Healing the violence inflicted on Native bodies and lands

LOUISVILLE — When Nathana Bird chose to follow a passion for community organizing, she knew she would be walking a decidedly different path from that of the rest of her family.

And yet, in the end, it was a path that led her right back home.

Raised in Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico, but educated some 90 miles away in Albuquerque, Bird was always hungering for deeper purpose and connection with people from backgrounds like her own.

Image

“I was trying to find my story within the narrative of my people, to embody the wisdom that has been passed down to me from the mothers and grandmothers in my life,” said Bird. “Knowing that I could make a difference in my own community rather than in other spaces and to invest my time to make it a better place, I was into that. As one of my friends likes to say, ‘I could live anywhere else in the world, but I choose to live here.’”

Like Bird, Talavi Denipah Cook, also originally from Ohkay Owingeh, had left home to study environmental and conservation biology but ultimately found the pull of her people — and the call to return — to be all but irresistible.

“In the Española Valley area, where they are doing a lot of land management strategies, there aren’t many Native scientists or environmental scientists,” Cook said. “I wanted to come back and help the people know how to connect with the Earth, work to combat climate change, and do better for the world.”

Both of their journeys led them to Tewa Women United, a multicultural, multiracial, nonprofit organization founded and led by Native women, where Bird currently serves as interim executive director and Cook as program manager for Environmental Health and Justice.

Named for the Tewa concept wi don gi mu, which translates to “we are one,” the organization is committed to strengthening leadership for Native women and girls, addressing environmental, social, racial and gender justice concerns, shaping policy, and reclaiming the people’s agricultural legacy.

Cook said that since the environmental field is almost always male-dominated, she especially appreciates the uniqueness of being in an all-women’s space.

“We do have men here, too, but it’s more dominant with female energy,” she said.

And TWU also resonates with the energy of youth — which, not coincidentally, is how both Bird and Cook were first introduced to the organization.

Bird started as a youth volunteer doing environmental justice organizing, and Cook learned about the work of TWU from her young cousins.

“Because my cousins were part of the A’Gin Youth Council and the A’Gin Healthy Sexuality and Body Sovereignty project, they always came back talking about it,” said Cook, referring to two of the organization’s opportunities for youth ages 11–19, both named for the Tewa concept meaning “respect for self and others.” “I had always heard good things.”

And it is thanks to a grant from the Presbyterian Hunger Program, made possible by Presbyterians’ generous gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing that TWU’s life-giving initiatives bring hope and healing to Indigenous women and girls while its food justice programs help connect youth with their elders, their people’s traditions and the land.

For more than 75 years, the Offering’s purpose of helping neighbors in need around the world remains constant, giving the PC(USA) and other Christian denominations a tangible way to share God’s love. In addition to the PHP, One Great Hour of Sharing also benefits the ministries of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People.

Although the Offering may be taken anytime, most congregations receive it on Palm Sunday or Easter Sunday, which this year fall on April 13 and 20, respectively.

In TWU’s efforts to support environmental health and climate change adaptability by creating community gardens — such as the Española Healing Foods Oasis — heirloom seed libraries, non-GMO seed exchanges, traditional agriculture, bio and mycoremediation practices, one group that the organization is particularly trying to highlight is its Pueblo Women in Farming circle.

“We are trying to break the stigma by teaching women that it’s OK for them to practice their sovereign right to live off this land as well,” Cook said. “The program is especially inspiring to our younger women because when they see other women doing it, it makes them want to do it, too. They had no idea that women could do this on their own.”

Like many not-for-profits, TWU began as a grassroots effort “around a kitchen table.”

A group of women from the local communities — mainly the Tewa-speaking communities from the Pueblos — first came together in 1989 to confront systems of oppression and patriarchy. In 2001, the group incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

“From the beginning, we wanted to create a space for women to uncover their own power and also to encourage them to use their voice to create change in the community,” Bird said. “That was a big piece of our work in the beginning. We also have witnessed the destruction that happens on our ancestral homelands and sacred areas in our own backyard. A big part of our work is to address the violence that has been inflicted on our bodies and our land.”

And reclaiming tradition.

“When we’re exchanging seeds and exchanging the knowledge of making certain soups, dishes or holding traditional ceremonies,” observed Cook, “wow! I’ve never seen this kind of support system before or such a trading of knowledge between Pueblos.”

Jennifer R. Evans, PHP’s associate for Communications and National Partnerships, said that the program’s partnership with Tewa Women United is deeply intentional because the organization’s work is grounded in Indigenous wisdom and community values.

“By prioritizing the well-being of families, mothers and children, they are also healing our Mother Earth,” said Evans. “Through their Food and Seed Sovereignty projects, Tewa’s Environmental Justice Program revitalizes traditional practices such as seed-saving, ensures access to culturally appropriate food, supports language restoration and much more. By fostering these practices and empowering community members to advocate for better policies, we learn to care for both God’s people and Creation more effectively.”

And as both Cook and Bird — alongside TWU’s small staff, its board and dedicated volunteers — seek to continue the legacy of their elders, they intend to stay firmly planted right where they are for the sake of Indigenous women, children and the most vulnerable.

“The land and the culture are what really makes us a people here,” Cook said. “We’re special people, and to have our environment and us going through this genocide — very silent and really slow — I want future generations to have clean water and clean air and to keep practicing their dances and learning their culture.”

Future generations like Bird’s own children.

“This work inspires me because I have three daughters and one son, who also have participated in our programs,” she said. “They know this is their place and not just for me. But it’s also for all the young girls that come after me — that grow up here, participate in herbal medicine-making, grow their corn, learn how to skateboard, connect back to their Tewa and cultural roots. For me, it’s about them. I started as a youth organizer, and I do my best to show up for these organizers, just like someone did for me. That’s why I do the work every day, and that’s why I come back.”

And that’s exactly why One Great Hour of Sharing will also continue to “show up.”

“Through generous gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing, which support the remarkable work of Tewa Women United, we are collectively contributing to a more just and sustainable world,” Evans said. “This spirit of sharing is vital in repairing the breach and building a better future for all.”