Indigenous-led conservation is increasingly becoming a cornerstone of the race to save nature in North America. Hard evidence confirms the important role Indigenous communities play in protecting biodiversity and combatting climate change. At the same time, practitioners and policymakers are progressively recognizing the critical importance of Indigenous leadership—and its moral underpinnings—to effective conservation
In our role as a convener, capacity-builder, and incubator of conservation excellence, the Salazar Center actively supports and creates space for the development of better collaborative relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous practitioners and leaders to ensure more durable biological and cultural outcomes.
What is an Indigenous Engagement Workshop?
An Indigenous Engagement Workshop is a specialized, culturally immersive training designed to cultivate a deep understanding of Indigenous engagement, from an Indigenous perspective. Led by Indigenous practitioners, this experience offers a unique blend of experiential learning, cultural immersion, and pragmatic tools for building productive and meaningful relationships with Indigenous peoples. Participants—who may include policymakers, practitioners, and leaders—learn new conceptual frameworks, such as “Ethical Space,” for resolving conflict, co-developing visions, and fostering dialogue between Indigenous and Western worldviews. The goal is to equip individuals and organizations with the knowledge of Indigenous history, culture, law, and protocol to effectively tackle the challenge of reconciliation and achieve more durable outcomes for people and nature in any landscape or community.
The Salazar Center for North American Conservation is proud to partner with and co-host these workshops with the Indigenous Engagement Institute (IEI). The IEI maintains ownership of the core, expert content and curriculum, which is grounded in their decades of on-the-ground, in-the-relationship experience. The Salazar Center’s role is to facilitate the delivery of this world-class training in specific geographic areas or around critical topics—such as land use, conservation, or water management—where practitioners and communities need to deepen and enhance their engagement with Indigenous communities. This partnership model ensures the training’s foundation is rooted in Indigenous expertise while allowing for localized relevance and broad applicability across diverse landscapes and watersheds.
Gwen Bridge and James Rattling Leaf from the Indigenous Engagement Institute presented a session on Ethical Space at the Salazar Center’s 2023 International Symposium on Conservation Impact.
“This workshop gave me important strategies for how to work with the multitude of different Indigenous groups who are stakeholders and important participants in ecosystem conservation. It also gave me a better understanding of the way Indigenous groups see themselves in relation to ecosystems—much more as an intrinsic part rather than separate as most European philosophies approach it.”
The Colorado River Basin: Indigenous Knowledge for our collective futures
August 25–28, 2025, in Florissant Colorado
In summer 2025, the Salazar Center and the IEI hosted the workshop, “The Colorado River Basin: Indigenous Knowledge for our collective futures,” focused on building the capacity of non-Indigenous leaders to strengthen collaborative relationships within this critical watershed. The workshop focused on conceptual frameworks and strategies to advance reconciliation and achieve durable conservation goals in the face of immense environmental, social, and community challenges. Participants learned about the impacts of historical and contemporary laws and policies and explored how Western worldviews and Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge differ, providing them with the tools and knowledge necessary to overcome cultural differences, navigate negotiations, and engage in respectful, reciprocal dialogue using the framework of Ethical Space.
The Colorado River Basin was specifically chosen for this partnership due to its profound significance and complexity, as it provides water to more than 40 million people across seven states and 26 Tribal Nations. The landscape presents an acute case study where, despite their long history and significant yet often unquantified water rights, Tribal Nations have historically been excluded from key water-related decision-making processes. The pressure of drought and climate change makes building stronger, more equitable partnerships critical to charting a sustainable path forward. The Salazar Center—in partnership with the IEI which provided the expert, experience-based curriculum—hosted this targeted capacity-building effort, ensuring the training incorporated river-specific issues and tribal perspectives to meet the urgent needs of the basin.
This workshop was made possible with support from the Walton Family Foundation, Gates Family Foundation, Mighty Arrow Family Foundation, Colorado Water Conservation Board, and Great Outdoors Colorado.
Read the guest blog by Jessica Thrasher: Reflections from the Indigenous Engagement Institute →
Resources from the workshop
- Colorado’s Outdoor Strategy*
“This workshop truly enriched my life, let alone my work on natural resource issues in the West. The content, setting and people were so well curated that I was affected emotionally, physically, spiritually and mentally all week long. I emerged exhausted but inspired and with tools to take action.”
“This workshop was extraordinary! To be able to learn Indigenous knowledge from an Indigenous perspective was beyond my expectations. I learned so much and feel honored to apply these lessons to deepen and enrich my relationships with Indigenous communities.”
Future opportunities
The Salazar Center recognizes that the need to strengthen relationships with Indigenous peoples is not unique to a single place. Many different landscapes, watersheds, and communities across North America could significantly benefit from similar education and training. The core teachings from this workshop, focused on Indigenous knowledge, Ethical Space, and cross-cultural engagement, are intentionally designed to be widely applicable to other regions and cultural contexts.
We are eager to support growing national and international commitments to Indigenous-led conservation and the co-creation of conservation outcomes by helping more non-Indigenous partners build their capacity and toolset. We believe this proven model, leveraging the expert content and training from the Indigenous Engagement Institute, is a powerful tool for advancing meaningful reconciliation and achieving more durable ecological and cultural results. If your organization, community, or funder is interested in reproducing one of these intensive training workshops with local partners and stakeholders in a new landscape, we welcome the opportunity to discuss a collaboration. If you’d like to learn more, please reach out to Jen Kovecses, Assistant Director of Programs, at [email protected].