Decolonizing Education with White Mountain Apaches

Due to funding cuts affecting key community partners, we are consolidating this project with Highland Support Project's Deep Ecology Education Program (DEEP). This is a reorganization, not a discontinuation. The educational framework, partnerships, and community relationships built through this work will continue through the merged program.

Program Purpose

Decolonizing Education with the White Mountain Apache Nation was developed to address historical and climate trauma through an educational model that goes beyond information transfer. The program builds climate capability — combining ecological knowledge, emotional resilience, practical skills, and civic agency — through learning that is participatory, place-based, and culturally grounded.

Research consistently shows that young people benefit most from education that validates their concerns, connects them to living ecosystems, and offers meaningful pathways for action. This program was designed to deliver exactly that.

Building the Network and Program Model

The core work of this project has been developing the partnerships, curriculum, and implementation infrastructure needed to scale this model. Key elements of that network include:

• White Mountain Apache partners, including the White Mountain Healing Coalition and tribal hydrologist Cheryl Pailzote, whose work in community restoration and ancestral hydrology forms the cultural and ecological foundation of the curriculum
• Off-grid sustainability practitioners at Akoshoa Farms, offering hands-on learning in soil health, renewable energy, and regenerative land stewardship
• Higher education partners at Prescott College, connecting the program to academic frameworks, environmental studies, and pathways toward lifelong stewardship

Together, these partnerships form a learning network that enables the program's experiential and relational model.

Looking Ahead

The consolidation with HSP's Deep Ecology Education Program ensures this work continues under sustainable conditions. The relationships, curriculum, and implementation framework developed through this project carry forward. We remain committed to our partners and to the mission that brought us together — and we are grateful to everyone who has contributed to building it.