tribal lands

Agriculture in Indian Country was a nearly $6.5 billion industry in 2022, according to the most recent Census of Agriculture, up from $3.5 billion just five years earlier. Cattle ranching was the most common form of agriculture production, occurring on 39 percent of farms operated by Native Americans, said Erin Parker, executive director of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative at the University of Arkansas School of Law, speaking during the second-annual State of Native Agriculture Address.

Decades of drought and overuse have pushed the Colorado River to an ecological “tipping point,” and conservationists need to work closely with farmers and tribal nations to save it, several water experts said Wednesday at a webinar organized by the Nature Conservancy’s Colorado chapter.