Program

7:00 pm-8:00 pm

Welcome Reception & Cultural Celebration: Traditional Foods, Cultural performances, storytelling, building relationships and community.

Dobbins Hall

Traditional Washoe catering and cultural musicianship bring the community together in celebration and gratitude. The meal will be blessed, and elders and mothers will be served first. This is a space to reconnect, share stories, and honor the brilliance and beauty of our cultures. Featuring flutist Mignon Gelli and special guests.

5:00 pm-6:00 pm

WZGT Hosted Meal

On-site, Building TBD

A concluding meal hosted by Washiw Zulshish Goom Tahn Nu to celebrate community, kinship, and the power of coming together in purpose. Please indicate on your registration form if you plan to stay, so we can plan for the correct amount of food.

4:00 pm-5:00 pm

WZGT Dedication Ceremony

Ampitheatre

A ceremonial dedication led by Washiw Zulshish Goom Tahn Nu.

1:00 pm-3:00 pm

Choose your own field excursion

Various

1:00 pm-1:30 pm

Free time, prepare for field excursions

NA

Participants are encouraged to rest, pack, or regroup before heading into the choose-your-own afternoon experiences.

12:00 pm-1:00 pm

Lunch

Tahoe Center Dining Hall

A community meal before breaking for the afternoon workshops.

11:15 am-12:00 pm

Wrapping up and looking forward, announce field excursion meeting places

Ampitheatre

A final circle to reflect, ground, and share intentions for the path ahead. Participants will hear closing words, celebrate shared momentum, and receive instructions for the afternoon’s field excursions.

10:15 am-11:15 am

Panel: Regenerative Indigenous Sovereignty in the Sierra BioRegion

Dobbins Hall

This panel brings together legal advocates, cultural practitioners, and Indigenous knowledge holders to explore how sovereignty is being reclaimed and redefined across the Sierra Nevada bioregion. Panelists will share real-world examples of Tribal successes in treaty defense, court victories, legislative action, and cultural and ecological restoration. Topics will include land and water protection, data and knowledge return, and intergenerational capacity-building. Together, we’ll examine the legal and community-based strategies that are regenerating Tribal governance—not only as a political status, but as a lived, relational, and land-based practice.

9:30 am-10:15 am

Presentation: Indigenous Futures: Regenerative Relationships with Land and Water

Dobbins Hall

Honorable Margo Robbins brings decades of Indigenous leadership and ecological expertise rooted in Yurok cultural fire stewardship. As co‑founder and executive director of the Cultural Fire Management Council (CFMC) and co‑lead of the Indigenous Peoples’ Burn Network, Robbins has been central to reintroducing cultural fire practices through the Cultural Burn Training Exchange (TREX) on Yurok lands. Her work centers on regenerating landscapes, watersheds, and cultural lifeways through culturally grounded fire— returning agency to communities, supporting basket-weaving materials, traditional foods, biodiversity, and watershed health. Robbins will share how Yurok-led cultural burning fosters ecological resilience, strengthens tribal sovereignty, and heals relationships between land, water, and people—offering a model for regenerative Indigenous futures across the Sierra Nevada and beyond.

9:00 am-9:30 am

Presentation: Land Access, Acquisition and Ancestral Land

Dobbins Hall

Session description coming soon.

8:00 am-9:00 am

Breakfast, morning announcements, reminder to vacate rooms by 11

Tahoe Center Dining Hall

A nourishing breakfast, beginning with a Washoe-led food blessing and ending with opening announcements for the day. REMINDER - rooms must be vacated by 11 am, please plan accordingly.

7:00 am-8:00 am

Morning Movement and Sunrise Ceremony

Tahoe Center Lawn

This gentle morning session opens the body and spirit with movement, intention, and grounding. Participants are guided to reconnect with self and land in preparation for the day’s sessions.

6:00 am-7:00 am

Sunrise Bird Walk and Listen

Meet at Dobbins Hall

Begin the day in quiet reverence with a guided bird walk at first light, led by Native birders. This immersive experience invites participants to attune their senses to the songs, calls, and wingbeats of the Sierra Nevada’s avian relatives. This session will offer cultural and ecological insights into the birds of this region, sharing stories and knowledge. All are welcome—no prior birding experience needed. Bring warm layers, walking shoes, and a warm beverage. Binoculars recommended but not required.

6:00 pm-9:00 pm

Cultural Celebration, Reception, and Artisans Market

Various - Dobbins Hall Main Sponsor vendors in Dobbins Hall Native vendors in Morning Star Room Films on rotation in separate room TBD

An evening to honor the cultural wealth, leadership, and creative economies of Indigenous Peoples across the Sierra Nevada bioregion. This celebration features traditional foods, storytelling, music, and ceremony—with Native artisans offering handmade goods and wares in an Indigenous-led market and Native performances in the main Hall. Sponsor and partner vendors will also be present to deepen relationships and dialogue. A short program welcomes a company of intergenerational Tribal voices and key agency allies.

4:45 pm-6:00 pm

Free Time

NA

Informal rest time. Staff will be setting up for the evening celebration and will ask attendees to vacate Dobbins Hall during this time.

4:00 pm-4:45 pm

Indigenous-Water Sovereignty

Water is life, law, and lineage. This session brings together Indigenous water protectors and cultural leaders to speak on sacred relationships to water, Tribal water rights, and frontline resistance to extraction and dispossession. Presenters will share strategies for protecting and reclaiming water resources through regenerative practices and sovereign solutions—including watershed protection, legal advocacy, and the restoration of traditional water management systems in the Sierra Nevada bioregion. As climate pressures mount, these efforts underscore the central role of Indigenous stewardship in sustaining clean, living waters for generations to come.

3:15 pm-4:00 pm

Traditional Plants, Foods & Emergency Preparedness

Dobbins Hall

This session explores the critical role of traditional foodways and plant knowledge in emergency preparedness and climate resilience. Speakers will highlight efforts to restore access to traditional gathering areas, revitalize Indigenous agriculture, and protect seeds and biodiversity—all while strengthening Tribal capacity for wildfire response, disaster planning, and food security. Grounded in land-based practice and community leadership, this panel affirms that cultural survival and emergency services go hand in hand, and that thriving Indigenous futures require both ecological and logistical readiness.

2:45 pm-3:15 am

Afternoon Refreshment Break & Networking

NA

Refuel, connect, and stretch your legs before we return for more deep conversation and exchange.

2:00 pm-2:45 pm

Economic Sovereignty and Regenerative Development

Dobbins Hall

This session explores how regenerative development can support long-term Tribal sovereignty and self-determination. Panelists will discuss emerging models in conservation finance, philanthropic partnership, and collaborative project design that prioritize Indigenous leadership and respond to the needs of individual Tribal Nations. This conversation centers on building systems of support—from capital to capacity—that enable Tribes to lead development efforts grounded in culture, community, and care for the land. Participants will reflect on how their institutions are evolving to become better partners in this work, and how we might collectively move toward non-extractive, future-focused models of Tribal development.

1:30 pm-2:00 pm

Presentation: Ca. Indian Allotments Research Project: Indigenous Knowledge Systems as Foundation for Climate Resilience

Dobbins Hall

This presentation shares groundbreaking research into the California Indian Allotments system and its implications for climate adaptation. Nina Fontana highlights how Indigenous knowledge systems inform resilience and how policy must shift to uphold the rights, responsibilities, and wisdom of Tribal communities.

1:00 pm-1:30 pm

Free time

NA

Rest, wander, or informally connect with new friends and future collaborators.

12:00 pm-1:00 pm

Lunch – seating by region

Tahoe Center Dining Hall

A community meal with intentional regional seating to support local collaboration and kinship-building.

10:45 am-11:30 am

Indigenous Youth Movements (Nation Builders Representatives): Indigenous Youth Leadership and Resilient Sierra Futures

Dobbins Hall

Youth leaders from the Nation Builders cohort are imagining—and building—Sierra futures grounded in sovereignty, solidarity, and hope for the future. This session spotlights Indigenous youth organizing and leadership, with reflections on climate, cultural revitalization, movement-building, and what it takes to thrive in the homelands we inherit and protect.

10:30 am-10:45 am

Morning Break – Refreshments and Networking

NA

Refuel, connect, and stretch your legs before we return for more deep conversation and exchange.

9:45 am-10:30 am

Data, Language, & Knowledge Sovereignty. Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer in the Digital Age – Technology, Innovation, and Climate-Resilient Indigenous Futures and Eco-cultures

Dobbins Hall

What does it mean to protect and pass on language, data, and story in an era of climate change and digital tools? This session brings together researchers, community leaders, and practitioners to discuss how Indigenous knowledge systems are protected, transmitted, and adapted across generations. We explore how technology can support eco-cultural resilience—and where it must yield to community protocol, sovereignty, and spiritual authority.

9:00 am-9:45 am

Indigenous Guardians and Protected Lands: Guardianship vs. Ownership — Indigenous Land Management Principles

Dobbins Hall

This session explores how Indigenous Nations are reasserting their role as land guardians. Speakers will reflect on the distinction between ownership and guardianship, and the deep systems of care, law, and reciprocal responsibility that shape Indigenous land management.

8:00 am-9:00 am

Breakfast, morning announcements

Tahoe Center Dining Hall

A nourishing breakfast, beginning with a Washoe-led food blessing and ending with opening announcements for the day.

7:00 am-8:00 am

Morning Movement and Sunrise Ceremony

Tahoe Center Lawn

This gentle morning session opens the body and spirit with movement, intention, and grounding. Participants are guided to reconnect with self and land in preparation for the day’s sessions.

6:00 am-7:00 am

Bird Walk and Listen

Meet at Dobbins Hall

Begin the day in quiet reverence with a guided bird walk at first light, led by Native birders. This immersive experience invites participants to attune their senses to the songs, calls, and wingbeats of the Sierra Nevada’s avian relatives. This session will offer cultural and ecological insights into the birds of this region, sharing stories and knowledge. All are welcome—no prior birding experience needed. Bring warm layers, walking shoes, and a warm beverage. Binoculars recommended but not required.

8:00 pm-9:30 pm

Indigenous Film Night

Dobbins Hall

A curated film screening celebrating Indigenous storytelling, resistance, and vision. Films TBA.

7:00 pm-8:00 pm

Welcome Reception & Cultural Celebration: Traditional Foods, Cultural performances, storytelling, building relationships and community.

Dobbins Hall

Traditional Washoe catering and cultural musicianship bring the community together in celebration and gratitude. The meal will be blessed, and elders and mothers will be served first. This is a space to reconnect, share stories, and honor the brilliance and beauty of our cultures. Featuring flutist Mignon Gelli and special guests.

6:00 pm-7:00 am

Attendees settle in, staff prepare for evening activities

NA

Participants may use this time to rest, explore the grounds, or connect informally. Staff will use this hour to prepare for the evening’s reception in Dobbins Hall so we will ask the space to be cleared during this time.

5:10 pm-6:00 pm

Introductions: What Does Indigenous Futures Leadership Look Like to You

Dobbins Hall

This participatory session invites attendees to introduce themselves to the space and to each other, and to reflect on their own roles and responsibilities as leaders—whether as culture bearers, advocates, artists, knowledge keepers, or kin. Through story and conversation, we begin to build a shared understanding of leadership rooted in Indigenous values, accountability, and relationships to land and community.

5:00 pm-5:10 am

Program Announcements

Dobbins Hall

A brief overview of what’s ahead for the Summit weekend, special ongoing elements like the healing lounge, Artisan’s Market, Mothers lounge, elders lounge, children’s program, housekeeping notes, and special program announcements.

4:30 pm-5:00 pm

Grounding and Vision Setting, acknowledges Sponsoring Nations – Remarks from Tribal Leadership (SSBMI, CTVCT, OVIWC, WR) Overview of Summit Vision and Intent, Intergenerational Voices

Dobbins Hall

We gather to articulate the shared vision that brings us together. Indigenous Futures Society ICEO Brian Wallace will offer remarks on the ancestral governance systems that still guide us, the return of Indigenous lands and languages, and the Sierra as a biocultural sacred space. Tribal leadership and participants will share reflections as we begin this Summit in a spirit of regeneration, unity, and hope for thriving futures.

4:00 pm-4:30 pm

Opening Ceremony and Welcome

Dobbins Hall

Washoe Elders and Knowledge Bearers will offer an opening blessing to ground us in Wá∙šiw homelands. We are welcomed by Washoe Tribal Chairman Honorable Serrell Smokey.

2:30 pm-4:00 pm

Registration, Lodging Check-in, and Refreshments and Networking on the lawn

Registration and lodging at front office, networking at the Tahoe Center lawn

This time allows attendees to check in, settle into the space, check-in to lodging if staying on-site (after 3 pm), and begin connecting with one another. Light refreshments will be available, along with a cultural welcome display and resource materials. This is also an opportunity to network and explore the outdoor gathering areas before the evening program begins.

1:00 pm-3:00 am

Nation Builders Gathering at the Summit

Amphitheatre

Emerging leaders from across the Sierra region come together to share stories, strategies, and dreams for the future, to catalyze Indigenous-led transformation in the Sierra Nevada bioregion. Designed by Nation Builders for Nation Builders, this session honors the knowledge, questions, and commitments that young Natives carry, inviting participants to build community, explore pathways of leadership, and express what it means to be accountable to land, ancestors, and future generations.

12:00 pm-1:00 pm

Lunch: Nation Builders Gathering

Tahoe Center Dining Hall

A shared meal in the Tahoe Center Dining Hall for young leaders (age 18-30) attending the Nation Builders Gathering, offering space to begin cultivating relationships in a relaxed setting. This lunch sets the tone for intergenerational exchange, trust-building, and visioning work that continues throughout the Summit.