© 2026 Boise State Public Radio
NPR in Idaho
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Our Living Lands is a collaboration of the Mountain West News Bureau, Koahnic Broadcast Corporation and Native Public Media.

Colorado’s first Indigenous poet laureate on land and history

A man dressed in a short-sleeved dark shirt and dark pants poses for a portrait in an outdoor area where you can see a large pine tree behind him.
Courtesy of Crisosto Apache
Crisosto Apache (Mescalero Apache, Chiricahua Apache, and Diné) teaches at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design and was recently named Colorado’s poet laureate.

Crisosto Apache was recently named Colorado’s poet laureate, the first Indigenous person to hold that title. Apache is Mescalero Apache, Chiricahua Apache, and Diné. Our Living Lands Producer Daniel Spaulding spoke with Apache about poetry, land, and Colorado’s Indigenous community.

“Poetry is really allowing yourself to sit down and be aware and pay attention, you know, to your environment or the places that you are in, and just observe, because there's so much happening in this modern day that we've allowed ourselves to be so distracted,” Apache said. “And we have sort of moved away from this idea of being present and looking at the environments around us and appreciating that.”

I joined Boise State Public Radio as the Indigenous Affairs Reporter and Producer for Our Living Lands, a weekly radio show that focuses on climate change and its impact on Indigenous communities. It is a collaboration between the Mountain West News Bureau, Native Public Media and Koahnic Broadcast Corporation.

You make stories like this possible.

The biggest portion of Boise State Public Radio's funding comes from readers like you who value fact-based journalism and trustworthy information.

Your donation today helps make our local reporting free for our entire community.