Zach Ducheneaux was appointed Administrator for USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) on February 22, 2021. In this role, Ducheneaux provides leadership and direction on agricultural policy, including the administration of FSA’s farm loan, conservation, commodity, disaster, and farm marketing programs, through a national network of offices.

Before joining the Biden-Harris Administration at USDA, Ducheneaux previously served as the Executive Director of the Intertribal Agriculture Council (IAC). He served the IAC in other roles starting in the 1990s. He has also previously served as tribal council representative for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. He has spent his career educating people about the critical role of improved food systems and value-added agriculture, all through the lens of finding ways to address enduring economic and social challenges facing Native Americans and reservations.

Ducheneaux continues to serve on the board of directors for Project H3LP!, a nonprofit founded by his family to benefit their local community by providing life lessons through horsemanship. His family still operates the 4th generation ranch on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation.

Plenary Speaker

A Conversation with Your Administrator About Filling the Gaps

An open conversation about the broad ranging work of the Biden-Harris Administration under the leadership of Secretary Vilsack, to more equitably serve all producers across all divisions and programs at the Farm Service Agency.

Plenary

Weaving a water future together- Daryl Vigil featuring Kate Zeigler

Corine Pearce is a basket weaver, herbalist, dancer, storyteller and cultural educator with ancestry from Lake and Mendocino counties in California. Corine has taught classes on basket weaving, traditional uses of native plants, land stewardship, fire ecology, and traditional ecological knowledge for over 25 years.

Corine is the author of Pomo Cradle Baskets: An Introduction, a 2020 inaugural Luce Indigenous Knowledge Fellow, is a 2020 Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award recipient, and is currently featured in the PBS program Craft in America’s “California” episode and the California Indian Conference Teaching and Learning Exhibit “California American Indian Culture and Arts Pedagogy.” Her basketry has been featured in numerous media articles, art galleries and museum exhibits, including an upcoming collaborative show at the San Francisco de Young Museum (see www.corinepearce.com). In the words of her editor, “Corine works tirelessly to revitalize local tribal arts and traditions; … her weaving heals and restores both the land and the people, connecting future generations to a living cultural identity.”

Keynote

I am the third son of my Guatemalan immigrant father and my American mother. I was born, raised and have spent all but a few years of my life in the suburbs of Albuquerque. I am beginning to actively pursue my lifelong dream of becoming a farmer and active advocate for food justice in NM after working for 10 years as a stay-at-home parent. In fall of 2020 I completed a season-long internship with the Grow the Growers Program and more recently completed a service term with Americorps Seedcorps at Road Runner Food Bank. I am ending my first season of co-farming Del Cielo farm in the South Valley. I hope to use what I have learned about my community and its food systems to further my learning, serve and give impetus to food justice advocacy and education in my community.

Plenary Panel

You’re Gonna Have to Get Creative: Stories and Strategies for the Next Generation of Land Stewards

Louis Martin, founder and CEO of Round River Resource Management, LLC a land and livestock management company dedicated to managing ranchlands and livestock for economic and ecological sustainability. Louis has been involved in the ranching industry for over forty years and became a student of holistic management in 1985. As a graduate from Texas A&M University, Louis served as the manager of the TAMU Beef Center for 18 years, before moving to eastern Utah to manage a large public lands ranch near Vernal. In 2003, Louis moved to Colorado and in 2008 founded Round River after being selected to lease and manage the Brett Gray Ranch by the Colorado State Land Board and The Nature Conservancy. Today, Round River manages of over 75,000 acres of ranch lands, using regenerative time-controlled grazing practices and livestock as tools to restore ranchlands and provide profitability to land and livestock owners while offering a pathway into ranching for aspiring agriculturist through an internship/apprenticeship/mentoring program.

Plenary Panel

You’re Gonna Have to Get Creative: Stories and Strategies for the Next Generation of Land Stewards

Jicarilla Apache Nation (enrolled), Jemez Pueblo, Zia Pueblo, currently, the Water Administrator for the Jicarilla Apache Nation, Co-facilitator Water & Tribes Initiative, currently member of Board of Trustees for the Colorado River Water Users Association, the past Chairman of the Colorado River Ten Tribes Partnership, the past Interim Executive Director and official spokesperson for the Ten Tribes Partnership, member of the Coordination Committee of the San Juan River Recovery and Restoration Project, past Secretary/Treasurer of the Colorado River Water Users Association, past Chairman of the Board of the Jicarilla Apache Utility Authority, and the past President/CEO of the Apache Nugget Corporation the Jicarilla Apache Nation’s Gaming Enterprise.

Plenary