The Desert has a Memory

Ashley Hemmers
Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, Tribal Administrator
Ashley is an enrolled member of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, a Federally Recognized Indian Tribe, whose reservation spans the states of California, Arizona, & Nevada. She is the Tribal Administrator for her Nation with specialization in multi-state cross-jurisdictional development & management of Tribal economies and government. She holds over 15 years of experience in Tribal enterprising & operational development, with emphasis in sovereign fiscal & capital wealth strategies, Nevada gaming, and public service operations. Ashley holds a B.A. from Yale University, and a Graduate Certificate in Non-Profit Management & Masters of Public Administration from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She enjoys creating dialogue with Tribal Nations & federal/state partners, as well as sharing content that amplifies indigenous voices in the areas of business management, social policy, and climate action. Follow her on Instagram @tribalreclamation.
Transcript:
foreign
good morning everybody how are you guys
doing today
good
yeah so my name is Ashley hemmers
of Eco Manwich
so one of the things that I’m going to
do is share with you about the desert
and its memory
um I’m Mojave I’m from Avi Kwame which
is Spirit Mountain which is about 40
minutes south of here right in the
Desert Canyon that the the last speaker
was talking about I believe we have some
slides that are coming up right
and so I wanted to talk a little bit
about
um co-stewardship place and position
because when we think about Coast
stewardship we do the things that we
think about in terms of building
relationships with nature and building
relationships that can help us engage
and live with it
this this slide area shows where I’m
actually from it shows Avi Kwame
and it’s a large expansive place and for
Mojave people we believe we came from
that mountain and so for
people of the river we believe that we
were built out of the clay in the mud of
the Colorado River and that the
mountains and the animals and the
relatives were all here before us and so
the plants the birds the insects the
Scorpions The Gila monsters all of those
things are part of my natural landscape
my natural habitat and one of the things
that we do from a very young age for our
children is we teach them those things
when they’re small we teach them how
small they are in comparison of their
natural landscape of their natural being
and we share it through indigenous
ecological knowledge through shared
story so that when they grow they have
deeper conversations about what their
interaction with their environment means
and how that’s impacting everything we
have to live around and so I’m going to
take you down a little bit of
positionality in terms of what we what
we can think of when we think of the
history of the Mojave Desert there’s
three pictures here they’re kind of
small but we’re going to talk a little
bit about the vanishing Indian Sin City
and the Antiquities act so around the
turn of the 20th century there was this
notion called The Vanishing Indian there
were so many people moving into the
American southwest that
we didn’t know if mojave’s or other
people who look like me were going to be
around because of assimilation because
of interaction because of policies meant
to hurt my people because of policies
meant to remove my people those are
things that are part of American history
and so the first picture is a picture
from the Library of Congress from and
it’s entitled Musa which is Mojave girl
and it’s from a uh a very well-known
historical photographer of Native
Americans called Edward S Curtis and
when we think of the vanishing Southwest
and the vanishing natives of the
Southwest
oftentimes this picture of the Mojave
girl is posted but one of the things
that we like to tell people or share
with our friends is that Musa
was actually an entrepreneur
she was a businesswoman the railroad is
close to where my Village is and so when
Edward S Curtis
um made his way to Mojave territory he
was looking for people who look like me
and at that time we did what we did what
we do now we go to coffee shops we go to
Railroad stations we have cell phones we
weren’t set aside into our Villages not
uh knowing that there were other folks
who were there so when we think of these
Indian territories we have to think of
them not as separatists but as engaged
ways of people interacting with one
another and building those relationships
and so for him
his his vision of capturing the Mojave
people is actually asking someone hey
would you dress up in your regalia would
you wear your regalia so I can take a
picture of you because at the beginning
of the 20th century it was a scare that
there would be no more mojave’s in the
way that we were living before then
fast forward 100 years and I’m still
here dressed as a Mobby living on my
homelands right so people don’t really
know too much right
needless to say that second picture is
very instrumental for Las Vegas because
that’s a picture of the Fremont depot
which is the railroad station a couple
blocks from here so when we think about
the place and the position of the desert
there were people migrating into the
desert 100 years ago 150 years ago and
we were having these same discussions
about the vanishing Indian in the
environment and what Revolution or
Industrial Revolution or technology was
going to do with it
the the final picture there is of
President Theodore Roosevelt who signed
the Antiquities act has anyone ever
heard of the Antiquities act probably in
like eighth grade government right
and what the Antiquities act did was
that it allowed the federal government
to protect large Parcels of public land
for public trust and that’s something
very familiar with Indian communities
because when we made our negotiations
with the federal government when we
became government to government
um when we built our government to
government relationship with the federal
government the federal government told
us that hey we will put these lands in
Trust
as part of the United States and we will
protect them in the way so that we can
keep them stable for the whole country
right and so for us we’re like okay cool
they’re in trust we’re still going to
have this conversation and so the
Antiquities act came about because those
public trust lands were then looked at
as a place for easily establishing
development in what looks like
non-existent parent land right hey
government can I put something here to
help develop a railroad to help develop
technology to help develop energy and so
in this conversation of the vanishing
Indian
Sin City coming to be and also the
Antiquities act what ended up happening
was that
through that Act Congress said well wait
a minute before we start releasing all
of these lands right not having a
conversation like hey we made we made
agreements with tribal governments but
before we start releasing all these
lands for development maybe we need to
protect those that have a cultural or a
scientific or a physical
or physically special to what it is that
is America
and so this Joshua tree is the largest
Joshua Tree in the state of Nevada
and it is located only 30 minutes south
of where we are right here now Joshua
trees take two to three inches of water
a year
this Joshua tree is 24 feet high so it’s
a two-story Joshua Tree
28 feet wide
and so from what we can understand about
this Joshua tree is that it’s around 96
to 150 years old
and when we think about how
we protect things like this we use it
with the Antiquities Act is it cultural
for me as a Mojave woman that’s medicine
to me
we teach our children how to use its
roots so that they can heal it provides
a shade and culturally we have stories
about the resilience it takes to live in
the desert
32 species of birds live in the Joshua
tree from our stories 32 birds all at
once and so when we think about the
cultural significance yes there’s a
cultural significance when we think
about the scientific significance how
did a Joshua tree live for 150 years and
one of the most drought-ridden areas in
the American southwest and be
undiscovered until 2020
right so when we think about the memory
of the desert the desert has so many
secrets and when you are building a
relationship with the desert it allows
you to build that memory with it because
our short period of time is this small
in comparison to everything else that
the desert protects
a Joshua tree is one of the younger
trees in the Mojave Basin mesquites can
grow even older Willow Cottonwood they
all build there and so when you think
about people people’s time frame within
that environment are very small and
that’s what we teach our little guys
when they’re growing up so we tell them
when you walk with the land know that
you’re only a visitor because people or
our relatives are Joshua Tree relatives
are going to be here much longer than
you
so think about the responsibility that
you have
to help them continue their Journey with
the desert when you are long gone when
your children are here when your
grandchildren are here
now the third aspect of the Antiquities
act because we hit culture we hit
science is physicality right the
position
can we use this act to protect a 150
year old tree you know for for many
people you know when they look at a tree
they’re like well we’ll just grow
another one yeah in 150 years on two and
three inches of water that’s pretty hard
to do right and so what we know as
indigenous knowledge and some people
call you know aspects of its science is
that people we can move right we can use
our arms and our legs to move away from
all of the things that don’t necessarily
have to harm people
and for indigenous communities who have
been found to have been Protectors of 80
percent of the remaining world’s
biodiversity 80 percent in the world are
protected by indigenous cultures and
peoples like
minecuff people of the river people who
understand not why they know that the
river is important but people who have
stories and history that remind us that
we are younger siblings of that river
that we are caretakers of that River and
that we have a responsibility and you
might feel a calling towards that you
might feel a calling towards that when
you come to my homelands and go into the
canyons and visit the Grand Canyon visit
the Havasupai in the Hualapai who
continue to live there in an indigenous
way and then come South through the
canyon through Black Mountain who
continue to to Steward that land to have
the relationship with that land and the
easiest way that I can help explain that
is for a parent to a child that’s what
stewarding is not that we are the parent
but that the Earth is our parent it
gives us life without water we don’t
have life without the sun we don’t have
warmth
these are realistic tangible things in
indigenous mindsets that still continue
to be taught in my homelands throughout
and this is why I’m here sharing it with
you
so I wanted to give you a little
framework because when I’m not taking
pictures of Joshua trees I am a policy
provider and Advocate and I also work
with my nation to help continue these
conversations with the federal
government because one of the things we
know about American society is that we
grow at a rapid rate and so sometimes we
forget those agreements that we’ve made
with governments like mine and we forget
the responsibility that those agreements
hold for protecting the things that we
all can hold and Trust together and so I
call it leading with Merit and the first
part is identifying where you fit in it
me where am I do I have good medicine am
I walking in a good way do I know my
environment do I know where I’m living
do I know the resources I use do I know
how I got here do I know who lived here
also do I know if that is you know
sacred land if it’s not sacred land if
it’s common use these are things that
that we have to think about if we’re
going to lead with Merit the second part
of that Target is to reclaim all right
so sometimes when we have dialogues
about the environment it becomes so big
that it’s like what am I supposed to do
to help this situation I don’t take a
straw right all that’s that’s my I won’t
do that or I’ll recycle I’ll do that but
you have to remember that even though
America is so big it’s also based on the
premise of that individual and so when
you reclaim your voice in that then you
can ask your leaders what they think
about protecting these spaces are they
protecting spaces with cultural physical
or scientific
necessity are they interested in that do
they know about these things that’s how
we can engage together and when we start
to reclaim that process then guess what
leaders who are responsible for looking
at policy
who are responsible for leading to
overcome something when you’re driven
with a goal you’re often tunnel vision
right you’re often thinking how do I get
to that next step but for people who are
working in an indigenous mindset you
have to slow that down and open not only
to think about how I’m getting to that
goal but how that goal is affecting and
impact the people that I live with how
is it impacting the people that rely on
the land that we’re using and how is it
impacting the people or the animals the
plants the birds how is it impacting
them all right
and when we get there it becomes less of
a this or that and more of a how do we
do this and that’s why we’re here having
events like this because we’re talking
and we’re sharing about how we do that
and one of the ways that we can is
through impacts by asking leaders to
think about how they’re reclaiming their
place and their responsibility with
those older agreements to protect this
land and to Steward it alongside one
another
as a Mojave woman I know that America is
not going anywhere
all right we made agreements with
America
made agreements with us
and so now we have to move beyond that
and talk about how we’re going to make
those agreements work
and that’s when we get to transform when
we finally reclaim our place in the
process when we talk about how our
actions impact our everything around us
and our environments in our communities
then we can have transformative
conversation of whether or not this is
the right thing to do whether or not
we’re going to be able to come together
and protect it together
and then we will finally be able to have
that conversation of whether or not
we’re a true friend of the desert this
picture was put in the LA Times I love
this picture and it was recently posted
in 2022 but is a place called Avi Kwame
it’s a sacred place to my people my
people believe that we came from this
mountain but the picture doesn’t just
depict Mojave leaders or Mojave women
it’s a picture of an ecologist of a
Mojave of a cultural preservationist of
a policy leader of an athlete of an
intern of a volunteer and of media and
so if we can come together around this
space then the desert might remember us
as friends
and if we live in a meritorious way and
understand our place and position with
our environment then we can Coast
Steward it together
thank you so much for your time today I
really appreciate it
[Music]