Celebrating nature Above, left; Native Americans of various tribes perform drums as the community members of Nederland perform a roundhouse dance in celebration of the new Wild Bear Nature Center. Above, right; Steve LaPointe (center) dances with other members of his tribe during the blessing of the land of Wild Bear’s brand new nature center. Below, left; A crowd of community members performs a roundhouse dance.[/caption]

On Sunday, June 5, 2022, The Nederland community gathered in a small corner of land tucked in the road to Nederland Elementary School, 60 Indian Peaks Drive. This gathering was to celebrate the blessing of the brand new net-zero nature center of Wild Bear Nature Center, which will break ground this month, hopefully to open by October 2024.

Ava Hamilton, a member of the Arapaho tribe and a member of the Wild Bear Board of Directors, gathered Native American tribe members, led by Steve Lapointe of the Sicangu Lakota or Rosebud Sioux tribe, to bless the new land of the nature center. As rain clouds gathered and a small drizzle covered the land, the tribe members encouraged everyone to celebrate the moment, prohibiting electronic devices and pictures during the blessing ceremony.

Lapointe blessed the land with tobacco while the other tribe members performed a Four Directions song. After the blessing, photography and video were allowed again, and the tribe members performed various dances to celebrate the blessing of the land and the gathering of the community. For the final dance, the tribe members invited everyone to join, concluding the ceremony with a group bonding experience.

After the ceremony, Director of Community Partnerships Mike Reichert led the visitors of the event on a tour of the new nature center area, explaining how the new nature center would look and what visitors could expect from it. Wild Bear founder Jill Dreves hopes that this free nature center will encourage equity in the outdoors and allow as many people as possible to experience the beauty of nature. She thanks the volunteers, staff, donors, and other community members who have joined Wild Bear over the years for helping the center accomplish its mission of making nature more accessible to everyone.

Lapointe loved how welcomed and embraced he felt by the community at the event. He and the other tribe members worked together with Wild Bear to celebrate Native American culture and invite the tribe to bless the land in the correct way, and while it took time and effort from both sides, he ultimately felt that the right respect was given and the community welcomed him and the other tribe members with open arms.

Hamilton first learned about Wild Bear through a friend of hers who works at the National Center of Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Both working for the Rising Voices Center for Indigenous and Earth Sciences, Hamilton was invited to meet Wild Bear by her friend, and when she learned that Wild Bear wanted to involve the Indigenous community in a blessing of the land for a new nature center, she helped gather the group of tribe members together.

She feels that supporting this initiative is in line with the work she does for climate change, global warming, and preserving the culture and history of Native Americans and the Indigenous community. She hopes that humanity can come together to celebrate the land that we call home and recognize that the land doesn’t belong to us, but rather we belong to the land.

Wild Bear Nature Center’s blessing of the land of the new nature center brought the community of Nederland together to celebrate the beauty of nature and the importance of preserving it. It celebrated those who came before us and who cherish the land as a part of us, and it celebrated the hope that nature can be appreciated by everyone.

Wild Bear is currently located at 20 Lakeview Drive, Unit 107 in Nederland. For more information about Wild Bear or to contact them, you can call them at 303-258- 0495, email them at info@wildbear.org, mail them at P.O. Box 3017, Nederland, CO, 80466, or go to their website at wildbear.org.