JOSEPH — Wallowa County landowners are invited to attend a free information session to learn about first foods and Indigenous land stewardship from 4-6 p.m. Friday, March 31, in Joseph.

The Landowner Information Session will be held at The Place, 301 S. Lake St. in Joseph. The event is free and open to the public, with refreshments provided.

People interested in attending are asked to RSVP to sarah@wallowalandtrust.org. People seeking more information about the event can send an email to the same address.

Attendees will have a chance to hear directly from tribal members and local landowners who are providing access for traditional root gathering on their land.

This information session is part of the larger Wallowa Gathering Event hosted annually by Wallowa Land Trust.

For the past four years, Wallowa Land Trust has worked with local partners like The Nature Conservancy and Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland to host Indigenous root gatherers in Wallowa County. The goal of this annual event is to provide tribal members with access to lands to gather their traditional first foods and medicines. Relationship building is another key goal of this project.

“We hope to create opportunities for landowners to meet tribal members and learn about traditional land stewardship such as root gathering,” said Kathleen Ackley, executive director of the trust. “From firsthand experience, I can attest that these relationships — with Indigenous gatherers and with the land — have been transformational. For local landowners who want to see their land thrive for many generations, this is a workshop not to be missed.”

The Nez Perce people have stewarded the Northeast Oregon landscape since time immemorial. For millennia, Indigenous people carefully tended to the animals, fish and roots through hunting, fishing and gathering. Even after the Nez Perce’s forced removal from the Wallowa Valley in 1877, the tribe retained rights to access traditional foods and medicines. However, many of the traditional gathering grounds are now privately owned, creating a barrier for Indigenous people to practice their heritage.

“Gatherers bringing their children to the Wallowa homelands to develop relationships is important because this hasn’t been done at this scale since displacement,” said Nez Perce tribal member A.J. Whiteplume-TwoMoons.

Whiteplum-Two Moons’ ancestors gathered roots such as cous, camas, bitterroot and wild carrot throughout what is now Northeast Oregon. Many of these species still grow in Wallowa County, but most roots found on private property have not been tended to by Indigenous gatherers for multiple generations. The Wallowa Gathering Event aims to change that.

The March 31 Landowner Information Session kicks off this year’s Wallowa Gathering event.

“The Landowner Information Session will be a chance for local landowners to learn firsthand about this project and gauge whether they’d like to be involved,” Ackley said.

The information session is geared toward landowners within Wallowa County with at least 5 acres of land. Attending the informational session does not obligate landowners to participate in the gathering event.