Published June 20, 2026
We’re proud to celebrate the launch of the 2026 Tribal Stewards Program in eastern Oregon’s high desert!
Now in our third year partnering with the Burns Paiute Tribe and Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA), Lomakatsi is helping lead this paid-to-train program, which ONDA first launched in 2019.
Over the next eight weeks, five Tribal youth and young adults, alongside two experienced crew leaders, will contribute to ecological restoration projects across the ancestral homelands of the Wadatika Band of Northern Paiute, Burns Paiute Tribe, while gaining valuable natural resource field experience paired with Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
Project sites include the U.S. Forest Service-Malheur National Forest, Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Participants receive ecological stewardship education from Tribal elders and leaders, ONDA and Lomakatsi staff, and agency partners. Training began this week with a focus on wildlife surveys and fish sampling.
We’re honored to support this important program that strengthens connections to culture, community, and land while preparing the next generation of Tribal and rural natural resource professionals for successful careers.
