Since time immemorial the traditional lifeways of the Yakama people have been deeply rooted in the natural world. 
However, the ongoing trauma inflicted on the community has left this connection to the land fractured, with indigenous knowledge dwindling amongst many of the younger generations.
In 2020 Chief Alvarez, of the Yakama Nation Corrections & Rehabilitation Facility, was looking for ways to help the inmates reconnect to the land and plants that once shaped their culture.
Turning to the Miyawaki Method for its communal methodology and ingenuity in creating rapid-growth native forests, he contacted our SUGi forest maker Ethan Bryson.
Together with the inmates and the guidance of traditional gatherer Marylee Jones, they built the Healing Forest, with the support of SUGi.
On this episode of SUGi Talks, we speak to Marylee Jones and Ethan Bryson about the growing impact of the forest on the community there.
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