Lakota McRoberts

Lakota is the Garden Design Manager at the Copper River Native Association. She is passionate about “permaculture” as a practice. This means observing nature, researching tools and techniques used by Indigenous people in a specific bioregion, and engaging in a diligent, daily practice of balancing the needs of yourself and family with those of the other species around you.

About Lakota’s Project

During her time as a 2025 Brave Heart Fellow, Lakota deepened her work in ethnobotany to revitalize Indigenous medicine. By sitting with Elders and knowledge holders, Lakota learned to identify regional medicinal plants, harvest them ethically and prepare healing salves using traditional Ahtna Athabaskan practices. She partnered with local leaders, including Elder Sonia Vent, and co-taught a youth-led birch salve workshop through Prince William Sound College that offered dual credit to high school and college students.

With CNAY’s support, Lakota also acquired distillation equipment for long-term community use and built a circular teaching model rooted in reciprocity, land stewardship and language revitalization. Her ultimate goal is to ensure Indigenous healing practices and ecological knowledge remain accessible, sustainable and community-led for future generations.