The spirit of this special day was set with a prayer expressed in the Paiute language by Tribal elder Patsy Garcia and traditional songs by Ty Townsend in the morning at the gym on the Gidutikad Band of Northern Paiute reservation. Then about 60 people, more than half of them youth K-12, traveled to a nearby yapa patch across state lines into Neveda, within the ancestral territory of the Gidutikad Band on lands managed by the BLM. The 8-acre area has been fenced off to exclude grazing for more than 20 years as part of research into the effects of low intensity prescribed fire on yapa. Northern Paiute Gidutikad Band members demonstrated how to dig yapa roots—a cultural First Food—and Dr. James O’Connell, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Utah, Jen Rovanpera, BLM Archaeologist, and Belinda Brown, Lomakatsi Tribal Partnerships Director, led a field tour about traditional uses and cultural burning practices.
