Resilience in the face of unprecedented challenges

Some of our Native American relatives have always reminded us that “The buffalo face the storm!” If you have read the recently published biography of the late Lakota medicine man and spiritual leader Martin High Bear, you know that he also expressed the importance of restoring our ancient cultural values and spiritual qualities in order to overcome hardship so we can lead a fulfilling life of service to community.  Sharing the wisdom of our elders has always been a driving force in our work, and we continue to encourage our family, organization, partners and community to “face the storm.” Practicing these rich ancient principles provides much meaning. It empowers us to continue to accomplish our life's work, no matter what obstacles may arise. 

That is the case here at Elderberry Wisdom Farm. Last week, I sang the buffalo song to our new cohort of interns during their first week of the Spring 2025 Habitat Restoration Internship. They are excited to strengthen their conservation career pathways here at the farm by learning to integrate TEK with their training in native plant nursery development, habitat restoration, urban forestry and organic farming. We also teach a class in Health and Wellness Resilience to raise awareness of how the challenges they face can help to strengthen their cultural identity and positive self-esteem. 

Centuries of trauma experienced by Native Americans and others have actually made us stronger and strengthened our resilience to accomplish our work. We fully realize the role that our spirituality plays in our conservation work, due in part to our close relationship with the world of nature and the healing our Oldest Grandmother, or Mother Earth, provides us through Her medicine and beauty.

Elderberry Wisdom Farm is not immune to difficulties despite our resilience. Like many colleagues, we have had grants either frozen or cancelled this spring. We recently lost a grant that would have funded summer apprenticeships in urban forestry for Native American and other youth of color from Salem schools. It would have funded us to train and mentor students to pursue conservation career pathways over three years through 2028. We recently advised our community and our US Senators and Representatives that our work cannot be discontinued.

Despite this loss of funding, we are searching for ways to accomplish our work anyway with or without the funding. Our visions and dreams for restoring our ecosystems and rich culture and way of life may be threatened or at least slowed down temporarily, but it only strengthens our personal resolve to overcome the challenges. Our younger generation are tomorrow’s leaders, and they need our support.

Our world and our sacred landscapes need our emerging youth leaders to overcome challenges that will be facing us tomorrow. One example is the reminder from the Oregon Forest Research Institute that over 40 million seedlings are planted in Oregon forests each year, but the vast majority is a single species often sourced from the same local seed that has been used from generation to generation. Courageous colleagues from our agencies and organizations are continuing to conserve and restore increasingly rare species in our wetlands, oak savanna, and upland prairies. They know our lands need genetic diversity to thrive, and this is one of the reasons we are partners with the Institute for Applied Research, Willamette Valley Native Plant Partnership and a number of soil and water conservation districts, watershed councils and other partners. Their collaborative efforts are helping to accomplish the restoration and it is helping us to learn, develop and maintain our Native American Plant Nursery and our habitat restoration work.