Traditional Ecological Knowledge Internship Program
Mit sun henetla pabe wilak yalu pat. kai’i, sumsumi, choh, soru da yalut’i wile bot’i.
When you enter, leave the new world outside. Walk, smell, look, and listen and you will leave with a good spirit.
Program Description
This program teaches how the Native Wintun people flourished in partnership with the plants and animals of this area.
The TEK Internship is for students interested in learning the Cache Creek Wintun homeland ecology as well as how restoration and stewardship can recreate healthy water and soils that have supported the lives and art of the people that live here for generations.
The Program will provide opportunities to gain practical work experience, knowledge of various restoration techniques, practice of fiber arts, and leadership skills.
The application period for the 2023 Internship is closed. Please check back in a few months, or sign up for our newsletter.
Staff and Mentor Team
Diana Almendariz will lead the program. She is a well-known Maidu-Wintun cultural expert and teacher. For more than 20 years, she has dedicated her life to teaching and sharing the culture and life lessons of her Native American Indian heritage. Her contemporary expression of her lessons depicts these experiences as alive and thriving, as well as calming and reassuring to our modern lives today.
Other facilitators and guest speakers will provide a range of experiences and knowledge that with help you develop a fuller understanding of your world and your place in it.
The Tending and Gathering Garden (TGG) at the Cache Creek Nature Preserve will serve as your classroom. Directions to the Nature Preserve can be found on our Contact page.
Program Overview
This program meets every other Sunday from 9am to 3pm, from February 26th to April 16th. Interns are expected to complete at least 30 hours of work. The work is mostly outdoors and work clothes are necessary.
Interns are expected to finish a project and create a reflection in the form of an essay, video or presentation at the end of the program.
This program is funded by a generous donation from Barbara Clutter.