Tending Nature

"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."

Suggested Show

Tending the Wild

Seneca white corn grown at the Cultural Conservancy. | Still from "Tending Nature" episode “Cultivating Native Foodways with the Cultural Conservancy."

Article

Tending Nature

A Return to Heirloom Corn Unpacks Powerful Cultural Histories

A group at the Cultural Conservancy removes dried grain corn from the cob to preserve the seeds in their seed library. | Still from the "Cultivating Native Foodways with the Cultural Conservancy" episode of "Tending Nature."

Article

Tending Nature

5 Indigenous Stories to Help Us Reckon with the Past and Honor Native Peoples

Sara Moncada (Yaqui/Irish), chief program officer at the Cultural Conservancy, left, and Melissa K. Nelson (Turtle Mountain Chippewa), president and CEO of the Cultural Conservancy, right, tending plants together. | Still from "Tending Nature"

Article

Tending Nature

Reclaiming, Restoring and Preserving Indigenous Relationships

Full Episodes

Episode

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

24:24

Tending Nature

S3 E2: Preserving the Desert with NALC

The Native American Land Conservancy protects sacred tribal lands in the Mojave Desert.

Episode

26:23

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.

“Managing Groundwater with the Paiute” Alan Bacock, Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley's Water Program Coordinator, testing water levels.

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 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.

Ray Alvarez looking into the iron sights of his rifle while hunting near the Pit River. | Still from "Tending Nature"

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.

A member of Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation casts his net the beach. | Still from Tending Nature

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.