Cultivating Best Practices for Tribal Partnerships
by Stasie Maxwell, VM Indigenous Partnership Programs Manager
Cultivating Best Practices for Tribal Partnerships
Summary of a southwest Oregon networking workshop for non-profits and land managers
When we established Vesper Meadow as a community-engaged land restoration project, we had only just begun a learning journey associated with a special place. Finding a few five-thousand year old artifacts were some of our first signs that we had a responsibility to the people of the land. Five years later, we continue this learning journey through partnership with Tribal peoples and collaboratively developing programs for healing land and the human relationship.
We believe that it is essential to build partnerships with Indigenous people:
Building partnerships that center Indigenous voices and self-identified goals directly addresses historical injustices and land dispossession by uplifting Tribal sovereignty and self-determination.
Indigenous worldview provides interconnected perspectives on social, economic, environmental and spiritual systems. These perspectives can enrich quality of life and help address current issues in Indigenous communities and also provide benefits to non-Native people.
By integrating non-Western voices, the field of conservation can turn to a more holistic approach that will address current environmental and societal issues caused by settler colonial culture and worldview.
On Friday, January 12th, Vesper Meadow hosted a workshop for local, non-native-led organizations in conservation and environmental activism on cultivating best practices for working within Tribal partnerships. A lot of the best practices were developed from Vesper Meadow’s lived experience supporting the Indigenous Gardens Network (IGN), which is a hub of collaborative projects between the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, supported by Southwest Oregon partner organizations (SWO partners).
Purpose of the Indigenous Gardens Network
The goal is to increase Tribal community access to traditional homelands and engage in First Food restoration projects that support reconnection to culturally significant plants through tending, cultivation, and harvesting.
Picture Credit: Foreground: Stasie Maxwell (Indigenous Partnerships Program Manager, Vesper Meadow), Background left to right: Jesse Norton (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde), Brandon Larabee (Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians), Jeanine Moy (Program Director, Vesper Meadow), Maia Black (Executive Director, Selberg Institute), Chris Adlam (Oregon State University), Molly Morrison (Stewardship Coordinator, The Nature Conservancy), Tara Laidlaw (Education Program Manager, Southern Oregon Land Conservancy), Greg Archuleta (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde)
Why the structure of the IGN makes it unique and effective
Trusted support team of non-Natives and local Native community members
Centering of Tribal partners, their communities, and their identified goals
Remaining flexible with timelines and grant deliverables
Taking time to care for each other and check in - the work can be deeply emotional
Relationship-building is informed by Indigenous worldview - Tribal leadership and vision guides the work
We started the workshop with a brief history of the Indigenous homelands now known as the Rogue Valley in southwest Oregon, shared the intention and purpose of the workshop, and surveyed the room with a few interactive questions, “does your organization have a Tribal liaison or a full-time Native staff member?” (gauging organizational development) “Who here is an executive director or key decision maker for your organization?” (gauging power) “Have you ever been to a pow wow, or reservation?” (gauging cultural experience) “Who here has seen Rez Dogs?” (for fun and to uplift cultural representation). We then went on to discuss some best practices in Tribal partnership and attendees reflected on personal and organizational ways to incorporate these best practices.
The importance of Tribal partnerships specific to this place, is that the many Nations of Native people that existed here for thousands of years were forcibly removed to two main reservations, now known as the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. It is important to know the history of the land you reside on and understand the relationship Tribal people have to place. Further, we must recognize how racism and settler colonialism violently disrupted and continues to disrupt that connection to place. When current land managers who do not have ancestry in a place are supporting Tribal communities in connecting with their homelands, it is imperative to be mindful of how power dynamics continue in patterns of settler colonialism. This can be likened to being abducted from your home, then welcomed back but with rules and regulations restricting you to certain areas or only engaging in certain activities in your own home.
McKay, Dwanna & Vinyeta, Kirsten & Norgaard, Kari. (2020). Theorizing race and settler colonialism within U.S. sociology. Sociology Compass. 14. 10.1111/soc4.12821.
Download the full Cultivating Best Practices for Building Tribal Partnerships at the end of the blog post, along with the interactive and reflective worksheet.
Some key suggestions to building Tribal partnerships is to become familiar with Indigenous worldview as Indigenous worldview can often differ or be completely opposite of the dominant (Western) worldview, and plan how to build reciprocal relationships instead of transactional relationships. The workshop was facilitated to include both the history and context of place, which we named can be uncomfortable. We also strove to empower attendees by speaking to the privilege of working with Indigenous Brilliance, which is a term in Indian country that can mean many things, but is a celebration of the wisdom, knowledge, humor, and joy that infuses Native communities and the way Native people engage through culture and language with each other and with the land. Attendees spoke to this as well in some of their answers to the prompt, what have you learned from Indigenous people?
“Things I have learned: to be a respectful listener!”
“Reciprocity is important; showing up for Tribes in their space and time”
“I have not had a lot of experience, but have learned I can move too fast, and put my ideas forward before its time or even appropriate”
Some actionable ideas generated from the group discussion:
A line item in grant budgets that takes a small percentage from every grant in an organization to be put towards funding collaborations led by Tribal initiatives or donated directly to Tribes or their named projects
Incorporating Indigenous worldview at every level of an organization - not just in how to work with Tribal partners
Continuing this cohort into a quarterly meeting so non-Native people can support each other in acting on best practices and doing the work of educating ourselves so some of that burden is alleviated from Indigenous people
Including a note of organizations commitment to self-educate and support Tribal sovereignty in each end of year grant report to funders, even if the grant does not have deliverables around Tribal partnerships