"Tending Nature" shines a light on the environmental knowledge of Indigenous peoples across California by exploring how the state's Native peoples have actively shaped and tended the land for millennia. The series examines how traditional practices can inspire a new generation of Californians to find a balance between humans and nature. Traveling across the state, the series allows viewers to hear first-hand from Native communities engaged in contemporary projects that revive their culture and inform western sciences. Produced in partnership with the Autry Museum of the American West, a collaboration that began with the award-winning documentary "Tending the Wild."
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Tending the Wild
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Full Episodes
Season
Episode
26:39
Tending Nature
S3 E3: Reclaiming Agriculture with the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation
the Yocha Dehe people are combining ecological knowledge with modern science to rethink community-centered agri-business using sustainability practices that include high-efficiency irrigation.
Episode
24:40
Tending Nature
S3 E2: Preserving the Desert with NALC
The Native American Land Conservancy protects sacred tribal lands in the Mojave Desert.
Episode
26:39
Tending Nature
S3 E1: Guarding Ancestral Grounds with the Wiyot
The Wiyot tribe from Humboldt County have fought for restored access to their land.
Episode
26:23
Tending Nature
S3 E4: Cultivating Native Foodways with the Cultural Conservancy
The Cultural Conservancy, an inter-tribal organization, is revitalizing indigenous knowledge by inviting people to re-engage with the land, honor heirloom seeds, grow clean food and medicines, and decolonizing their foodways.
Episode
26:42
Tending Nature
S2 E4: Managing Groundwater with the Paiute
California’s Native peoples have lived with drought cycles for millennia and today, the Paiute are shepherding conversations around access to water resources, raising key questions about how our snowpack, streams and aquifers are used and maintained.
Episode
26:42
Tending Nature
S2 E3: Restoring The River with the Yurok, Hupa and Karuk
The environmental costs of timber extraction and damming have reached a tipping point in the North Coast region of California.
Episode
26:42
Tending Nature
S2 E2: Holistic Healing with the Syuxtun Collective
Scientists and doctors are embracing alternative concepts that Indigenous peoples have practiced for thousands of years, by using medicinal plant knowledge that informed much our pharmacopeia.
Episode
26:42
Tending Nature
S2 E1: Rethinking The Coast with the Ti'at Society
Climate change and urban development have significantly altered ocean conditions and our ability to access the coast, making it more and more difficult for the Tongva tribe to carry on their long-held seafaring traditions.
Episode
26:40
Tending Nature
S1 E3: Tribal Hunting with the Pit River Peoples
This episode explores how members of the Pit River Tribe in Northeast California are reviving traditional hunting practices and embracing Community Science initiatives to preserve and monitor wild elk and deer populations.
Episode
26:40
Tending Nature
S1 E1: Protecting The Coast with the Tolowa Dee-ni'
This episode journeys to the Smith River near the Oregon border to discover how the Tolowa Dee-ni’ are reviving traditional harvesting of shellfish while working with state agencies to monitor toxicity levels.
