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

Most Recent

The fourth person from the left, Bii Gallardo help hold a banner that reads "DEFEND THE SACRED" during the L.A. Women’s March in January 2020.

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Tending Nature

Bii Gallardo: Building Relationships with Land to Fight For Climate Justice

A man in a blue jacket smiles in front of a lake.

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Tending Nature

Michael Preston: Helping Sacred Water Heal People, Land, Spirits and Salmon

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Tending Nature

Remembering Marshall McKay

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Tending Nature

In Memoriam: Marshall McKay

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."

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Tending Nature

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

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Tending Nature

S3 E4: Native Foodways with the Cultural Conservancy (Preview)

Episode

26:39

Tending Nature

S3 E4: Cultivating Native Foodways with the Cultural Conservancy

Aerial view of bends in the Amazon River in Peru. | DeAgostini/Getty Images

Article

Tending Nature

Tending the Peruvian Amazon: Planting Seeds of Reciprocity Between Human and Earth

Episode

26:40

Tending Nature

S1 E4: Healing the Body with United Indian Health Services

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"

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Tending Nature

Reclaiming, Restoring and Preserving Indigenous Relationships

5:16

Tending Nature

How the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Study Ocean Toxicity

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The Potawot Community Garden, housed at United Indian Health Services’s facility in Arcata, California, incorporates elements of permaculture seamlessly into the center's holistic approach to healing the Earth and body. | Still from "Tending Nature"

Article

Tending Nature

The Indigenous Science of Permaculture

Indigenous people, fishermen, and climate activists protest during an oil and gas auction in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2017. | Juliana Colussi / Creative Commons

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Tending Nature

The Disproportionate Impact of Climate Change on Indigenous Communities

5:12

Tending Nature

A Brief History of How Los Angeles Dried Up Owens Valley’s ‘Indian Ditches’

Full Episodes

Episode

26:39

Tending Nature

S3 E4: Cultivating Native Foodways with the Cultural Conservancy

The Cultural Conservancy works to re-engage with the land and decolonize our foodways.

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.

“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 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 E4: Healing the Body with United Indian Health Services

A new generation is jump starting several food sovereignty programs across California.

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.