Written & Photo Storytelling
Words that move to action, images that inspire revolution.
Isaiah Branch-Boyle | Micheli Oliver | Allison Woolfe | Joe Whittle | Paul Wilson
Year
2021-2022
In 2021 and 2022 we partnered with the Wilderness Society to support their storytelling on critical landscapes with indigenous photographers and storytellers.
The story of conservation has often been told through a limited set of lenses, largely from the perspective of non-Indigenous people. While these viewpoints have been formative, they omit information and values that are key to protecting landscapes for generations to come. In this series of photo essays, we highlight Indigenous voices and ask: What more could we learn when the stories we share are told from a multitude of perspectives? - Dr. Len Necefer
Click on the image to view the photoessays
Oak Flat is No Sacrifice Zone,
Patagonia’s Cleanest Line
Tommy Caldwell | Tara Kerzhner | Lydia Jennings | Aaron Mike | Len Necefer
Year
2021
In April 2021, we visited Oak Flat in central Arizona - a sacred place to the local apache tribe and a location slated for a copper mine. In our time here we explored the complexities of copper demand in light of our “green” energy future. Our story dove into the complexities of indigenous peoples, mining, and recreation.
As a Navajo person growing up in the Southwest, I have seen the effects of settler-colonial mining practices that continue to ripple through my own community . . . The federal government codified these land grabs with the General Mining Law of 1872. There are no provisions to address environmental protection; there are no royalty provisions included for tribes or the federal government; and there is no protection for tribal interests or consultation. - Dr. Len Necefer
Click on the image to read the story
Cold Smoke, Hot Shot,
Patagonia’s Cleanest Line
Micheli Oliver | Connor Ryan | Evan Greene | Peter Gannon
Year
2021
Peter Gannon is a firekeeper, even if he doesn’t know it. Whether fighting wildfires or working as a ski patroller in Red Lodge, Montana, “Petey” applies Indigenous knowledge to care for the land and the people. It’s a role he’s still learning, one embedded in heritage, place and environment. NativesOutdoors Athletes Connor Ryan @sacredstoke and Micheli Oliver joined Petey to understand the dichotomy in which he exists.
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Water is Life,
Alpinist 71
Len Necefer | Connor Ryan | Micheli Oliver | Isaiah Branch-Boyle | Denali Chase-Hodgdon | Aisha Weinhold | Forrest Shearer | Taylor Boyd | Aaron Mike
Year
2020
“As I climbed and skied over rapidly receding snowfields, the journeys felt akin to doing final rounds of visits with my elders who are sick and soon to walk on into the next world.”
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2021 Banff Mountain Book Competition Finalist
Exploring an Epic Colorado River During Record-Breaking Drought,
National Geographic
Peter McBride | Len Necefer | Isaiah Branch-Boyle
Year
2021
Peter Mcbride, National Geographic photographer, and Len pack-rafted the Yampa River in record-low water for National Geographic. Our goal was to travel the last 50 miles (80 km) of the river through Dinosaur National Monument to see how even a wild river inside a national park was struggling to stay wet. The trip would foreshadow what might come for western rivers as the climate changes. With only a few small dams and diversions, the 250-mile-long (400 km) Yampa is one of just a few free-flowing rivers in the United States and the longest in Colorado. The journey was eye-opening, even for someone like me who has spent years looking at water shortage. But it was also hopeful, as I learned how creative collaboration can keep a river alive—barely.
Click on the image to read the story.
2Seekseekqua on the Line of Climate Change,
Patagonia’s Cleanest Line
Len Necefer | Forrest Shearer | Josh Dirksen | Tyler Roemer
Year
2021
The case for readopting Indigenous fire management practices.
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Sounds of Ceremony: The Future of Sacred Landscapes,
The Alpinist 75
Len Necefer | Isaiah Branch-Boyle | Connor Ryan | Aaron Mike
Year
2021
“Those sounds of ceremony, of the ceremonial rattle created by the snow, echoing from the couloir walls on Dibe Nitsaa, still fill my ears many years later. The top of the couloir appeared more quickly than I had expected. The rhythmic compression of my ski boots into the snow, the strain of every step, the labor of every breath—these sensations mirrored earlier experiences created in sweat lodges. This mountain, just like those ceremonies, taught me that relegating the pain and tiredness to the background and focusing on the small victories of each movement upward would get me through any obstacle.”
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An Indigenous Take on the COVID-19 Crisis on the Navajo Nation,
National Geographic
Țara Kerzhner | Len Necefer
Year
2020
Tara Kerzhner & Len Necefer partnered on a grant from National Geographic to bring indigenous perspectives on the COVID-19 crisis on the Navajo Nation.
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The Summit that Never Melts,
Patagonia’s Cleanest Line
Len Necefer | Forrest Shearer | Greg Balkin | Connor Ryan | Aaron Mike
Year
2018
Rising from the desert north of Flagstaff, Arizona, the 12,633-foot Dookʼoʼoosłííd (also known as Humphreys Peak) is the highest point in the state and the tallest summit in the San Francisco Peaks mountain range. Over the past few decades, it’s also become a nexus for a whole gamut of controversies, from the impacts of climate change, the ever-increasing pressures on water supplies, the role of the outdoor recreation industry in conservation, and decades-old conflicts between current land managers’ priorities and indigenous peoples’ ancestral rights. As tensions build, these local battles no longer apply to just the Southwest; they’ve come to encapsulate larger issues playing out across the entirety of the North American West. We partnered with Patagonia Athlete and Forrest Shearer to tell this story.
Patagonia Snow Story of the Year
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Desert Rustle: Cochise Stronghold,
Climbing Magazine
Krista Karlson | Len Necefer | Gabriel Ellison Scowcroft | Aaron Mike
Year
2019
Krista Karlson and Dr. Len Necefer tell the story of Navajo climbing guide Aaron Mike as he explores the intricate web of history, stewardship, and climbing in Cochise Stronghold, Arizona. We were joined by photographer Gabriel Ellison Scowcroft for this story.
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