Our Living Lands

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.

Nika Bartoo-Smith is a reporter who covers Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest. Our Living Lands Producer Daniel Spaulding spoke with Bartoo-Smith about her work and the impact of climate change on tribes in the region.

Mesa Verde National Park in Southwestern Colorado is increasingly featuring the voices of Indigenous descendants from the area.

Across the West, climate change is putting snow sports like skiing at risk. For Indigenous skiers, that adds to a long history of exclusion from the sport. Let My People Go Skiing is a new film highlighting those challenges and some of the possible solutions. The film follows Ellen Bradley, the film's director and a Lingít skier, to her homelands in Southeast Alaska, where she works with Alaska Native Youth.

Cheyenne McNeil, a Cohaire journalist, spoke with Our Living Lands Producer Daniel Spaulding about Cohaire land and water in North Carolina.

KUNM Reporter Jeanette DeDios, who is Jicarilla Apache and Diné, spoke with Our Living Lands Producer Daniel Spaulding about issues facing Indigenous communities in New Mexico.

A group of young Indigenous men spent a week on the Wind River Reservation for a photo camp with National Geographic. The students camped, fished, explored and even helped with a bison harvest, all while honing their skills as storytellers and photographers.

In southern Oklahoma, the Chickasaw Nation is planting trees to combat climate change. The project is also ensuring that Chickasaw culture gets passed down to the next generation.

Researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa are using Okinawan songs to learn about climate and geology. Our Living Lands Producer Daniel Spaulding spoke with Justin Higa, a postdoctoral fellow and a Ryukyuan traditional music practitioner, about the connections between climate, music, and culture.

Across the country, Indigenous communities are facing increasing levels of food insecurity. In response, tribes are stepping up their food sovereignty efforts.