cultural center. The sharing of cultural methods for the regeneration of culture has contributed to the development of both centers. Mentoring is a central factor in success among Indigenous communities.

structure, financial monitoring, effective marketing, unifying tribal offerings, linking past and present, visitor education fostering appreciation of the cultural arts, an informative website (www.acomaskycity.org), annual events that inspire visitors to return, posting a clear schedule of tours, and information on visitor etiquette available in six languages.

Who Can Visit?

The general public is invited to visit, and special events are often scheduled. Often public support keeps a tribal museum or cultural center’s doors open. Other tribal museums to visit in New Mexico

Some may disagree and say that they have made a kilt; but doing this the traditional way involves using techniques such as carding, spinning the cotton into string, and working the warp and the weave on a stationary standing loom or a suspended loom. Our class used a stationary standing loom. Some individuals do the embroidery on monk’s cloth, but that is not really making a kilt; that is just embroidery and hemming. The major difference is the time, prayer, singing and meditation it takes to weave a kilt and then embroider the design. In addition, there still is one more step to bring it to completion. The members of the class are: Porter Swentzell (Santa Clara), Karl Duncan (Apache), Cris Velarde (Santa Clara/Jicarilla), Joe Montoya (Cochiti/Jémez), Jose Aguilar (San Ildefonso) and myself, Jon Naranjo (Santa Clara/Hopi). I am also the agriculturist in the group. We are planning additional projects to produce other traditional garments and reestablish forgotten craftsmanship and responsibility for our men, and instill this centuries-old custom in Pueblo youth. The Pueblo men’s weaving class is currently sponsored by Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute. We are seeking additional funding to support the teaching of this lost art. If you are willing to help, please contact Louie Garcia: atrunasamai@hotmail.com or Roxanne Swentzell: ojegepovi@cybermesa.com i A culture is not created overnight, nor can it be adopted as one’s own without living it. Ideas are only ideas if not put into practice. The Pueblo Men’s Weaving Group understands this. It is not enough to read about or to have been told about one’s cultural history. It is another thing to bring it to life by living it. I have been watching these Native men gather for over two years to bring back their cultural knowledge by literally weaving it back into existence... one step at a time, filling in the strains, creating the designs filled with stories, laughter and knowledge of who we were and who we still are. These few dedicated men are doing us a great favor in keeping these cultural seeds alive. I thank them from all of my heart, for there is much beauty here. Roxanne Swentzell Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute

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There are master weavers at Hopi who produce traditional men’s kilts, and there have been weavers in a couple of the southern Pueblos who have woven kilts from scratch in recent times; however, we do not know of any weavers in the northern Pueblos who have accomplished this feat in the last five decades.

Cultural Centers

Sky City Cultural Center at Acoma Pueblo

The Sky City Cultural Center at Acoma Pueblo offers a full range of culturally based activities to visitors, while managing tourism in a way that protects the ancient Pueblo village. Located atop a 367-foot sandstone bluff, Acoma Pueblo (est. 1150 AD) is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in North America.

include the Ashiwi Awan Museum and Heritage Center at Zuni (www.ashiwi-museum.org), the Walatowa Visitor Center, an interpretive center at Jémez Pueblo (www.Jémezpueblo.com), the Jicarilla Apache Culture Center (www.jicarillaonline. com) and the Mescalero Apache Museum (www. mescaleroapache.com/area/cultural_museum).

The Haak’u Museum serves as an education and research institute focusing on the preservation of Acoma history, with exhibits interpreting history and present-day lifeways for the public. Activities for revitalizing art forms at risk of being lost and the retention of traditional language are also a focus of the museum. Food service at the Y’aak’a Café includes traditional foods, and the Gaits’i Gift Shop features handmade Pueblo arts, such as pottery and jewelry, as well as books on Indigenous culture.

As cultures worldwide are faced with having to adapt to challenging economic and ecological conditions, opportunities to present culturally based solutions increase in importance. Community-determined messages to share in relation to sustainability can stimulate innovative intercultural solutions. Global resilience in the future depends upon the cumulative, bio-cultural knowledge base developed over the past thousands of years. For this reason, retaining cultural diversity is of far-reaching importance. i

Access to the ancient village is by tour only, with minivan transportation and village interpretation provided by step-on-guides. Managing access protects the road to the mesa as well as impacts to the ancient dwellings still used for traditional activities.

Susan Guyette, Ph.D. is Métis (Micmac Indian and Acadian French) and a planner specializing in cultural tourism, cultural centers, museums and native foods. She is the author of Sustainable Cultural Tourism: Small-Scale Solutions; Planning for Balanced Development: A Guide for Native American and Rural Communities; co-author of Zen Birding: Connect in Nature and the author of several texts for Native American Studies. www.susanguyette.com

Success factors include: a strong management

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The Natwani Coalition Revitalizing Traditional Hopi Agriculture and the Hopi Food System Samantha Honani-Antone

he Hopi people have long migratory and cultural histories that span the boundaries of the North and South American continents. As we traveled, we brought with us elements of various farming lifeways. Over many generations, Hopi farming has evolved and adapted to our unique landscape. For thousands of years, one central question has governed humankind: How will we feed ourselves? Various cultures have answered this question in their own way—some successfully and some less successfully. At Hopi, however, the question has evolved into something slightly different: How will we feed ourselves and remain Hopi? The process of becoming Hopi is integrally tied to how we feed ourselves.

W hen we eat, we face a fundamental contradiction. We privilege ourselves over other life forms. We take other life, plant and animal, so that we may live. How do we justify this in a moral universe? By what right do we eat? Although it may not be regularly or consciously asked, this question is present in virtually everything that goes on at Hopi. To put it slightly differently, how will we feed ourselves and respect all life? The question ties agriculture to values. Hopi is not just a farming system; it’s a moral system. Farming is not just about feeding ourselves; it is a way to learn and practice values and through which we become fully human. That is very special and really, really, interesting. Hopi has developed a very rich and complex philosophy and religion that is fundamentally rooted in farming. For this reason, what happens here is so important. It’s not just about diabetes and obesity, endangered seeds and environmental degradation, although they are very important. The key thing is about honoring the covenant that Hopi entered into when we came into this 4th World. To help maintain and strengthen this Hopi way of life, the Natwani Coalition, a project of The Hopi Foundation based on the Hopi reservation, has implemented a Community Grant Program. This was developed to support our community members in growing, raising and producing food for their families and communities. Families often encounter difficulties in raising crops or in finding ways to prepare Hopi foods more proficiently. Due to these challenges, the Coalition provides the Hopi and Tewa communities with an opportunity to apply for funding to help them in these endeavors. The grant program also offers opportunities for grantees to come together and learn from one another by sharing their experiences.This inspires and raises awareness about the kinds of work we can choose to undertake. Networking and getting to know fellow grant recipients doing the same type of work is also possible during the two workshops that the Natwani Coalition hosts.

Seeds of recovery–sharing beans

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The Community Grant Program began in 2011.

The Natwani Coalition has since funded 43 projects in 10 villages. A team that includes farmers, health professionals and Hopi youth reviews each application. Projects that are accepted must align with the Coalition’s mission and goals to support practices and methods of agriculture, food distribution and healthy food consumption. Up to $15,000 is available for yearly agricultural projects from the summer through the fall.

Examples of Food and Farming Grantees

My Chicken Farm Project — Dianna Shebala

2011: “My project has now been in progress for three months. There has been a lot of learning, work and progress made toward our goal of having a healthy flock of chickens that will provide fresh eggs for our family and for our small vending business to sell to the Hopi public. I received a mini-grant of $300 toward my “Eggsventure.” This was used to purchase chicken wire, wire, plywood, feeders and the chickens. I did the majority of the labor with help from my husband and son. This has been a great experience. This project has taught me about the value of researching a project before starting, making a commitment, and the willingness to share what I have learned about my project and myself. I am very happy with my project and look forward to what the future holds for me and my chickens.” 2013: “Our children (56 chickens) have done well and have produced many eggs for our small business of breakfast burritos and egg sales, not to mention our own household use. We have been spoiled with fresh eggs on a daily basis. Although the chickens are work, we enjoy them a great deal. We are now at a stage where we will be replacing our hens in about 6 months, so we will be ordering new chicks. This will ensure good egg production and quality. We will use the older hens for meat consumption. It has been a learning experience that was well worth the effort.”

Bacavi Terrace Garden Project Elvia Sánchez, Bacavi Village Youth Coordinator

“For the 2011 season, the project was developed by 10 youth, 8-18 years of age. The springs and gardens are an important part of the history of the village of Bacavi. They had not been recently used. Besides revitalizing the garden, the goals were to develop essential elements of culture and traditions of Hopi planting among the youth and to strengthen community involvement. Although challenges were faced, those goals have been met. The garden looks amazing. It is touching to see what the youth started. Accomplishing a task goes a long way. It takes heart, dedication, responsibility and enthusiasm. The youth have truly demonstrated that, and they have greatly benefited f rom the project. Along with their coordinator, the youth have inspired other village members to use their plots. I am happy to report continued on page 22

A spring in Bacavi has come back.

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Photos by Seth Roffman

TOP (l-r): Kyle Knox and Samantha Honani-Antone, Songoopavi Eagle Dance group; Hopi Foundation director Monica Nuvamsa leads a discussion; booth presenters provided resources for projects and planning; Leonard Talaswaima in Mark Talaswaima’s field explained how Hopis have farmed with their knowledge of the land; one of the symposium’s classroom sessions at the Hopi Day School in Kykotsmovi, elders enjoying themselves on a tour of Michael Johnson’s home and farm, where corn was baked overnight in a pit; Lillian Hill and her husband Jacobo’s Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture project, where the visitors learned about natural building techniques, rainwater harvesting and composting kitchen waste; CENTER: Exploring Mark Talaswaima’s farm on Second Mesa; Gene Kuwanquaftewa and Kyle Knox explained the Hopi agricultural calendar.

Hopi Agriculture and Food Symposium

“Sinmuy Natwan’navotiy Makiwa’at” — The People’s Agricultural Knowledge Received

he biennial Natwani Coalition Symposium took place over two days in July 2012, bringing together Hopi and Tewa community members young T and old to discuss topics (some in the Hopi language only) directly related to traditional Hopi food and farming. Participants engaged in interactive learning and sharing with local farmers and service providers, and went on field trip site visits. A large rainstorm, the symbol of good things and blessings, provided a perfect conclusion to the gathering.

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Natwani

continued from page 20

that four plots are being utilized this year in what used to be dormant space. Invasive trees have been removed, and springs that used to be dry are now coming back.”

2012: Corn Clan Farming Project — Michael Kootswatewa

This project helps preserve the land for future generations’ use and instills cultural traditions. The grant provided support for tractor maintenance along with materials and supplies.

2012: Tawa Itana-Qa’ö Itangu Jennifer Joseph

This project supports the teaching of Hopi tradition and culture to Walpi Village youth. Walpi elders teach the process of preparing Hopi foods and techniques of planting and preserving.

Lomasuminungwatuksumani Helping Others Help Themselves

As a part of The Hopi Foundation’s mission to help others help themselves, the Natwani Coalition

carries this idea, Lomasuminungwatuksumani, into its grant program. We are happy to report that each of the 43 projects granted demonstrate the four core Hopi values that are the foundation of the Coalition’s mission, vision and goals.

Food & Farming Community Grants — An Ongoing Challenge

Providing the needed support is an ongoing challenge because the Natwani Coalition is up against financial constraints. We hope that, in addition to the agricultural projects already in process, there will be adequate funding to support the work of our food preparers and seed savers, who are vital to the Hopi agricultural cycle. We are also seeking funding for food infrastructure repair projects, including storage structures. Funding for the Natwani Coalition Community Grant Program has been provided by The Christensen Fund. For more information or to learn how you can support the Natwani Coalition, visit www.hopifoundation.org, find the Coalition on Facebook, email honani@hopifoundation.org or call 928.734.2380. Online donations can be made at www.razoo.com/Natwani-Coalition-1 i

Samantha Honani-Antone is program manager for the Natwani Coalition.

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Learning to Grow Vegetables with Hasbìditó

Walter McQuie

arly in 2012, I was invited as a representative of the Cuba (New Mexico) Farmers Market, to attend a meeting of Hasbìditó, a nonprofit, youth-centered, sustainable community development organization based in the three easternmost Navajo chapters: Ojo Encino, Counselor and Torreón. Hasbìditó helps ranchers and growers operate more successfully by treating the land well. I figured I’d talk a little about the opportunity for gardeners to earn some money for their efforts and about the potential economic development potential of growing vegetables for local markets and find out if any of their growers were interested in selling at our market. I’m passionate about these things, and the audience seemed receptive, so I also talked about my efforts at season extension (hoop houses and low tunnels), my experiments with mulch, seedballs, crops not usually grown around here, my rainwater collection system and especially my burgeoning investigations into permaculture. The latter I put into a context of observing and learning from nature about providing what is needed for plants to grow and how the land here provided many food and medicinal plants, despite seemingly harsh growing conditions. I also fielded questions, most memorably one translated into English for me from their most accomplished grower, Grandma Rose: “What can you do to improve really sandy soil?” The short answer is you add as much organic matter as you can by incorporating manure, using mulch, rotating food crops with fertility crops (aka cover crops or green manures) and reducing tillage. I didn’t just make recommendations, I gave a long answer that explained how these techniques work, and it unexpectedly set me on a path of learning about dryland farming, permaculture and the strength of community. Af ter the meeting, Hasbìditó’s executive director, Watson Castillo, explained the status of the backyardand community-gardening initiative that was the impetus for my visit. They had been able to provide some fencing and drip-irrigation materials for a few growers but were still looking

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for someone local who could put on a series of workshops. I readily agreed to try a couple in return for gas money and two pickup-loads of manure. For these hands-on workshops I brought along a broadfork—a massive handtool that loosens the soil to a depth of 16 inches without turning it over as a plow does or mixing it all up as a tiller does. We mixed in manure and humate and planted seeds, seedlings and fruit trees. I talked about caring for growing plants and fielded lots of questions. We

Top: Raised-bed garden created through the Hasbìditó program; Grandma Rose and Walter McQuie with some of the bounty; Walter in one of the dryland fields

ate a potluck lunch together and had a seed exchange—Grandma Rose has lots of corn, squash and melon seeds saved from many successful harvests. I started attending Hasbìditó meetings and talking about things I was trying in the garden, new techniques I’d read about, what I was learning from observing more gardens, and my plans to grow more and grow better. I was dubbed Hasbìditó’s garden consultant. I read more about dryland farming practices in Australia, Af rica and China. In the fall, Watson invited me to visit a number of sites, help decide which had the most potential for market-scale growing and draw up some plans about steps to take to improve them. The project had funding for moving earth and installing rock structures to direct the flow of water and for purchasing seeds and flats of seedlings and bacterial/fungal innoculants—all things I had been talking about to improve the sandy

soils in the area. We got a donation of native trees for windbreaks. There have been planning meetings for soliciting grants to chip large quantities of wood thinned from local forests for mulch and compost and to fund a Mobile Market vehicle that could also pick up produce from local growers. Watson first took me to visit Grandma Rose’s garden on the day she was harvesting her winter squash in anticipation of the first freeze. More precisely, she was harvesting all the smaller ripe ones, but the big pumpkin-sized hubbards were still there for Watson and me to load up. I noticed that along with the smaller unripe squash there were some unripe melons and that she was pulling up the purslane growing in the garden and piling it on top of the melons and squash she wasn’t harvesting yet. I conjectured to Watson that Grandma Rose was doing something that I do (except with a local natural material)—protecting unripe summer crops from the first freeze so that they might ripen in the weeks of

warmer weather that usually follow. She laughed approvingly when he translated my theory and again with my explanation that purslane is a great local green. This year we visited individual backyard gardeners and did versions of last year’s community-based workshops, but more individualized. We are doing follow-up visits and succession plantings, planting fertility crops, providing mulch and also designing larger-scale drip-irrigation systems. We are learning from mistakes and helping each other carve out our roles in a local food system. We’ll have a biggerthan-ever harvest celebration in October. For more information, or to provide a donation to Hasbìditó, contact Tammy Herera at 505.220.8053 or tammyherrera7@gmail.com i Walter McQuie grows vegetables, observes nature and teaches food-growing in the foothills of the San Pe d r o M o u n ta i n s north of Cuba, NM.

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Tribal Energy

Energy Development in Indian Country

Seth Roffman

here does Indian Country fit into the world’s largest business sector: energy? A three-day conference in June, Developing Tribal Energy Resources and Economies, at the Sandia Resort-Casino near Albuquerque, brought together 300 tribal energy leaders from across the US and Canada, along with government- and energy companies’ representatives to focus on this question. According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of Energy, tribal lands make up approximately 5 percent of the landmass in the US, but hold up to 20 percent of the nation’s energy resources and 10 percent of its renewable resources. Politics and bureaucracy have long been some of the main obstacles to tribal energy development, and tribes have a long history of being exploited by the federal government and the US energy sector. In a number of cases, tribal lands are a corridor for natural gas pipelines

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and energy transmission lines for major utilities, although the tribes themselves don’t have access to that energy and have to rely on expensive propane and wood. Some areas of the Navajo Nation are still without electricity and running water.

Where does Indian Country fit into the world’s largest business sector?

Self-generation—energy independence for the tribes was a major conference topic. Current tribal projects, existing or under development, include coal, oil and natural gas, as well as biomass, hydropower, geothermal, solar and wind. A panel of eight tribal leaders strategized on how to improve their economies through natural resources and alternative energy development. Tax incentives for renewable projects tend to be less attractive because tribes aren’t taxed.

A key question is, who provides the financing for tribal energy projects? If it’s major energy and oil companies, what does that mean for tribal sovereignty, the protection of cultural resources, the environment and sacred sites? There is also a lot of interest from China in tribal energy project investment. Tribes are first looking to develop tribe-to-tribe partnerships and coalitions for investment funding. The conference provided networking opportunities among tribes, Alaska Native corporations and First Nations of Canada.

Navajo Coal, Oil and Gas

The Navajo Tribe’s budget relies, to a great extent, on extraction of coal, oil and gas. The federal government fostered that dependency long ago by facilitating the initial leases. Navajo President Ben Shelly is fighting to keep the Navajo Generating Station, near Page, Ariz., going. Navajos leaders are also trying to buy the Navajo Mine,

which fuels the Four Corners Power Plant with coal and provides 800 jobs for a nation whose unemployment tops 60 percent. The Navajos want to build a new rail line in anticipation of coal sales to China. Shelly threatened to walk out of the conference if the leaders didn’t reform the permitting process for Indian Country energy development. Shelly and his fellow fossil-fuel boosters were countered at the conference by a handful of gadflies. Former Hopi Chairman Vernon Masayesva, founder of the Black Mesa Trust, was there, along with former Navajo President Milton Bluehouse. They pointedly questioned the environmental and cultural impacts of coal. An engineer from Flagstaff, Glenn Manygoats, described a plan proposed by activist organizations to replace Navajo Generating Station with a plant that would combine the cycles of solar, wind and hydropower, along with natural gas from the Southern Ute Tribe. i

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Renewable Energy

Build It and They Will Come? Or Will They Build Their Own?

The To’Hajiilee Solar Power Project

Veronica E. Tiller, Ph.D.

r iving west on I-40 f rom Albuquerque to Gallup, arid and barren desert plateau country dominates the landscape. The everpresent huge electrical transmission line monotonously keeps you company. About 30 miles out of Albuquerque and five miles past the Route 66 Casino, and north on Exit 131 for another 10 miles is To’Hajiilee, a small Navajo (Diné) community that was formerly called Cañoncito. To’Hajiilee in Navajo means, ‘Bringing up Water from a Natural Well.’ In 2006, according to its economic profile in Tiller’s Guide to Indian Country, this 77,965-acre reservation had a population of 1,741, a labor force of 531, and an unemployment rate of 78 percent. The per-capita income was $5,877. Like the mythical phoenix arising from ashes to create a city, To’Hajiilee in recent years proposed to convert 500 acres of its desert flatlands and its 300-plus days of sunshine per year into one of the largest solar farms in the Southwest that it named Shandiin Solar LLC, the Navajo name for sunlight. Plans for transforming the sun’s rays from the skies into a source of electricity, revenues and jobs for the community created a rebirth and a renewal of hope for the people—a hope now clouded by economic forces beyond the reservation boundaries and beyond the control of the community.

Until early in this century, To’Hajiilee seemed to have no viable prospect for participating in the modern economy, no promise for economic development of its own. A sub-unit of the huge Navajo Reservation to the west, To’Hajiilee receives only modest

revenues for administrative costs f rom the Navajo Nation. The community ’s inf rastr ucture, consisting largely of a community school, a community center, health clinic, new courthouse and residential housing, has all been built with funds provided by the federal government. In 2001 the community re-examined its prospects and saw in the sun shining on the desert flatlands and glinting off nearby transmission lines, with commercial capacity connecting it to Albuquerque, the basic ingredients

The Jicarilla Apache of Dulce Arcadia Publishing, 128 pages

From the early timber operations, farming and livestock raising, to significant oil and gas operations, a hunting lodge and widely diversified investments, the Jicarilla Apache Nation has become an economic powerhouse of northern New Mexico. All the while, the 3,000-member tribe has fiercely maintained its centuries-old language, culture, religion and ceremonies. Since the establishment of the reservation in 1887, the town of Dulce, near the Colorado border, has been the hub of the Jicarilla’s 900,000 acres. In this new book, Veronica E. Tiller, Ph.D., and Mary M. Velarde, both Jicarilla members, chronicle the tribe through a pictorial history, using over 200 photographs from government archives, libraries and tribal and family collections. It is an indelible record of Jicarilla life that provides readers with a unique opportunity to connect with the history that shaped that community. The Jicarilla Apache of Dulce is available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online (www.arcadiapublishing.com), or by calling 888.313.2665.

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for making something from nothing. To’Hajiilee decided to build a solar farm that had the capacity to provide up to 55 mW of electricity to Albuquerque, enough to power 10,000 homes with clean renewable energy. Delores Apache, president of To’Hajiilee Economic Development, Inc., was optimistic. She could see what the revenue from the plant would mean for her community: a daycare center, programs for senior citizens and veterans, more efficient wells for drawing water, and scholarships for youngsters.

Ever since the Arab oil embargo of 1973 sparked national interest in developing all sources of domestic energy, including renewables, Indian tribes throughout the country have been both cosseted and buffeted by the shifting currents of energy markets and federal energy policies. FDRera legislation protecting territorial monopolies in exchange for reliability of service gave way to the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978, which sought to increase domestic production by gradually deregulating prices. In the electricity arena, the Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act of 1978, among other things, for the first time required public utilities to provide a market for electricity produced from wind, solar and other renewable resources. To’Hajiilee dedicated 500 acres to the project; formed the business str uctures appropr iate f or the venture including a Delaware LLC; established relationships with financial advisors, seasoned energy lawyers, and manufacturers; and received

encouraging early signals from Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) that it would be looking for sources to meet its required portfolio of renewably sourced energy. The Obama administration’s emphasis on shifting from fossil fuels to a renewable energy resource base fit right into To’Hajiilee’s plans. The US Department of Energy provided grant funds in 2011 for studies that demonstrated complete feasibility from hydrological, geological, environmental, political, legal and technical perspectives. PNM, however, balked at executing a Power Purchase Agreement to buy electricity produced by To’Hajiilee virtually underneath PNM’s lines. The state’s largest utility had decided to meet its renewable-energy requirements by constructing its own solar plants. In 2011, PNM announced plans to build and operate five solar plants of its own, just enough to meet its requirement to provide 10 percent of its electricity from renewable sources and 20 percent by the year 2020. PNM’s real attitude toward independently produced solar power may be better expressed in its own July 2011 Integrated Resource Management Plan for 2011-2030: “Renewable resources are added to meet regulatory requirements, but [they] increase cost and degrade system operation.” In other words, it appears independently produced solar power in New Mexico will have to fight its way onto PNM’s lines. To’Hajiilee might build it, but PNM won’t be coming, not voluntarily at least, anytime soon. i Veronica E. Tiller, Ph.D is a member of Jicarilla Apache Nation. She is the editor and publisher of Tiller’s Guide to Indian Country: E c o n o m i c Profiles of American Indian Reservations (2005). She is updating this Guide. She can be reached at 505.328.9772. Her website is veronicatiller.com.

Green Fire Times • August 2013

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Green Fire Times • August 2013

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Native NEWSBItes Tribal Economic Development in New Mexico

The climate for economic development for tribes in New Mexico has improved in recent years, but there are still a number of obstacles. Much of tribal land is held in trust, so people seeking a loan to start a business can’t use their land as collateral. Then there is the issue of dual taxation. The proceeds from operations on tribal lands such as mining are taxed by the state as well as by the tribes. The issue has been in litigation. The 56 million acres of tribal lands in the United States hold great potential for solar, wind and geothermal projects. The recently updated Department of Interior regulations and the HEARTH Act (Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal Homeownership), signed into law in 2012, give tribes more authority to oversee leasing arrangements. Tribes don’t want to rely solely on gaming and related businesses. Some that have had success through gaming and tourism are now interested in diversifying by increasing education to promote entrepreneurship. Gaming funding, in addition to providing a source of capital for tribes, is funding scholarships and training for tribal members.

Issues of Tribal Sovereignty

How can Indian tribes strengthen the sovereignty that lies at the heart of their selfgovernment? This is a central question for tribes, which strive to relate as independent governments with local, state and federal authorities when they negotiate everything from water and energy rights to the curriculum that they teach children. LaDonna Harris, a Comanche who founded the Albuquerque-based nonprofit, Americans for Indian Opportunity, speaks of the need to educate people about the history and political rights of tribes. “We need to teach Indian 101,” she says. “We start with history and with the sophisticated cultures that existed here when the first Europeans arrived. We need to begin by teaching our own young people.” LaDonna Harris The tribes also bear the burden of educating nearby local governments that Indian tribes are sovereign states. “They don’t realize that tribes are governments, too,” Harris says of local governments that interact with land-based tribes. “They have never been taught who the tribes are.” Walter Echo-Hawk, a Pawnee attorney, anticipates a new era in federal Indian law if the next generation of Native attorneys works to apply the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to American cases. He says that the declaration proclaims the same rights for Indigenous people that the rest of the world already enjoys. And while it is not a binding treaty, the declaration could be the foundation of a new legal theory that could help replace the “doctrine of conquest and colonialism.” Echo-Hawk says that tribes often do not take the steps necessary to protect their water rights. Only 30 of the 567 federally recognized tribes around the nation have appointed a tribal water engineer to help create water policy on tribal lands. EchoHawk encourages Native students to pursue careers in engineering, hydrology and other technical fields, in order to defend and preserve their homeland’s resources.

$4.6 million Navajo Nation Drought Relief

On July 1, Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly declared an emergency because of drought conditions throughout the Navajo Nation. On July 25, President Shelly signed a bill to provide drought relief funding for his tribe, along with a memorandum ordering all executive departments to help update and revise a drought management plan. “We need to get help out there to the communities. We are in difficult times and thankful for the recent rains, but we still have to create plans to manage the drought,” President Shelly said.“I know it’s difficult with little vegetation for our livestock and small yielding crops. We are strong people and we will persevere through these challenging times.” The legislation provides $3 million to the Navajo Department of Water Resources for well and windmill repairs, about $1.4 million to the Department of Agriculture for feral horse round-ups, and $202,761 to the Department of Resource Enforcement. Western Agency is about 65 percent below normal precipitation amounts this year, while Fort Defiance Agency is about 63 percent below normal. Northern and Eastern Agencies are about 55 percent below average, while Chinle Agency is about 30 percent below average precipitation levels.

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First Nations Development Institute Awards Grants to Native Food-System Projects

First Nations Development Institute has awarded grants to several projects in Arizona and New Mexico under the organization’s Native Agriculture and Food Systems Initiative (NAFSI). The grants of $37,500 each were made possible by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. First Nation’s NAFSI projects aim to enhance Native control of local food systems – especially in addressing issues such as food insecurity, food deserts, health and nutrition – while simultaneously bolstering much-needed economic development in those communities. The grantees and projects are: San Carlos Apache Tribe, San Carlos, Arizona – Traditional Western Apache Diet Project – To address several social issues and diet-related diseases, and to build knowledge of nutrition, the tribe will create a detailed description and nutritional analysis of its pre-reservation Western Apache diet, work to retain valuable traditional knowledge and use the grant to support strategies aimed at maintaining physical health and ecologically sustainable lifestyles, and make this knowledge available for community members to leverage in order to build healthrelated programs and businesses in Apache communities. ueblo of Nambé, New Mexico – Community Farm – The pueblo will expand P its community farm to increase the output and diversity of the fresh, local foods produced there, with the goal of moving toward fiscal sustainability. The farm’s original intent was to combat food insecurity by providing free food, but with increased production it can also sell products to external markets while creating new youth jobs and a healthy business enterprise. Additionally, Nambé will explore developing its own brand and creating value-added products. aos County Economic Development Corporation, Taos, New Mexico – Native T Food Sovereignty Alliance — TCEDC is receiving continued funding for it to be the lead coordinator/organizer of a new Native American Food Security and Food Systems Alliance. The purpose of the alliance is to build a national Native movement and voice on Native food security and food-system control. This includes developing a collaborative group of Native leaders who are concerned with Native food security, hunger and nutrition issues.

Native Language Preservation Projects

The Towa language at Jémez Pueblo is passed down orally; it is not written. It is handed down from generation to generation along with the tribe’s history and traditions. In a survey it was found that 75 to 80 percent of the Jémez people were fluent in their Towa language, with the older generation at 85 to 90 percent and younger generations between 50 to 70 percent. In response, Jémez, with the support of the New Mexico Community Foundation, developed SPARK, “Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids,” an early childhood development program that increases family engagement. In April, Jémez Pueblo hosted the Walatowa Language Symposium at Jémez Valley High School. Tribal leaders and tribal members from pueblos around the state attended. In addition to Towa, the Tiwa, Keres and Navajo languages were represented, as well as Spanish. Funding for the symposium was provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the San Manuel Mission Tribe from California. The Khapon Tewa Verb Lexicon Project is a seven-year-old effort by one extended family of Santa Clara Pueblo to write and publish a lexicon of Tewa verbs. Tewa is spoken by the northern New Mexico Pueblos of Santa Clara, Ohkay Owingeh, San Ildefonso, Pojoaque, Nambé and Tesuque. The language has been steadily fading in all the Tewa communities. In a 2002 survey conducted by Santa Clara Pueblo, 63 percent of adults over 40 years of age were fluent speakers, while only 15 percent of adults 18-40 and 3 percent of children and youth were fluent. This specific effort to preserve the Tewa language began when a young Santa Clara person decided that he wanted to learn Tewa. His extended family responded by gathering once a week for language immersion sessions. He learned the language and then requested a continuation of the sessions to better understand Tewa thinking through language structure. Three elders worked with him to focus on verbs that they considered the keystones of the language. They identified and conjugated 290 Tewa verbs. A 200-page study guide was produced and made available for free to Tewa libraries, language programs and interested individuals. Flowering Tree Institute, Santa Clara Pueblo, McCune Charitable Foundation, Lore of the Land, and the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area, Inc. funded the project.

Green Fire Times • August 2013

Alternative Agreement Reached for Navajo Generating Station

The Navajo Generating Station in Arizona provides over 90 percent of the power for the Central Arizona Project, the state’s primary water delivery system, which sends water through a series of canals to Phoenix and Tucson and is part of a water rights settlement with tribes. The NGS plays a major role in the region’s tribal economies. NGS is the largest coal-fired plant in the West. It contributes to ozone and fine particle pollution, and its emissions have created widespread haze in the Grand Canyon and in 11 other national parks and wilderness areas. In February, the EPA proposed reducing NGS’s emissions by 84 percent by requiring installation of Selective Catalytic Reduction technology on each of NGS’s three units. On July 27 the Department of the Interior announced that it is part of an agreement that will maintain essential operations at NGS while significantly reducing nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide emissions. The agreement was also signed by the Salt River Project, Central Arizona Water Conservation District, Navajo Nation, Gila River Indian Community, Environmental Defense Fund and Western Resource Advocates. The agreement has been submitted to the EPA for consideration as a “Reasonable Progress Alternative to the EPA’s proposed Best Available Retrofit Technology. It proposes a series of commitments and objectives by the stakeholders to find ways to produce “clean, affordable and reliable power, affordable and sustainable water supplies and sustainable economic development, while minimizing negative impacts on those who currently obtain significant benefits from NGS, including tribal nations.” The EPA will issue a ruling after the public comment period ends on Oct. 4.

New Hearing Ordered for NM Uranium Mine

Last month a district judge overturned a decision by Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration, which granted a permit for Río Grande Resources’ Mt. Taylor mine to remain inactive without being cleaned up. The case is now to be sent back to the New Mexico Mining and Minerals Division for public hearings.

NMELC and MASE in front of District Court House in Santa Fe. (l-r) Douglas Meiklejohn, NMELC executive director and attorney; Nadine Padilla, MASE coordinator, Laura Watchempino, MASE member, Eric Jantz, NMELC staff attorney, Candace Head-Dylla, Blue Valley Downstream Alliance, member of MASE, Lisa Franceware, NMELC legal intern, Petuuche Gilbert, MASE member Judge Raymond Ortiz ruled that the environmental groups Amigos Bravos and the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE), represented by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, weren’t given the required opportunity to raise the issues of groundwater protection and contamination from mining waste. The judge also said that the state agency was wrong to protect the confidentiality of a company report regarding the mine’s economic viability. The Albuquerque Journal reported in June that a group of western New Mexico residents told Ron Curry, US Environmental Protection Agency Region 6 administrator, that the waste from an abandoned uranium mill near Milan needed to be moved or the owners of nearby homes should be relocated. They cited a recent draft EPA report that says that residents near the Homestake mill have a cancer risk 18 times higher than the EPA considers acceptable. At least 20 cases of cancer, four deaths and five cases of thyroid disease have occurred among residents who live within proximity of the Superfund site.

Green Fire Times • August 2013

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New Mexico State Land Office and Sovereign Tribes Team Up

ortheast of Grants, New Mexico, Mount Taylor rises like a blue cone above the desert and volcanic debris below. A stratovolcano that was active 1.5 million years ago, Mt. Taylor is the high point of the San Mateo Mountains and the highest point in the Cíbola National Forest. To the Navajo, Mt. Taylor is Tsoodził, the turquoise mountain, one of four sacred mountains marking the cardinal directions and the boundaries of the Dinetah, the traditional Navajo homeland. Mt. Taylor is also sacred to the Acoma, Laguna, Zuni and Hopi. W hen New Mexico State Land Commissioner Ray Powell returned to office in 2011, his first order of business was to sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) regarding Mt. Taylor with sovereign tribal government leaders from the New Mexico pueblos of Acoma, Laguna and Zuni, as well as the vice–chairman of the Hopi Tribe. The MOA was signed at Acoma Pueblo.

Mount Taylor — Tsoodzil (Navajo), the turquoise mountain

T h e M OA r e s o l v e s p r e v i o u s litigation that involved former Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons’ legal attempts to thwart consultation with the sovereign tribes regarding sacred sites on Mt. Taylor. The MOA will ensure clear lines of communication and resolve the dispute between the sovereign tribal governments and the New Mexico State Land Office. T h e M OA a c k n o w l e d g e s t h e sovereign nation’s fundamental right to meaningful consultation before a state body adopts and implements administrative and legislative action on matters that affect them. When the Commissioner of Public Lands proposes to take any action that could affect the lands under his jurisdiction within the boundaries of the Mt. Taylor traditional cultural landscape, written notice of the proposed action shall be given to each of the tribes. The MOA also sets forth a process of consultation on proposed activities located within these boundaries.

Both federal and state mandates call for meaningful consultation with all tribes, Pueblos and Nations, and call for the implementation of “communication and consultation” policies that recognize, honor, respect and show evidence that these mandates are being followed. At the time of the signing, Commissioner Powell stated, “My administration is committed to consult and collaborate with the sovereign

Pueblos and Tribes of New Mexico when contemplating action that could affect their communities as well as important cultural and sacred sites. We will do this while working together with the sovereign nations and other local communities to create economic opportunities, continuing to earn revenues to support our public schools, universities and hospitals, and protecting and enhancing the health of our working public lands.” i

Auction Set for Largest NM Wind Farm

Thirty-four thousand acres of State Trust Land—more than 52 square miles—will go up for bid on Sept. 19 at a live public auction in Estancia, for what would be the largest wind farm in New Mexico. The proposed “El Cabo” project, which has been under development for years by a private company, Iberdrola Renewables, will mostly be in Torrance County with some spillover into Santa Fe and San Miguel counties. Besides the state land lease, the project would impact 87,000 acres of private property and would include 5,400 acres for a transmission route from the site. The wind farm could generate 1,000 megawatts, enough to power 400,000 homes, greatly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and saving millions of gallons of water a year, compared to coal-generated electricity. State Land Commissioner Ray Powell says that the project would be built in several phases over the next 10 years, creating 1,600 construction jobs and over 250 permanent positions. In a statement, Powell said, “A new and growing source of income for the State Land Office is renewable energy leasing, which is expected to be the largest growth area for our Commercial Resources Division.”

Courtesy Acoma Historic Preservation Office

In 2002, Powell signed a lease creating the state’s first wind farm, near Fort Sumner. “Today,” he said, “there are four existing wind energy projects located on state trust lands that are expected to earn more than $50 million over the life of the projects. There are also five pending applications that are projected to earn more than $215 million for public schools, universities, and hospitals.”

Largest Solar Farm in NM Breaks Ground

Ground was recently broken for construction by First Solar, Inc. of New Mexico’s largest solar power plant on state trust land. The plant will be located on about 500 acres near Deming. Operating on a commercial lease, the Macho Springs Solar Plant could generate as much as $40 million for State Land Office beneficiaries such as public schools and hospitals over the lease’s 40-year term. Tribal leaders and the New Mexico State Land Commissioner on the day of the MOA signing. They included Randall Vicente, governor of the Pueblo of Acoma; Richard Luarkie, governor of the Pueblo of Laguna; Arlen Qwetaki, governor of the Pueblo of Zuni; and Herman Honanie, vice-chairman of the Hopi Tribe, with New Mexico State Land Commissioner Ray Powell.

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Benefits of the solar array, compared to coal or gas-fired generating plants, include significant water savings, zero emissions and the displacement of more than 40,000 metric tons per year of CO2. The plant will generate enough power for more than 18,000 average New Mexico homes. El Paso Electric Company will purchase the entire output from the project, which is expected to be completed in May of 2014.

Green Fire Times • August 2013

19 New Mexico Pueblos Revive Educational Mission of Albuquerque Indian School

The last standing original building of the historic Albuquerque Indian School (AIS) is being renovated, and will soon serve as the new school building for the Native American Community Academy (NACA). The 81-year-old building is located at Indian School Road and 12th Street NW. Its history includes serving as office space and as the headquarters for the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Southern Pueblos Agency. The building escaped demolition by the federal government when its portion of the Indian School property was moved into trust land, to be held by the 19 New Mexico Pueblos last year. The $2.6 million dollar project is funded from three sources – state capital outlay, federal grant dollars from the Human Resources & Services Administration and private financing. Indian Pueblos Marketing, Inc., a federally chartered, Section 17 for-profit corporation operated by the 19 pueblos of New Mexico, is leading the project and will lease the building to the NACA. The NACA is a tuition-free public charter school serving 340 middle and high school students from 37 tribes. It has been located in Albuquerque’s Southeast Heights. Kara Bobroff, NACA’s principal, said, “NACA families and students are excited about the move. There are many opportunities to further build off the success of the many partnerships and community resources in the area. We look forward to accessing the enriching opportunities, particularly at the nearby Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.” The project will be finished this summer and ready for the fall session.

W.K. Kellogg Foundation Names Alvin H. Warren Program Officer of NM Programs

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) of Battle Creek, Mich., has named Alvin H. Warren, a member of Santa Clara Pueblo, as its new officer for New Mexico programs. Warren will assist the foundation in managing New Mexico place-based grantmaking and social change efforts. Warren is now based at the foundation’s Albuquerque office. Most recently, he was executive vice president at Blue Stone Strategy Group, a Native American-owned advisory firm committed to strengthening tribal sovereignty and self-sufficiency through supporting effective leadership, profitable business development and productive governmental systems. Previously, he served as cabinet secretary of Indian Affairs for the state of New Mexico and two consecutive terms as lieutenant governor of Santa Clara Pueblo. “Alvin’s extensive experience strengthens our ability to continue making targeted grantmaking investments toward ensuring all children are healthy, well-educated and living in economically secure families,” said Kara Carlisle, WKKF’s director of New Mexico programs. The Kellogg Foundation has supported nonprofit efforts in New Mexico for more than 70 years. The foundation collaborates with state and tribal governments, community organizations, businesses, neighborhoods and other funders. Current grants are concentrated in Bernalillo, Doña Ana, McKinley and San Juan counties and in Native communities across the state, places that are estimated to be home to more than half the vulnerable children in New Mexico. For more information, visit www.wkkf.org

World Indigenous Higher Education Consortium

The World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium was officially launched in 2002 to provide an international forum and support for Indigenous Peoples to pursue common goals through higher education. WINHEC will convene at Navajo Technical University’s Crownpoint, NM campus Aug. 4-6 for their annual board meeting. The meeting’s theme is “Celebrating Global Indigenous Leadership.” Over 30 people have registered. Representatives are traveling from as far as Australia, Canada, Norway, Taiwan and New Zealand. Last year, Navajo Technical University President Dr. Elmer J. Guy, along with Dean of Student Services Deloris Becenti and Chair of Diné Studies, Education & Leadership Dr. Wesley K. Thomas attended WINHEC’s annual conference in Taiwan. “It’s a real honor to be hosting an event of this caliber,” said Guy. “There are going to be educational leaders from across the world attending so it’ll be nice to showcase our culture and who we are as Diné People. Navajo Tech has been making leaps and bounds in our educational offerings to the point where we are now becoming a university. I can not think of a more fitting place to host such an event.” At the conclusion of the meeting, the WINHEC group will move to Santa Fe for the American Indian Higher Education Consortium’s 40th Anniversary Conference at the Hilton Buffalo Thunder Resort from Aug. 7-11.

Green Fire Times • August 2013

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All the World’s a Stage…

“All the World’s a Stage” by David Bradley. Bradley exhibits his work at Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe. He is in a group show there on Aug. 15 during Indian Market week.

2013 Sustainable Santa Fe Award Winners Presented by the Sustainable Santa Fe Commission Youth-Led Award: IAIA Student Sustainability Leadership The Institute of American Indian Arts Student Sustainability Leadership (SSL) presented The Art of Change: Climate Justice and Indigenous Solutions, a conference that focused on culture and stories, creative communication, skills and technology and tools for change. They also conducted a trash audit of IAIA and displayed a week’s worth of trash during their Dumpster Warriors Trash Bash and Fashion show to raise awareness about waste reduction and recycling.

Environmental Justice Award: 7th Annual Traditional Agriculture & Sustainable Living Conference

Organized by the Pueblo of Tesuque, Four Bridges Traveling Permaculture Institute, and the Sostenga program at Northern New Mexico College (NNMC), this conference focused on sustainable agriculture, the threat of genetically modified seeds and foods, and the indigenous values and practices of Native peoples. Featured keynote speakers were mycologist Paul Stamets and Bolivian water rights activist Oscar Olivera. The 8th Annual Conference will take place Oct. 25-26, 2013 at Northern New Mexico College. Keynote speakers will be world-renowned scientist, philosopher and native seed proponent Vandana Shiva, Ph.D., from India, and author Gregory Cajete, Ph.D., of Santa Clara Pueblo, director of Native American Studies at UNM. For details, visit www.4bridges.org/conference-information

IAIA Launches New Department of Cinematic Arts & Technology

Beginning this fall, the Institute of American Indian Arts will offer a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Cinematic Arts & Technology. “We’re very excited to bring this opportunity to aspiring American Indian filmmakers,” says Department Chair James Luján. “It’s more important than ever for us to train Native talent to share their stories, their values and their passion for cinematic arts through film, television and emerging technological platforms with audiences worldwide.” The new Cinematic Arts & Technology program is an evolutionary outgrowth of IAIA’s former New Media Arts Department. Luján explains, “We’ve redesigned the curriculum to emphasize the creation of meaningful stories, to expose students to cutting edge technology and prepare them for the film industry workforce.” For more information, visit www. iaia.edu.

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Shelley Morningsong

Shelley Morningsong (N. Cheyenne) has recorded three impressive contemporary Native American albums and has emerged as one of New Mexico’s finest Native performers. Morningsong has received two Native American Music Awards, including “Record of the Year” for 2011. With a deep alto voice and lyrics that cut to the heart, Morningsong will appeal to those who enjoy Buffy Saint-Marie, Bonnie Raitt or Melissa Etheridge. She plays guitar, classical and Native flutes. Morningsong tours nationally and internationally with her husband and musical partner Fabian Fontenelle (Zuni/ Omaha). Fontenelle brings a certain magic to their performance with a beautiful mix of hand drum songs, Northern Plains-style dancing and stories. They will perform on Aug. 16 between 11 am and 1 pm in Santa Fe at the Wheelwright Museum’s annual benefit auction, and also on Oct. 5, 6 and 10 at 11 am at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque. http://www.shelleymorningsongonline.com

Window into the Past

The Santa Fe Farmers’ Market wanted a painting of an agricultural scene in the new café area of the Market Pavilion. They asked Dominic Arquero, an artist from Cochiti Pueblo, to paint a mural. Arquero created this painting, imagining what people might see in Santa Fe in 1500 A.D. if they were to stand there and look through a window. Arquero, who also emcees powwows, has painted murals in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, the Four Corners and Colorado. He and his wife, Imogene Goodshot Arquero (Lakota) are full-time artists. He regularly shows his work on Sundays at the Artist Market at the Market Pavilion. Email: dcarquero@ Dominic Arquero works on his mural at the SF Farmers’ Market. gmailcom

Green Fire Times • August 2013

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NEWSBITEs New Mining Claims in Solar Zones Barred

New mining claims have been barred on public lands in the West that are among 17 newly designated solar energy zones located near existing transmission lines. The Interior Department withdrew nearly 304,000 acres last month in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah from new claims. The Bureau of Land Management has approved 25 solar projects in the region. When completed, they are projected to be able to power more than 2.4 million homes.

Rocky Mountain Youth Corps Hiring Crews

“One more example is the iconic Route 66,” Udall concluded. “This highway was an important pathway for migration to the West, particularly in the 1930s. When Route 66 was bypassed by the interstate system, many of the service stations and old motels along the route became dormant. The underground fuel tanks leaked, causing contamination. Brownfields grants have been used to clean up this contamination and a variety of mixed-use redevelopment has occurred. Route 66 revitalization can give an economic boost to New Mexico’s tourism economy.”

Rocky Mountain Youth Corps is a nonprofit youth organization based in Taos, New Mexico. RMYC runs a Conservation Program in which youth crews thin local forests to prevent wildfires and build recreational trails across the state. The organization also has an Energy Efficiency program that provides weatherization upgrades to qualified low-income residents across eight northern New Mexico counties.

Late last month the EPA announced it had awarded $350,000 to the New Mexico Environment Department for supplemental brownfields funding. The money goes to a revolving loan fund to help the state fund shovel-ready projects to redevelop contaminated sites. “I’m optimistic that we will see future success stories if we keep this program strong,” Udall said.

RMYC is currently hiring new crews, ages 18-25, for both programs as part of an AmeriCorps term. Benefits include a stipend of $680 every two weeks (before taxes), and upon completion of the program members earn a college scholarship. The application deadline is Aug. 15. For info and an application, visit www.youthcorps. org or call 575.751.1420.

Wildfire Prevention and Recovery Aided by Tribes’ Holistic Approach to Active Forest Management

Brownfields Program Helps Revitalize New Mexico Communities

On July 24, US Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health, led a hearing examining how a toxic site cleanup program overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has helped revitalize communities in New Mexico and across the country. Since 2002, the EPA’s brownfields program has enabled communities in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and elsewhere to clean up and repurpose formerly polluted land, attracting economic development and creating hundreds of jobs. Nationwide, EPA has provided approximately $1.5 billion in grants, which have leveraged $19.2 billion in additional investment. As a result, the brownfields program has helped clean up more than 20,000 properties and created more than 86,000 jobs nationwide. Despite these successes, however, the EPA estimates that nationwide there are still 450,000 brownfields sites — properties affected by the presence of environmental contamination such as hazardous waste or other pollution. Earlier this year, Udall coauthored the Brownfields Utilization, Investment and Local Development (BUILD) Act to modernize and improve key elements of the brownfields program. The bill would increase the limit for clean-up grants and expand eligibility for certain publicly owned sites and nonprofit organizations. Udall focused his hearing on ways the program can be leveraged to help communities, citing specific examples from New Mexico. “They are often areas that no community, business or industry would redevelop because of environmental concerns or even just the perception of an environmental concern,” Udall said. “Without this type of assistance, many communities would be forced to rely entirely on their own public resources for cleanup, often when the previous occupant who contaminated the property is gone.” “Redevelopment of brownfields sites ultimately spearheads community revitalization and economic development,” Udall continued. “In New Mexico, we have had success in turning brownfields sites around.” Bernalillo County Commission Vice Chair Debbie O’Malley testified on the impact of the brownfields program on Albuquerque’s Sawmill neighborhood. The Sawmill Community Land Trust received $225,000 through the program to clean up a 27-acre particleboard manufacturing site and transform it into affordable housing. In total, Bernalillo County has received $400,000 to conduct environmental assessments of contaminated sites and to support training for employees in brownfields cleanup. Another witness, Geoff Anderson, the president and CEO of Smart Growth America, noted the Santa Fe Railyard’s success. “The Santa Fe Railyard is exemplary of the potential benefits of brownfields redevelopment. Since the EPA’s initial investment of $200,000, more than $125 million has been leveraged for the railyard from public and private sources,” Anderson said. Udall added: “The railyard has become a vibrant mixed-use development with art galleries, museums, a farmers’ market, retail shops and office space. It’s now an important contributor to Santa Fe’s economy.”

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Last month, Intertribal Timber Council Chairman Phil Rigdon told the House Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation that federal wildfire prevention and recovery efforts can benefit from the example set by Indian tribes in their own forests. “With our BIA partners, we actively operate modern, innovative and comprehensive natural resource programs premised on connectedness among the land, resources and people,” Rigdon testified. “Our approach is holistic, striving to simultaneously sustain economic, ecological and cultural values — the ‘triple bottom line.’ ” Rigdon’s testimony built on the recent findings of the Congressionally-mandated Indian Forest Management Assessment Team report, which found tribes were using traditional values to chart a new and effective course in forest management through innovation, creativity and partnership building. Moreover, they are managing their forests to benefit generations to come. Tribes’ approaches to forest management both mitigate damage from wildfire and speed recovery. Using the 2002 Rodeo-Chediski fire in Arizona as an example of a wildfire that affected both Forest Service and Indian lands, Rigdon noted how tribal practices yielded far better economic and ecological outcomes than did those of the federal agency. “As tribes, we respond proactively to local conditions, evaluating the resources and values at risk, the source and nature of threats to forest health and options for addressing them,” Rigdon said. “Despite inadequate funding, tribes also respond to fires and recover from them more effectively and efficiently than the Forest Service.” In the 49 states outside of Alaska, there are 18 million acres of Indian forests and woodlands on 294 separate Indian reservations. Of this land, nearly 10 million acres are considered commercial woodlands or timberlands. The states of Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Minnesota and Wisconsin have the greatest concentration of tribal forests. In New Mexico, the Pueblo of Acoma and the Mescalero Apache are members of the Intertribal Timber Council, a nonprofit nationwide consortium of over 60 tribes.

Government, Tribal and Private Funding Make Navajo Broadband Project Possible

A project using 550 miles of fiber optic cable and 32 new and 27 existing communications towers will create a broadband network to improve wireless Internet and phone service across much of the Navajo Nation. Thirty thousand households and 1,000 businesses stand to benefit. Public institutions such as emergency care, health, social services and public safety facilities will also be connected. Having reliable communication may encourage entrepreneurs with much needed economic development projects; and with a base price of $28 a month, students will have Internet access for research and study. The $46 million project now being completed is a joint venture with Navajo Tribal Utility Authority Wireless and Commnet Wireless. The 3-year-old joint venture started with a $32.2 million federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant.

Green Fire Times • August 2013

What's Going On! Events / Announcements

Aug. 24 Gala Fundraiser Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, 2401 12th St. NW

Celebrating Pueblo Indian Culture. An evening of art, food, dance, history. Individual ticket: $100; table: $1,200. www.indianpueblo.org/gala

ALBUQUERQUE Aug. 3, 9 am-4 pm Gardens of the Camino Real South Valley

Annual garden tour sponsored by the Council of ABQ Garden Clubs, featuring seven gardens in an historic area. Tour only: $10, lunch: $12. Tickets from most local nurseries and at the ABQ Garden Center or www. albuquerquegardencenter.org

Aug. 3, 10 am Rally at the Río Central and Tingley near BioPark (2700 Central SW)

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Members of more than 19 organizations will demand action to combat climate change. They will march onto the sidewalk of the Río Grande bridge to call attention to the condition of the river. Info: http://abqclimateaction.us/, www. facebook.com/350NM

Aug. 7, 5:30-7:30 pm Green Drinks Hotel Andaluz, 125 2nd St. NW

Network with people interested in local business, clean energy and other green issues. Presentation by Cindy Murray of UWE Partners on Glass Half-full Solutions for the Colorado River Basin, and Katherine Yuhas, water conservation officer, ABQ Bernalillo County Water Authority on The Current Drought and the Future of Water Resources Management in the Middle Río Grand Valley. Hosted by the Albuquerque & Río Rancho Green Chamber of Commerce. Info: 505.244.3700, lindsay@nmgreenchamber.com

Aug. 10, 10:30-11:30 Fall Vegetable Gardening Seminar Jericho Nursery, 6921 Pan American NE

Horticulturalist Jim Sais will explain what cool-season veggies can be started in August for fall harvest and how to feed them. $5.

Aug. 11, 12 pm Kitchen Garden & Coop Tour

Six locations with farms, orchards, backyard chickens, bees and other community homesteading features like water-catchment. Tickets: $35 at brownpapertickets.com. Info: 505.473.1403, homegrownnewmexico.org

Aug. 11, 12 pm Garden with Kids Skarsgard Farms Urban Agri-Education Center, 3435 Stanford Dr. NE $10. 505.473.1403, homegrownnewmexico.com

Aug. 23, 9:30 am-12:30 pm Desert Gardening in Drought Conditions Sandoval County Ext. Off., 711 Cam. del Pueblo, Bernalillo Free public workshop presented by Sandoval County Master Gardener Group. Learn about soil amending, mulching, shading, desert composting, plant selection, water-wise usage, clay pot irrigation, water harvesting and more. Registration required: 505.867.2582

Aug. 25, 11 am-3 pm 2013 ABQ Tomato Fiesta Abq. Garden Center 10120 Lomas NE (at Eubank)

Heirloom tomato tasting, live music, garden trade fair, cooking demos, plant clinic with master gardeners, more. $5, children under 12 free. 505.292.7144, www.abqmastergardeners.org

Aug. 29 Sustainable Business Summit Crown Plaza Hotel 1901 University Blvd. NE

Recognizes NM organizations for whom green is integral to the way they conduct business. Co-hosted by the Albuquerque Business First publication. Half-day with an expo and awards luncheon. Tickets: 505.348.8326, tfenstermakere@bizjournals.com

Sept. 7, 6 pm-midnight Una Noche en España Hotel Albuquerque

Annual gala for the National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation. Reception, dinner, dance, entertainment, silent and live auction. 505.766.9858, www.nhccfoundation.org

Sept. 14 Upcycle Fashion Show Gala

ABQ/Río Rancho NMGCC Chapter fundraiser extravaganza. Fashion show and silent auction. Lindsay@nmgreenchamber.com

Aug. 3, 11 am-9 pm August Moon Festival First Baptist Church 1605 Old Pecos Trail

Native American songs and stories at 3 and 7 pm with Dale Tsosie (Navajo) and Nina Koruh (Hopi). Also, from Jémez Pueblo, the music group Wahamini and Sal & Flo Yepa. Native American art and food for purchase. Weaving demonstrations. Tickets: $4 adv/$5 door. www.BrownPaperTickets.com Sponsored by Sangre de Cristo Art & Culture. 505.471.5872, KarenLLafferty@gmail.com

Aug. 10, 10 am-4 pm Kindred Spirits Animal Sanctuary Art Show Benefit

Aug. 3, 5 pm Apache Mtn. Spirit Dancers Allan Houser Studio and Sculpture Gardens, San Marcos

Aug. 10-11, 10 am-4 pm Rag Rug Festival & Gift Show Museum of Intl. Folk Art, 706. Cam. Lejo

30th anniversary ground blessing. Gates open at 4 pm, ceremony at 5 pm. $20/couples: $30. 505.471.1528

Aug. 3, 6:30 pm Your Heart Is My Shelter Hillside Market, 86 Old Las Vegas Hwy.

Benefit art auction, catered food and music for Esperanza Shelter for Battered Families. $35. 505.505.982.9944

Aug. 6, 3-5 pm Eldorado/285 Recycles

Eldorado area recycling advocacy group monthly meeting. All welcome. 505.570.0583, joseigner@gmail.com

Aug. 6, 6-8 pm Public Art, Censorship and the Visual Rights Act Community Gallery SF Convention Center

SANTA FE

Panel discussion includes topics such as First Amendment to the Constitution and the US obscenity law, current incidents of censorship in the arts and their relationship to public funding, the Visual Artists Rights Act. 505.955.6705, rdlambert@santafenm.gov

Exhibit co-sponsored by the SF Botanical Garden features 30 artists. Includes historic, endangered and native plants.

Aug. 7, 5:30-7 pm Green Drinks Río Chama Steakhouse (President’s Room), 414 Old Santa Fe Trail

Through Aug. 23 Viva Flora! Treasured Plants of NM SF Community Gallery SF Convention Center

90-minute classes, second and fourth Wednesday each month. Participants enjoy tastings of the meal being prepared. $18., Free for WIC and EBT recipients. Presented by Kitchen Angels, Home Grown NM, SF Farmers’ Market Institute. Info: 505.982.8285, 505.473.1403, www.localorganicmeals.com

Network with people interested in local business, clean energy and other green issues. Guest Speaker: Larry Littlebird, founding director of Hamaatsa, on Indigenous Wisdom for Building Resilient Communities in Times of Drought Info: 505.428.9123, glenn@ nmgreenchamber.com, http://nmgreenchamber.com

Through Jan. 5, 2014 New World Cuisine: Histories of Chocolate, Maté y Más Museum of International Folk Art

Aug. 9, 6-9 pm The Santa Fe Show Objects of Art Gala El Museo Cultural

Through Dec. 12, 5:45 pm Local Organic Meals on a Budget Classes Kitchen Angels, 1222 Siler Rd.

Exhibit focuses on the mixing of food cultures in the Americas. 505.476.1200, internationalfolkart.org

Through March 16, 2014 Cowboys Real and Imagined NM History Museum

This exhibit explores NM’s contribution to the cowboys of both myth and reality from the 1600s to the present day.

Green Fire Times • August 2013

and drought issues. Presented by the Bioponics Institute. $395/$295. Info: 760.391.0216, www.bioponicsinstitute.com

Opening night gala benefits KNME/NM PBS. Tickets: $50/person www.thesanta feshow.com or at the door. 65+ galleries and exhibitors through 8/13. Show tickets: $13.

Aug. 9-11 Hydroponics/Aquaponics Seminar SF Community College Jémez Room

The technology and business of commercial hydroponics. Evolving technologies for food

Paintings, photography, jewelry, sculptures, carvings, folk and wearable art donated by local artists. Visit and enjoy shady grounds amidst amazing art and wagging tails. Kindred Spirits provides care and hospice for older, unwanted animals. www.kindredspiritsnm.com

Handcrafted rugs and other home furnishings, fashions and personal adornments. Economic development program for NM’s women and girls. NM Women’s Foundation. Free. 505.983.6155, info@nmwf.org, www.nmwf.org

Aug. 10 Edible Gardening County Fairgrounds, 3229 Rodeo Rd.

Tips for growing herbs and vegetables. No registration required. Presented by the SF Master Gardener Association. Info: Sfmga. org/events-calendar

Aug. 13, 6 pm Why the Future Belongs to Walkable Cities Armory for the Arts Theater 1050 Old Pecos Trail

Lecture/public discussion/book signing with author, architectural designer, city planner Jeff Speck on How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time. Presented by Creative Santa Fe. Tickets: $10/$5. 505.988.1234, Lensic box office, TicketsSantaFe.com

Aug. 13, 6 pm At the Artist’s Table SF School of Cooking, 125 N. Guadalupe

Fundraiser with artist Emmi Whitehorse and chef Tracy Ritter for Partners in Education Fndn. and the SF Arts Commission’s Artist Exhibit and Education Program. Dinner, meet & greet, signed artwork. 505.955.6707 or 505.474.02420

Aug. 13, 7 am-3 pm Fundraiser for Eldorado /285 Recycles Café Fina, 624 Old Las Vegas Hwy. 505.570.0583, joseigner@gmail.com

Aug. 14 Robert Mirabal, Indigefemme The Plaza

SF Bandstand performances. Indigefemme: 6 pm; Mirabal 7:15 pm

Aug. 14, 7-9 pm Reception Ernest Thompson Seton Birthday Celebration Academy for the Love of Learning, Seton Village

Opening of new exhibit on co-founder of the wildlife conservation movement with curator David L. Witt. Gallery open 10 am-4 pm. Free. 505.955.1860, learn@aloveoflearning.org

Aug. 15 Opening reception Summer Exhibitions Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, 108 Cathedral Place

Celebrating Changing Hands: Art Without

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Reservation 3. Contemporary Native North American art from the Northeast and Southeast, Selected Works, Cannupa Hanska Luger: STEREOTYPE: Misconceptions of the Native American, Jacob Meders: Divided Lines, and Steven J. Yazzie: The Mountain.The opening reception will feature a special performance by Oneida-Iroquois singer, composer and acoustic guitarist, Joanne Shenandoah. Free. RSVP: 505.955.1860

Aug. 15, 4:30 pm Wings of America Celebration

Fundraiser for Native youth running program. $50. Reception, silent auction, presentations, special guests. RSVP: 505.982.6761

Aug. 17, 9-11 am Vegetable Literacy Discussion Railyard Park Community Room (behind Site SF)

Focus on healthy eating with distinguished author/cooking teacher/gardener Deborah Madison. Free. 505.316.3596, marc@railyardpark.org

Aug. 18, 1-3 pm Fermentation Discussion Railyard Park Community Room (behind Site SF)

Natural Gourmet Inst. graduate Mathew Sherril of Santa Fe Living Foods will discuss beneficial bacteria in fermented foods and their importance for our wellness. Learn to make traditional sauerkraut, kimchi and kombucha. 505.473.1403, homegrownnewmex ico@gmail.com, homegrownnewmexico.org

Aug. 21, 6-7:30 pm Water Forum Center for Progress & Justice 1420 Cerrillos Rd.

An informative and timely discussion on the challenges and opportunities facing NM as it addresses water allocation issues. Chairs of 3 water committees will be present: Sen. Peter Wirth, Rep. Brian Egolf and Rep. Carl Trujillo, along with Sen. Nancy Rodríguez and Rep. Stephen Easley. Info: Richard D. Ellenberg, rdellenberg@gmail.com

Aug. 21-25 32nd Annual Transformation and Healing Conference

An opportunity to explore creative expression in the service of healing, personal growth and transforming consciousness. Keynote presentation, morning and afternoon workshops. Presented by the New Earth Institute of Southwestern College. 877.471.5756, info@swc.edu, http://swc.edu

Aug. 24, 5:30 pm Jim Hightower Talk/Reception Museum Hill Café

Aug. 25, 12-3 pm Food Preservation and Canning Milagro Community Garden (Legacy & Rodeo)

Master gardeners Jannine Cabossel and Duskin Jasper will create a dish and show the processes of canning. 505.473.1403, homegrownnewmexico.org

Aug. 28, 7-9 pm Cuban Permaculturalist Roberto Perez Unitarian Universalist 107 W. Barcelona

Perez is the Environmental Education and Biodiversity Conservation Program Director of the oldest environmental organization in Cuba. $15-$20. Benefits scholarships for the Eleventh International Permaculture Convergence (Nov. in Cuba). Cuba’s agriculture is now 95% organic. The country has been engaging in a massive reforestation campaign, and has invested massively in solar and biofuel energy production. Info: 505.501.4769, jeremiah@sipermaculture. com or nate@permadesign.com

Sept. 6-7 Modernist Encounters and Contemporary Inquiry: Art, Appropriation and Cultural Rights Hotel Santa Fe

Symposium with keynote address “Global Indigenous Modernisms” by Professor Ruth Philips. Panel discussions examine encounters among Native and non-Native scholars, curators and artists about the interpretation of Native art and cultural objects in collections and exhibitions, representation of indigenous cultures by artists and institutions, and the place of Native American art in the global art market. Presented by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and the School for Advanced Research.

Sept. 15, 4:30-8 pm 12 Annual Stewart Udall Legacy Dinner

SF Conservation Trust 2013 Honoree: N. Scott Momaday. Presentation by the Wildlife Center of Española.Tickets: 505.989.7019, www.sfct.org

Sept. 21-22 Gathering for Mother Earth Pojoaque gathering site

“A Gathering for All Cultures of All Ages” A call for community unity in support of earth-water wellness. 505.747.3259, www. tewawomenunited.org (See story on page 15)

Oct. 4-6 Earth USA 2013 NM Museum of Art

The national radio commentator, presented by KSFR Radio. $35. 505.428.1527

Intl. Earthbuilding Conference. Podium presentations, poster sessions and workshops. Trade fair on the SF Plaza. 10/7: Tours to local sites. 505.310.3259, mike@ adobeinaction.org, www.earthusa.org

Aug. 24, 6 pm Brad Lancaster Presentation James A. Little Theater

9 am-4 pm daily except Weds. Community Farm Project 1820 San Ysidro, Village of Agua Fría

Integrated Local Harvests: Simple and Effective Ways to Enhance the Abundance of Your Home, Community and the Larger World. Author Lancaster is renowned in the field of water harvesting and integrated design. Informal conversations/networking on local water, local food and sustainable neighborhoods starting at 4:30 pm. www.harvestingrainwater.com

Aug. 25 Annual Farm Tour

Drive through beautiful northern NM to learn firsthand about amazing agricultural techniques utilized by local farmers. Presented by the SF Farmers’ Market. Descriptions/Directions: www.santafefarmersmarket.com

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Volunteers of any age needed. Eighty percent of the produce is given to the Food Depot and distributed to 120 organizations. sfcommunityfarm@gmail.com, www.santa facommunityfarm.org

Wednesdays 11 am-5 pm Farmers and Crafts Market Poeh Tower, Pojoaque Pueblo (78 Cities of Gold Rd.) EBT and WIC accepted. 505.455.9086

HERE & THERE

Aug. 3, 9 am-4 pm Annual Garden and Home Tour Venues in and around Taos, NM

Lots of ideas for small-scale waterwise gardening and energy efficiency. Tickets: $20/$25/$10. 575.751.0191, http://www. gardencluboftaos.org/Tour2013

Aug. 3 Places with a Past Tour Las Vegas, NM

Tour seven homes and buildings as well as United World College’s Montezuma Castle during this event, which kicks off Las Vegas Heritage Week. 505.425.8803

Aug. 4-11, Oct. 6-13 Vital Yoga with Meta Ghost Ranch, Abiquiú, NM

Personal enrichment and instructor certification program. $995. 505.685.4333, Ghostranch.org

Aug. 5 Registration Deadline 2013 Tribal Lands and Environment Forum Tamayá Resort and Spa, Santa Ana Pueblo, NM

This event on Aug. 19-22 will bring together professionals from across the country. Intensive trainings, plenary sessions, breakout sessions focused on solid waste, brownfields, Superfund, underground storage tanks, emergency response programs and the effects of climate change on tribal lands. $100. Co-sponsored by the Inst. for Tribal Environmental Professionals and the US EPA Office of Solid Waste and Response. Info: 928.523.3840, Todd.Barnell@ nau.edu, http://www.4nau.edu/itep/conferences/confr_tlf.asp

Aug. 7-11 Gallup InterTribal Ceremonial Red Rock State Park, Gallup, NM

For more than 90 years, members of the Navajo Nation and tribes such as the Apache, Hopi and Zuni have gathered for this contest powwow. The weekend also includes the AllIndian Invitational Rodeo, a parade featuring Native dancers and World War II Code Talkers, an art & craft fair and the queen’s pageant. 505.863.3896, theceremonial.com

Aug. 7-28 Workshops with Edwin Lemus and Alejandro López Somos el Maiz, Santa Cruz (near Española), NM

Personal Magnetism and Leadership Series. 8/7: Connecting Ourselves to Our Personal Work; 8/14: Building a Bridge between Survival and Success; 8/21: The Labyrinth of Displacement; 8/28: Men and Women in a Contemporary Society; Also, ongoing daylong workshops in traditional agriculture and adobe each Thursday. Register: 505.316.4913, balamatzul@q.com, www.somoselmaiz.com

Aug. 9 Sustainable Grazing Practices to Mitigate Drought Mesteño Draw Ranch, Mountainair, NM

On-farm learning opportunity to see what fellow New Mexicans are doing to maintain land health and profitability during drought. Presented by Holistic Management Intl. Registration required. $20. Info: http:// holisticmanagement.org/mesteno/

Aug. 10, 5-10 pm Dog Days of Summer Benefit Concert KTAOS Solar Center, 9 NM 150, Taos, NM

Live music by Alpha Rev, Fear No Fear and Bone Orchard. Benefits Stray Hearts Shelter, which saves stray or abused animals. Silent auction, raffle, all-you-can-eat for $10. Tickets: $18 adv/$22 day of show. ktaos.com, KTAOS Solar Center.

Aug. 11, 7 am-3:30 pm Pueblo Independence Day Commemoration

7 am run from Jémez Pueblo plaza to Jémez Historic Site. 10 am guest speakers. Native dancers, food, arts & crafts. Free admission. 575.829.3530

Aug. 15 Application Deadline Rocky Mtn. Youth Corps Hiring Crews

AmeriCorps youths 18-25 thin local forests to prevent wildfire and build recreational trails across the state. Also Energy Efficiency Program provides weatherization upgrades to qualified low-income residents in northern NM. Earn $680 every 2 weeks and a college scholarship. 575.751.1420, victoria@ youthcorps.org, www.youthcorps.org

Aug. 15 Deadline NM Healthy Families Award Nominations

Nominate a family with good communication skills, strong family values and stability within their home. The 2013 award celebration will be on Nov. 4. Sponsored by the NM Coalition for Healthy Families. Nomination form on NMCHF website. 505.417.7586, NMCoalitionforHealthyFamilies@gmail. com, www.nmchf.org

Aug. 24, 6-8 pm Santo Domingo Trading Post Reopening Santo Domingo Pueblo, NM

Celebrate the reopening of this historic trading post that was gutted by fire years ago. Learn about the history and future of this landmark between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Info: 505.982.2133

Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Cleveland Millfest Cleveland, NM

More than 45 artists show their creations. Baked goods, dance exhibitions, music and tours of the Cleveland Roller Mill Museum, a historic flour mill. 575.387.2645

Sept. 19-22 9th Annual Gila River Festival Silver City, New Mexico

One of the Southwest’s premier nature festivals. Learn about and experience the Gila’s wonders. Expert-guided field trips in the National Forest and along the river. Keynote talk by author Kenneth Brower. Panel discussions, workshops, archeology, kayaking, films, silent auction, live music, downtown art walk, more. 575.538.8078, info@gilacon servation.org, www.gilaconservation.org

Oct. 25-26 8th Annual Traditional Agriculture & Sustainable Living Conference Salazar Center for the Performing Arts, NNMC, Española, NM

Keynote speakers: Dr. Vandana Shiva, Ph.D, Dr. Greg Cajete, Ph.D. Panel discussions, workshops, demonstrations, entertainment and more. Presented by the Pueblo of Tesuque, Four Bridges Traveling Permaculture Institute and the Sostenga program of NNMC. www.4bridges.org/conference-information

Green Fire Times • August 2013

Green Fire Times â&#x20AC;˘ August 2013