Indigenous Agriculture Panel with Lucille Contreras | Hosted by Quivira Coalition
Restoring Indigenous Agriculture: A Panel Hosted by Quivira Coalition
Featuring Lucille Contreras of Texas Tribal Buffalo Project, Dr. Michael Kotutwa Johnson (Hopi), and Helga Garcia
We’re proud to share this Quivira Coalition panel featuring our CEO and Founder, Lucille Contreras, alongside Indigenous leaders Dr. Michael Kotutwa Johnson and Helga Garcia. Together, they explore the urgent need to restore Indigenous agriculture and reclaim traditional food systems across Native communities.
This conversation uplifts the role of tribal food sovereignty, Bison restoration, dryland farming, and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) as pathways to climate resilience, cultural healing, and intergenerational stewardship.
Lucille Contreras, founder of the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project, shares how the Lipan Apache’s traditional relationship with Bison (Iyaneduha) is central to the rematriation of land and the revitalization of Indigenous lifeways on the Southern Plains.
Highlights from the Panel:
The role of Bison in Indigenous food systems
Hopi dryland farming practices over 2,000+ years
Decolonizing agriculture and reclaiming land
Youth involvement and Indigenous knowledge transfer
Food sovereignty as climate action
About the Speakers:
Lucille Contreras (Lipan Apache) is the founder and CEO of the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project, where she leads bison restoration efforts on her family’s 77-acre ranch in South Texas. She is a lifelong cultural worker, member of Grupo Tlaloc Aztec Dancers, and board member of Lipan Apache Women Defense. Lucille’s work connects land, ceremony, and climate action with a vision of tribal sovereignty and economic resilience.
Dr. Michael Kotutwa Johnson (Hopi) is a dryland farmer and Program Officer at the Native American Agriculture Fund (NAAF). He is also a contributing author for the Indigenous chapter in the upcoming National Climate Assessment and has decades of expertise in conservation, agriculture, and Native land practices.
Helga Garcia brings deep insight into community-led agricultural initiatives and Indigenous foodways in the Southwest.
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This panel was originally hosted and published by Quivira Coalition, an organization working to build soil, biodiversity, and resilience on western working lands.
