SAWS recognizes and honors October 12, 2020, as Indigenous Peoples' Day, and celebrates the culture and heritage of Tribal Nations and communities. In this next year, we commit to learning, acknowledging, and sharing a more truthful history of the lands we live and work on, including federal public lands and wilderness areas, recognizing the intergenerational trauma, violence, displacement, and erasure that Tribal Nations and communities have endured.
We recognize the continuing experiences, rights, and values of indigenous peoples, and commit to building stronger relationships so that we can listen to, learn from, and support Native interests in our landscape.
Our offices in Asheville, NC, and Roanoke, VA stand on the traditional, ancestral, and contemporary homelands of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the Tutelo people. This week, our field crews are doing stewardship work in the Linville Gorge Wilderness in NC and the Beaver Creek Wilderness in KY, which are the traditional, ancestral, and contemporary homelands of the Catawba, Yuchi, and Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Shawnee, Tula, Yuchi, and Adena peoples, respectively. We acknowledge and honor the history and people of these places.
If you'd like to join us as we educate ourselves about Tribal Nations in the area, the importance of land acknowledgment, and creating a more equitable space in conservation, please see these resources below.