THE COLORADO PLATEAU

Today, one-third of the Colorado Plateau lies within the sovereign lands of 11 different Native American tribes. The power of Native American tribes as sovereign nations, as governments that oversee over a third of the Colorado Plateau’s lands, and as the original stewards of this landscape renders Native leadership necessary to achieve any meaningful and authentic change on the Colorado Plateau.

Tribal names on the Colorado Plateau are familiar, and some are less known. Here you will find the Hopi, Navajo, Ute, Apache, Havasupai, Hualapai, Zuni, Tewa, and Acoma. The Colorado Plateau houses eight of the nine counties in the United States with the highest percentage of Native language speakers. The only outlier is the Bethel Census Area in Alaska (Language fluency levels among Plateau tribes make the transmission of traditional knowledge remarkably well-maintained. Unfortunately, this region, the crucible of American high altitude and dryland agriculture with 600 generations of land-based knowledge, a place of consistent and enduring tradition, is alarmingly unrecognized and misunderstood by so many.

In 2019 CPF initiated a communication and outreach program to elevate grantee stories and advance the perspectives and influence of the Native peoples of the Plateau on a national stage. Additionally, our CEO’s 45 years of experience in cultural resources, land and water conservation, and philanthropy positions him as a thought leader on many matters related to Native America.