DCR First Peoples First Stewards Partnership

First Peoples First Stewards Partnership works to support Indigenous communities by enhancing communication, improving equity, and increasing access to lands that DCR is currently stewarding

The goal of the First Peoples First Stewards Partnership is to build reciprocal relationships between the DCR, Tribal Governments, and Indigenous Community Stakeholders. These relationships will enhance DCR’s work through providing an additional lens of culturally responsive stewardship while providing access and opportunities for Native people to connect with the land, water, and the Natural World.

Led by the Indigenous People’s Partnership Coordinator, this program helps the Agency to better acknowledge and understand the role of DCR-stewarded lands in the cultural continuity, public health, well-being, and sovereignty of Tribal Governments and Indigenous people in Massachusetts. Using guidance from Executive Order 126, Executive Order 637, and the Office of Environmental Justice & Equity, this program works directly with Tribal Governments to ensure that Tribal Government priorities, voice, and concerns are present and prioritized in project management and programs. First Peoples First Stewards offers partnership opportunities with Tribal Governments and Indigenous community stakeholders to uplift Indigenous communities and to make DCR parks, forests, and lands more welcoming.

First Peoples First Stewards works with DCR’s Archaeology staff, Interpretive Services , and the Office of Natural Resources, while offering support to staff across divisions to ensure that Indigenous voice is infused throughout the agency through outreach, policy, and collaboration.

First Peoples First Stewards Children’s Libraries

The First Peoples First Steward’s Children’s Library reading program is available at nine DCR properties across Massachusetts and features more than 20 youth-focused works of fiction and non-fiction that depict accurate first-hand accounts of Indigenous history, culture and lived experience. The program celebrates the region’s Indigenous communities, histories, and their enduring relationships to the lands and waters that make up the nearly half a million acres that DCR stewards across the state.

The books are available for reading on site at the following visitor centers:

• Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park in Uxbridge;
• Blackstone River Greenway Visitor Center at Worcester;
• Blue Hills Reservation in Milton;
• Borderland State Park in North Easton;
• Breakheart Reservation in Saugus;
• Fall River Heritage State Park;
• Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls;
• Mount Greylock State Reservation in Lanesborough; and
• Quabbin Reservoir in Belchertown. 

The First Peoples First Stewards Partnership will continue to evaluate additional DCR properties as potential future library sites.

Related Links

Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs

Executive Order 126: Massachusetts Native Americans

Executive Order 637: Recognizing the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe