Tomie grew up, and currently resides on, a cattle ranch near Parade, SD. Tomie is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. She is a graduate of Black Hills State University and joined Intertribal Agriculture Council from Dacotah Bank in Mobridge, SD where she was an Agriculture Banker. In this setting, She developed a trained eye for Ag Lending and Finance. In her technical assistance capacity with the IAC, she has advocated on behalf of Tribal producers for fair and equitable financing, functional access to USDA programming, and innovative business structures. In her new role with the American Indian Foods Program, she uses her knowledge to help business expand into the global marketplace. Tomie enjoys working in the Ag industry and helping producers succeed and hope her efforts aid in strengthening Native American economies.

Plenary Panel

Food Production and Value-added Strategies in These Changing Times

Amber Smith has been living and working in rural America her entire adult life, beginning at The Home Ranch in Colorado, where she worked as a wrangler. She was Director of Activities for a rural nursing home in Nebraska, and developed riding programs for 4-H youth. Over the past eight years in Eastern Montana, she has been writing and editing works regarding Holistic Management. She currently serves on her local school board, the Council on Aging and Big Dry Transit boards of Garfield County and is a board member of the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance. She and her husband are raising their two children and working to steward a 53,000-acre ranch, Antelope Springs, near Cohagen, Montana. Her passion revolves around working with others to build a future in which rural families thrive. The Western Landowners Alliance Women in Ranching program has most recently provided her a platform on which to continue rural community building through supporting feminine leadership on the large working landscapes of the American West.

@women.in.ranching
@westernlandowners
@onland_magazine

Plenary Panel

New Agrarian Panel

Emily is the Natural Resources Director for the Intertribal Agriculture Council. She grew up in rural Northern California in a sustainable subsistence farming and ranching environment. She attended Connecticut College where she double majored in Environmental Studies and Anthropology. After college she attended Flinders University of South Australia where she obtained a Masters Degree in Environmental Management and a second Bachelors Degree in Education. Emily has worked in a variety of jobs and most recently has spent nine years managing Tribal Environmental Programs in California and Nevada and assisting other Tribes in a variety of capacities related to Natural Resources, Hazard Mitigation, water quality, evaluating and applying traditional practices, climate change planning, outreach, and Environmental Sustainability. Emily’s work with the Intertribal Agriculture Council focuses on outreach, sustainability, climate change, water resources, regeneration, and food sovereignty.

Plenary Panel

Food Production and Value-added Strategies in These Changing Times

Our family owns and operates Cachuma Ranch in Dolores, CO. We raise criollo and angus cattle on rangelands and limited irrigated pastures. We finish cattle at 28+ months of age and sell grass-finished beef at farmers markets and through a local co-op. Our goal is to find the healthy balance between grazing native landscapes, managing for wildlife, and producing high-quality beef.

Plenary Panel

Heritage, Indigenous, and Unique Livestock Breeds

Latashia Redhouse is an enrolled member of the Diné Nation and was raised in southeastern Utah. She graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Journalism with an emphasis in Corporate Communications at Utah State University. She has spent years supporting organizations with marketing strategies and guidance, and is excited to serve the Native American farmer-entrepreneurs and business owners. Her passion is to inspire Indigenous professionals and offer solutions to help grow their business.

Plenary Panel

Food Production and Value-added Strategies in These Changing Times

Darryl grew up on a diversified family farm in Nazareth, TX. After completing degrees in college studies, philosophy, and religious studies, he was ordained a Catholic priest in 1988. He worked in predominantly Spanish-speaking parishes for the next 14 years. In 2002, Darryl completed a Ph.D. in social ethics from The Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. His dissertation is entitled, “From Colonization to Holism: Reconstructing an Ethical Method for U.S. Agricultural Ethics”. Soon after, Darryl followed a new road to Ogallala Commons, a nonprofit education and leadership organization, where he has been Executive Director since 2003. Darryl and his wife, Joann Starr, live in Nazareth, TX.

Plenary Panel

Working with the Impacts of Drought during Climate Change