Lomakatsi Inter-Tribal Indian Youth Service Corps Crew Earns Cultural Monitoring Certification

Published December 27, 2024

Lomakatsi was honored to be included in a Cultural Monitoring training December 20-21 in Susanville, California hosted by Susanville Indian Rancheria (Maidu, Paiute, Pit River and Washoe) Natural Resources Department and facilitated by Tribal Archaeologist Waylon Coats from Sierra Nevada Conservancy.

About 60 participants shared knowledge, prayer, and cultural values through the in-depth and hands-on training. Lomakatsi is proud of our 10-member Inter-Tribal Indian Youth Service Corps (IYSC) crew and Crew Support staff for taking part and earning their Cultural Monitoring certifications!

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We appreciate our partnership with the Gidutikad Band of Northern Paiute Fort Bidwell Indian Tribe through a four-month IYSC module layered into the Fort Bidwell Paiute Reservation Protection Project, which supported 14 IYSC corpsmembers and support staff to attend the training as part of a larger two-year, all-lands, regional restoration initiative, through a funding award to Lomakatsi from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The two-day classroom and field training included representatives of regional tribes and natural resource and culture and heritage department staff and was supported by the Sierra Neveda Conservancy, Modoc Resource Conservation District, and Honey Lake Valley Resource Conservation District.

Waylon Coats facilitated training in a wide array of scenarios and the rights and laws that protect Cultural Monitors and the materials that may be unearthed during restoration work, including the sensitivity and importance of returning tribal remains to their homelands. The training included identifying cultural sites, ways of working in collaboration with crews and partner agencies while protecting first foods and medicines, and honoring found materials created by past generations of aboriginal peoples.

“Cultural Monitoring certification supports more native people of all ages as they become involved in the protection and recovery of many lost, misplaced, and stolen artifacts and remains. Whenever there are soil-moving activities on projects occurring across our ancestral lands or near sacred sites, we have the knowledge to get involved and help keep our ancestors and the things created by their hands sacred and safe.”

– Nathaniel Wright, Lomakatsi Tribal Outreach Associate