Sacred Lands

Tanaya Winder is a poet, advocate, educator, and speaker from the Southern Ute, Duckwater Shoshone, and Pyramid Lake Paiute Nations. A Stanford University alumna, receiving her MFA in from the University of New Mexico, she co-founded the Sing Our Rivers Red earring exhibit to raise awareness about murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls. She is the Director of CU Boulder's Upward Bound program, which serves Native youth from across the country. She is a 2016 National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development “40 Under 40” list of American Indian leaders recipient, and a 2017 First Peoples Fund Artists in Business Leadership fellow. Winder believes in creating the spaces that are needed in this world, so she founded Dream Warriors (an Indigenous artists collective), and As/Us, a literary magazine publishing works by BIPOC women. Her poetry collection Words Like Love debuted in 2015; with a second collection released in 2017.

Sacred Lands aims to be a holistic preservation of Indigenous culture. In short: purchase and preserve raw land bordering the Southern Ute reservation to provide a space for elders and "culture-bearers" to reconnect Indigenous youth of all backgrounds with traditional languages and skills. We will provide a space for Indigenous youth field trips and conservation lectures during the academic year, and present cultural workshops for 8 weeks of summer as enrichment for students and families. Transportation will be provided by need. 

We plan to enter a Safe Harbor Agreement with the USFWS to identify and protect/preserve any native threatened or endangered species inhabiting the land. We plan to achieve minimal invasion by using portable solar power, and by creating a Learning Center and Indigenous Library to be housed inside yurts sustainably handmade in Mongolia, with practices benefitting rural Mongolians. A global representation of Indigenous cultures; a small step towards decolonization.

Cultural genocide. Globally, the loss of Indigenous languages is both a spiritual and linguistic catastrophe, but it is only a small part of the culture that needs preservation. Indigenous people are the only race nationally subjected to a blood quantum, determining whether or not they are legally able to inherit their ancestral homelands from their parents. This distinctly affects cultural retention when there is no regard for those of mixed tribal heritage or mixed race. Sacred Lands would like to be a space for the many legally determined "descendants"—regardless of tribal enrollment status—to visit their ancestral home and learn from the land, the foundations of their language and traditional dance. The efforts to preserve diminishing aspects of Indigenous culture are disjointed, and those with cultural knowledge most often living in poverty. Bringing together a small piece of the whole picture: a deep respect for the land, traditional practices, with minimal invasion. Upon acquisition of the land, we would like the USFSW to survey and, if possible, enter into a Safe Harbor Agreement to protect and preserve any threatened or endangered species that may be native to the property. 

Preservation. 

Sacred Lands would simply be a large, preserved natural area. During the academic year, we would like to offer the Learning Center for field trips, teaching about Indigenous culture and active conservation efforts, with monthly gatherings of elder stories for the community. (These offerings, along with the summer workshops, can all be adjusted for COVID-19 in terms of small groups, sanitization, and potential offerings of recordings of certain material). 

For eight weeks during the summer, Sacred Lands would offer free courses in Indigenous languages, traditional dance, music, and skills such as basket-weaving, tipi-building, and fire- and drum-making. The power for lights, phone charging, and even Wi-Fi if needed would be provided via a solar generator for minimal ecosystem invasion.

Due to the rural area of the reservation community, providing transportation for cultural-preservation activities based on need (elders, youth, no transportation) will be essential. For this, Sacred Lands would need at least one vehicle capable of both handling the mountainous terrain and providing small group transport.  

In essence, Sacred Lands provides an opportunity for people to be in year-round relationship with the land to learn and grow deeper in one's culture.

We plan to work directly with the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribes, as well as other southwestern tribes, legal descendants, and organizations benefitting Mongolian communities. 

As a Southern Ute tribal descendant who was raised on this reservation, I feel a deep connection to my community and lands. Nearly all of my paternal family still reside on or near this reservation. I return home quite frequently and my current full-time job involves working with Indigenous high school students from this community. I have been doing this work for more than a decade, and in that time I have seen many students struggle with substance abuse, self-harm, depression, suicidal ideation, and physical/emotional abuse and neglect. As a teenager I, too struggled on my path until I became grounded in ceremony and culture. Now, as an adult, I work to learn my Indigenous languages. I return home to visit with elders and learn what I can. I also see elders who struggle with isolation and loneliness. The Sacred Lands project would be bringing together our people in new and innovative ways that would allow us to return to the land, our culture, and Indigenous ways of being. 

In the past, through the "Kill the Indian, Save the Man" boarding-school system and continuing into today's national blood quantum for all tribes, Indigenous culture and identity is extremely threatened. As a result of colonization, Indigenous youth experience a much higher rate of suicide, substance abuse, and neglect while experiencing a significantly lower high school graduation rate. Offering summer enrichment to youth and families fosters a sense of community and belonging: especially to those not legally able to be deemed tribal members due to being of mixed race, and thus prevented from inheriting tribal lands. 

The older I get, I can't help but wonder: Where do I consider home? Is home where I was raised or is it where I will put down roots? Although I am not enrolled, the Southern Ute reservation is my home. I want to be able to return home and find a way to give back to my community.

And so, the roots of this project were planted over talks with my fiancé, who is currently studying wildlife conservation technologies. Piece by piece, we very slowly and organically put together a picture of what complete culture preservation should and could look like. 

In these talks he informed me that Endangered Species Act efforts are chronically and severely underfunded, and rely heavily on cooperation from often reluctant land owners, who are generally seeking to utilize the land for profit. Wildlife and the plants that co-inhabit this land with us are both as sacred and as threatened as Indigenous culture itself. 

Historically, the combination of the federal government and protection of Indigenous lands do not mesh well; however, in entering a Safe Harbor Agreement in support of the Endangered Species Act, I hope that we can begin to mend that relationship.  

Growing up on the Southern Ute reservation, I have been fortunate enough to be raised with ceremony and sweat as a normal part of life. Working with groups of Indigenous youth for the past ten years, there is a large amount of cultural disconnect, particularly with youth that did not grow up on or near the usually very rural reservation communities. Most youth (and humans) want to feel connection and a sense of belonging. This project would be a way for youth and anyone interested in connecting to their Indigenous culture to visit Indigenous lands and learn their culture without needing relatives or close connections on the reservation. 

Being of both mixed tribal and racial heritage (I am Southern Ute, Duckwater Shoshone, Pyramid Lake Paiute, Diné, and black), it has never been lost on me that I am only legally permitted to be an enrolled member of my maternal grandmother's Duckwater Shoshone nation. This is a direct erasure of Indigenous identities through legislative genocide. Bringing these sacred lands closer to those legally deemed "descendants" is a concrete way to fight the alarmingly high rate of Indigenous culture loss. 

I have been working in leadership positions within Indian Country for over a decade. In that time, visiting with Indigenous communities and speaking with audiences from youth to elders, I've deepened my understanding of how important it is to remain connected to our culture. 

The range of roles I have taken on include that of my current position as Director for University of Colorado Boulder's Upward Bound program, where I prepare Native youth for college academic year programming including monthly workshops and through a summer enrichment camp. In this position I am responsible an annual budget of approximately $516,000, planning events and academic schedules, developing curriculum, hiring instructional and residential staff, and grant record-keeping and documentation. I believe these skills would assist me in successfully managing this project.

Most importantly, I regularly return home to the Southern Ute reservation to visit with family and elders. I also attend ceremonies and participate in our tribe's annual Bear Dance. Because of my continued connection to home, I have cultivated and maintained the trust and respect of my community members. This relationship gives me access to culture-bearers who I would ask to participate in Sacred Lands programming . As the founder and manager of the Dream Warriors Indigenous artists collective, I have also maintained relationships with tribes across the country. This network would foster nation building between tribes and would allow me to find those with traditional skills and knowledge of histories that may be rarer to the area. 

My Indigenous name is (phonetically) Tarmoot-Wachich-Mamoch. It means Winter Bird Woman in the Ute language. It means during the winter when all of the other birds leave, the winter bird stays to continue bringing song and healing to the people. I live my name. 

I was one of those Indigenous youth struggling to belong in an educational system that was not built or made for me. But, I persisted. Through loss and depression, I managed to find my way to Stanford University where I was going to become a lawyer and free Leonard Peltier. I didn't realize you can't outrun your trauma. I lost myself when I lost a friend to suicide. I didn't realize then that for Indigenous youth age 10 to 24, suicide is the second leading cause of death. The loss shook me to my core and made me learn about historical/ancestral trauma. 

So, after graduation, I pivoted. I decided to work with youth and communities to help them heal. I have put in a decade building relationships with mine and other Indigenous communities to lay the foundation for Sacred Lands. Now is the time for healing. Now is the time to bring us all together. 

A quick search of "Tanaya Winder" will show my life is dedicated to leadership. But the story I'd like share isn't that I became the Director of a program I attended in high school. It isn't that created a magazine to help others share their voice as I struggled to find mine. Rather, I'd like to share how my community sees me. When my first book was published, I wanted my release at the library on our reservation. Family, childhood friends, and others were in the audience. It meant the world to me because this community is where my life took root. After the reading, my mom's friend bought my book and said it made her cry — my words were healing. I carry that with me. Five years later I was selected as a role model for the Tri-Ute youth conference and was asked to write a poem. Today, that poem is mounted 6ft x 4 ft on the rec center wall. Today, I am a consultant for our tribal radio station and lead workshops for youth. I've performed at both the Lincoln and Kennedy Center; but, home will always be my favorite place to share my gifts.