Restorations in Progress

Healing a Dysfunctional Watershed, New Mexico

Restoring an Extinct Marsh, Nevada

NEW!
Restoring a Desert Meadow

Sustaining Navajo Pastoralism

Tom Bean photo Jaclyn Yazzie doesn't usually herd sheep in the traditional dress her mother wove and sewed for her, but she did for these photos for EcoResults!

Sustaining Navajo Pastoralism

Even though the Ram Exchange doesn’t fit the usual mold of an EcoResults! project (It’s not a direct ecosystem restoration) it has been included here because it promotes several of our goals. It helps to maintain the cultural diversity of our society. It makes rural land and therefore open space more economically sustainable. And it sustains the economic viability of an irreplaceable form of Western rural life—Navajo pastoralism. As a traditional Navajo saying puts it, “Sheep is life.”

The unemployment rate on the Navajo Reservation as of 1990 (the most recent year for which data is available) was 27.9%. 57.4% of Navajos on the reservation were living below the poverty level.

A number of families on the reservation supplement their income by raising sheep; however, Navajo wool brings only 20 to 50% of what competing wool brings. One of the main reasons for this subpar performance is the poor genetics of Navajo sheep. In a 1998 survey conducted by the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension Service only 13.4% of herders said they went off the reservation to buy rams. The reproductive rate of Navajo flocks was only 62% while the standard is over 100% because of the tendency of quality sheep to have twins.

Tom Bean photo Jaclyn's family is one of over 100 Navajo families who have already signed up for the Ram Exchange program.

Under the program, one hundred quality rams would be purchased and exchanged for poor quality rams owned by participating families. At the end of the year those high quality rams would be circulated among participating families to further diversify herd genetics.

This ram exchange would increase the value of the wool of participating Navajo families by 50% to 55% in three years. As an indication of support for it among the Navajo, 100+ families have already expressed an interest in participating. Several wool buyers, including Roswell Wool—the largest wool warehouse by volume in the United States, have expressed interest in buying the higher quality wool and in working with a cooperative of Native American producers.

Tom Bean photo Susan Bean of Bread for the Journey's Flagstaff Chapter presents the first check for buying rams to Ram Exchange treasurer Gloria Todachinnie, Jaclyn's mom.

Another aspect of this program which has gained EcoResults! support is the fact that it is cooperative, accountable, educational, and intended to be sustainable. The program will be administered by the Dineh Bi’ (Navajo) Ranchers Roundtable, a nonprofit corporation registered both with the federal government and the Navajo Nation. The Roundtable will help participants develop a cooperative marketing program and aid in monitoring the quality of wool of participating flocks, the participation of producers in cooperative marketing, and the reaction of buyers to the increase in wool quality. In addition, the program will educate participants on basic sheep husbandry, proper nutrition, preventative health measures, and even on how to graze stock in ways that enhance range health rather than degrade it. So, in the end the Ram Exchange will serve EcoResults’ primary mission—ecological restoration.

Although the program is slated for three years, Bob Racicot. program administrator, says it will continue as long as it sustains itself. A Rural Business Enterprise Grant through the USDA Rural Development program will fund all aspects of the Ram Exchange except the purchase of the rams. EcoResults! has included the project here in order to give you the opportunity to help raise the $56,100 needed to buy 100 rams.

Sign Me Up To Support This Project! Each $561 buys a ram.

Other Restorations in Progress

Healing a Dysfunctional Watershed, New Mexico
Restoring an Extinct Marsh, Nevada