SEVIGNY: They'll measure those oaks, check for disease and search the ground for new seedlings. SOUTHER: But if you look around on the trees, any Emory oaks should have a tag. SEVIGNY: Plant ecologist Sara Souther checks on the research site with a group of students and Apache tribal members. SARA SOUTHER: Yeah, so this is one of our first treatment areas. Now scientists are collecting the first data to see how the oaks are faring. SEVIGNY: That work began on the Tonto National Forest last year. Instead, the Forest Service decided to clear unnaturally thick brush from groves the council selected. ![]() A tribal council established to advise the group said they didn't want to plant trees in new locations, since some Apaches believe the Creator placed the oak groves where they're meant to be. It's grown to include five Apache tribes. SEVIGNY: A partnership to save the trees was started in 2018 between the Dil'zhe'e Apache, the Forest Service and ecologists at Northern Arizona University. It's like, you know, living things on the landscape, like the plants that tribes need access to and the trees. LYNDON: Well, this conversation really helped us say, oh, well, it's not just the dead stuff. SEVIGNY: Lyndon says the Forest Service usually thinks of cultural resources as historic objects, like petroglyphs or pottery. NANEBAH LYNDON: Initially, the Forest Service reaction was like, well, what about them? Nanebah Lyndon is a tribal liaison for the agency. In the 2000s, they brought their concerns to the U.S. That began almost 30 years ago, when Apache elders started to notice a lack of new oak seedlings. SEVIGNY: Randall is the cultural manager for the Yavapai-Apache Nation and a leader in the effort to preserve the Emory oak. And whatever you ate - gravy, whatever - you just flavored it with it. RANDALL: When I was growing up, the acorn was out here just like your salt and pepper on the dining room table. He'd gather them with his mother and watch as she ground them to powder. SEVIGNY: The acorns were a big part of Randall's childhood. So she said, we'd sneak off on a moonlit night and pick acorns. But she said, we still wanted our own food. ![]() VINCENT RANDALL: Now, in those days, they couldn't leave the reservation because they'd get hunted down and shot. In the late 1800s, she and other Dil'zhe'e Apache were confined on a reservation far from their ancestral lands, where she told him they were given government rations to eat. ![]() MELISSA SEVIGNY, BYLINE: When he was a child, Apache elder Vincent Randall heard about the vital cultural importance of Emory oak acorns from his grandmother. As Melissa Sevigny with member station KNAU reports, Apache tribes are leading an initiative to try to save them. The trees' acorns have long been a source of food for the Apache peoples in the region. Emory oak trees are dying in Arizona, stricken by drought, climate change and decades of fire suppression and cattle grazing.
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