Indigenous Mainers are working on a plan to boost tourism for the state's five Wabanaki Nations.

The Wabanaki Cultural Tourism Initiative has received both a federal grant from Health and Human Services and a state grant from the Maine Office of Tourism.

As a member of the Penobscot Nation, Charlene Virgilio, executive director of the Four Directions Development Corp., the first Native Community Development Financial Institution in Northern New England, said cultural preservation is central to the project. Its goal is to create unique experiences to share the ways that Wabanaki people have long been stewards of the land and water.

"Canoeing, kayaking along the ancestral rivers that we have, traditional fishing methods, whatever," she said, "those kinds of things that will help preserve culture, but also help tourists experience that culture."

Four Directions and the initiative are set to participate in Gov. Janet Mills' annual Conference on Tourism today and tomorrow. Virgilio said authenticity is a key component for many Wabanaki communities interested in boosting tourism.

In addition to preserving and sharing culture, said Matthew Lewis, Four Directions' Wabanaki program and operations director and a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, this effort is a way to bring more revenue to Maine's indigenous communities and boost the local economies. For instance, he said, there are so many artisans in the community to engage with.

"Tourism can sometimes have a negative connotation with some communities, saying we don't want folks just driving through, taking pictures, doing the sort of like Disneyland package," he said. "We want meaningful engagement with the community, and meaningful engagement with the culture."

As they map out the robust four-season tourism industry they hope to achieve by 2030, Lewis said, they also have to consider what infrastructure is needed - from hotels and restaurants to workforce development and hospitality training.

California tribes are headed to the White House Tribal Nations Summit tomorrow, where they will ask Congress and the Biden administration to create or expand several national monuments.

The Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla tribe in the Coachella Valley would like the president to establish a new Chuckwalla National Monument and expand Joshua Tree National Park.

Thomas Tortez Jr., chairman of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, said the area is an important wildlife corridor.

"The proposed monument would preserve this cultural landscape by providing protections to multiuse trail systems established by our ancestors, sacred sites and objects, traditional cultural places, geoglyphs, petroglyphs, pictographs, plants and wildlife," Tortez outlined.

Since taking office, President Joe Biden has created five national monuments using the Antiquities Act. Congress is also considering legislation to create or enlarge national monuments. The two-day summit draws tribal leaders from across the nation to discuss a range of issues.

Rudy Ortega Jr., president of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, wants Biden to add another 109,000 acres to the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.

"In Los Angeles, we're massively overgrown," Ortega contended. "We need to protect these landscapes so that doesn't further continue the construction of houses and businesses and so on, but an area to give green space."

Brandy McDaniels, lead for the Pit River Nation to establish the Sátíttla National Monument, noted it would protect a little more than 200,000 acres in the Medicine Lake Highlands near Mount Shasta.

"Satittla is culturally, historically and scientifically important to the world," McDaniels asserted. "Serving as a buffer to climate change, and provides immense amounts of pure water, natural storage and resources to a large portion of California."

Tribes are also seeking an expansion of the Berryessa Snow National Monument in Lake County.


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November is Native American Heritage Month, and a South Dakota organization is working to help establish leadership skills for Indigenous youth.

Data compiled by the Center for Native American Youth show young people within this population face many obstacles, from high school graduation rates below the national average to being over represented in foster care.

John Richard, youth and family specialist with the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation on the Pine Ridge Reservation, said it underscores how Indigenous youth are still reeling from trauma experienced by past generations, and added their programs focus on providing structure and healing.

"Really, what we want to do is fill in those roles, in how to express yourself in healthy ways, and also being able to have a support system and that kind of structure, where it's going to guide them and flourish into their future lives," he said.

Richard added on the Pine Ridge Reservation, there are few resources for prevention and awareness for behavioral health. Among Thunder Valley's youth outreach programs is an initiative where elementary-age children are connected with high schoolers. Those mentorships emphasize improving self-identify through sports and learning more about the Lakota language.

There's also the WWHY Girl Society program, which prepares girls for life challenges and traditional Lakota womanhood ceremonies.

Lynn Cuny, Thunder Valley's deputy director, adds it serves as a safe space, as Pine Ridge continues to deal with high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous relatives.

"It's overwhelming for us as adults, so imagine being a youth, feeling that and seeing that every day. So, we've even done self-defense classes with our young Girl Society," she said.

Thunder Valley leaders say staffing shortages and transportation barriers sometimes prevent them from expanding certain programs, like a summer leadership academy. However, being able to bring in teens and young adults as mentors has allowed elements of their outreach work to thrive.

Alaska tribes are urging the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to keep protections in place for more than 28 million acres they say are critical to their way of life.

The BLM is expected to release a draft environmental impact statement next month on the effects of opening the acreage up to mining and extraction. Known as D-1 lands, large parcels across the state were originally protected from development under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act more than 50 years ago.

Eugene Paul, tribal Chief of Holy Cross and chairman of the Bering Sea Interior Tribal Commission, said these lands are important for their food sources.

"Other places have these big stores, Costco and stuff, that they buy a great amount of goods and stuff, but we don't choose that," he said. "We choose what we were taught to do and to live off our land, and it means a lot for us to take what we need and then gather what we need to put our families through the winter."

Seventy-eight tribes wrote a letter to the BLM asking to keep safeguards for D-1 lands in place, noting Alaska already is feeling the impacts of climate change and development could further erode tribes' way of life. For nearly two decades, the agency has submitted resource plans recommending lifting protections for D-1 lands.

Frank Katchatag, president of the village of Unalakleet and vice chair of the Bering Sea Interior Tribal Commission, said tribes are fighting for their lands.

"Salmon cannot fight for itself. The caribou and the moose cannot fight for itself," he said. "We are trying very hard to protect those species so that we may continue the life that we live and pass on to our children and grandchildren."

Katchatag said that if the lands are damaged and the rivers polluted, his home will never be the same.

"I look forward to meeting more with the Alaska BLM director and I truly hope that the Secretary of Interior continues to meet with us," he said, "because we're not going to give up."


Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.


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