“While we are devoting all the resources we can to the protection and healing of our land, we can’t do it alone.”

– Santa Clara Pueblo Governor Dasheno

Click image to read a letter from Santa Clara Pueblo Lt. Governor Bruce Tafoya

This Sunday, the national edition of Parade Magazine will feature their Annual Giving Issue. Parade Magazine, which is distributed in more than 500 newspapers, will feature the Santa Clara Pueblo “We Will Heal Seedling Project” as one of their nine stories about communities that were devastated by natural disasters in 2011. “We Will Heal” is a fund held by New Mexico Community Foundation that was established to help in the restoration of Santa Clara Pueblo’s land after the Las Conchas wildfire, the largest wildfire in New Mexico’s history, destroyed 80% of their ancestral lands during the summer of 2011. Each donation of $5 goes directly towards the purchase, planting and tending of one seedling.

“This is our only homeland, the place we have been entrusted with since time immemorial,” noted Santa Clara Pueblo Governor Walter Dasheno. “Never again in our lifetime will we see our Santa Clara Canyon as we have known it.”

In this season of giving, Parade magazine encourages their readers to donate in honor or in memory of someone they love. These gifts of money seek to restore the beauty of the fertile Santa Clara Canyon for this and future generations of tribal members.

Parade Magazine is hoping to accomplish an outpouring of donations, be it goods, services or funds, from its nearly 70 million readers who wish to help these communities get back on their feet. For Santa Clara Pueblo, the need comes for the rehabilitation of the Pueblo’s ancestral lands. 17,000 acres of Santa Clara Pueblo’s tribal forested land was devastatingly impacted by wildfire and subsequent flooding.

“We are thrilled to have this Fund Featured in Parade Magazine. We hope that it will significantly help the Pueblo reforest the Santa Clara Canyon, which is so important to the Pueblo’s history and culture” remarked Jenny Parks, President and CEO for New Mexico Community Foundation.

Federal agencies have stated that it will take approximately 100 million dollars over a period of ten years to address the 90 plus project in Santa Clara Pueblo. For more information, please watch Las Conchas Fire Aftermath in Santa Clara Canyon.

To make an online gift to the Santa Clara Pueblo Fund, please visit our Greatest Needs or visit our Give Now page for information about phone or mail-in donations. Visit Parade Magazine to read more about the Santa Clara Pueblo “We Will Heal Seedling Project”.

Letter from Santa Clara Pueblo Lieutenant Governor Bruce Tafoya
November 18, 2011

Jenny Parks
President and CEO
New Mexico Community Foundation

Dear Ms. Parks

Santa Clara Canyon has been inaccessible since the August monsoon floods. The area from the Ranger Station west to the 4th pond area has been washed out by the floods. Large boulders and fallen tress now line the area. In some areas the Santa Clara Creek bed is gouged out almost 15 feet when it was a foot or two. This inaccessibility has hampered assessments by various federal and state agencies. The north and south sides of the area adjacent to the canyon are3 open to wood cutting and hunting to tribal members.

The tribe, in coordination with its partners, has estimated it will take 100 million dollars over the next ten years to address some 90 plus projects to rehabilitate the forest, provide for fishery and recreational opportunities, assure continue agricultural viability with access to non polluted water from the headwaters, and most importantly, access to spiritual and cultural sites. The tribe has embarked on the “We Will Heal Seedling” Project, an intergenerational effort to plant seedlings over the 17,000 acres that were impacted. This intergenerational effort will bring children, youth, adults and elders together to plant seedlings in the spring and fall of the years to come. They will plant, nurture, grow and spiritually be with the trees for decades. They will grow together. Grandma and Grandpa can tell their grandchildren these are trees we planted when we were your age years ago. We, the forest and Tewa people, will heal together.

However, a major concern is potential flooding during the spring runoff in 2012. Santa Clara experienced two partial evacuations of homes adjacent to Santa Clara Creek during the past monsoon season. Although the creek has been lined with Jersey barriers and sand bags this past summer, a flood of 5,000 cubic feet/second or more would cause major flooding in the village. It would affect all the homes along the creek, the Community Neighbor Facility, Senior Center, Adult Day Care Center, and the Day School. The Pueblo has an evacuation plan in place that needs to be tested as an emergency exercise. We expect flooding but do not know the magnitude it will be.

Lt. Governor Bruce Tafoya