TYCC members Xavier Lovato, Kuien
Quintana, Dominic Bailon, standing above,
and Emmanuel Yepa spread out small rock
in order to stabilize the bank of the lower
Santa Fe River.. Credit; USFWS.
Ask a group of teenagers their idea of fun and you might get answers like hanging out with friends, dodging opponents during a game of laser tag or playing their favorite video games. But for a group of Native American youth from several of New Mexico’s pueblos, fun meant working outside on a warm, sunny day hauling tons of rock with other tribal youth, community volunteers and staff from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in an effort to restore fish passages along the lower Santa Fe River on Cochiti Pueblo.
Above the loud crunch of gravel being shoveled into buckets and with sweat dripping from their brows and hands rough from a full-days work of loading and unloading bucket after bucket of crushed rock, one could hear the laughter and camaraderie of the four Tribal Youth Conservation Corp (TYCC) team members: Emmanuel Yepa, 16, of Cochiti Pueblo/Northern Cheyenne; Kuien Quintana, 17, of Cochiti Pueblo, Dominic Bailon, 18, of Santo Domingo Pueblo and Xavier Lovato, 17, of Santo Domingo/Cochiti Pueblo. While fully enjoying and living in the moment as they stabilized the river bank under the watchful eye of their project advisors, these tribal youth TYCC also have a keen focus on their possible future natural resource careers.
