Village Nature Series- Indigenous Stewardship: Weaving Together Culture, Climate, and Land

Village Nature Series is a curated collection of lectures providing knowledge on topics like wildlife, conservation, and local cultural heritage This series is brought to you through a collaboration between The Village Green and Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust. All of the Nature Series Programs, adult and youth, are FREE, family-friendly, held RAIN OR SHINE, and no reservations are required.
Founded in 2009, The Center for Native Health (CNH) is a Native-led, 501(c)3, located in Cherokee, NC. CNH implements a variety of program areas to ensure the balanced wellbeing of Southeastern Native communities through the preservation and respectful application of Native Knowledge to empower people, land, and culture. Through such efforts, CNH is able to support various initiatives that prioritize culturally grounded conservation, intergenerational sharing of traditional ecological knowledge, and protection of tribal resources and homelands.
Their Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources program is a grant initiative, funded through the Cherokee Preservation Foundation, that works with regional partners to protect traditional artisan resources through land conservation, stewardship, and restoration. This work is crucial to ensuring the sustainability of such resources and the preservation of traditional artisan practices.
Through their Youth Conservation Initiative, CNH is able to provide culturally-grounded, hands-on learning opportunities to EBCI youth. These efforts are aimed to further inspire environmental curiosity, leadership, and stewardship amongst Tribal youth through blending Indigenous knowledge systems with modern conservation science.
Through their Climate Resilience Project and Equitable Water Monitoring Program, CNH will be launching pilot projects focused on climate action, specifically addressing growing risks of climate impacts. Projects will blend traditional ecological knowledge and western science to strengthen local preparedness through policy advocacy and environmental stewardship. CNH hopes to develop a strategic plan to share with the EBCI community on how climate change might impact Tribal lands and what type of mitigation efforts might be needed in the future.
Please join Brett Treadway, CNH Program Director, in learning more about how CNH is supporting native communities through important environmental stewardship efforts.
Presenter Bio:
Brett Treadway is a citizen of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians and serves as the Director of the Arts, Language, and Healing program, as well as the Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources (RTCAR) program for The Center for Native Health (CNH). Prior to joining CNH, Brett served as a Program Officer under the Stewarding Native Lands Program for First Nations Development Institute, a national Native-led nonprofit based in Longmont, Colorado. Within this position, he led multiple projects focusing on tribal co-stewardship and co-management work with public land agencies and worked closely with a variety of Tribal grantees, fellow Tribal NGOs, and federal agency representatives.