sus·tain·a·bil·i·ty

səˌsteɪnəˈbɪlɪti  [suh-stey-nuh-bil-i-tee] noun
1. the ability to be sustained, supported, upheld, or confirmed.
2. Environmental Science . the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance: The committee is developing sustainability standards for products that use energy.  

Although when you think of sustainability you think in terms of tangibility. I will be addressing issues that many Native American people are facing – the loss of their language and traditions. When I embarked on this project it was envisioned as a management tool that would assist in making recommendation to federal agencies for land use practices but what it has become is much more. This project has become a pilot ship to invigorant the spirit of the Ute People of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation. Our sustainability comes in the form of identifying with our historical beginnings to enrich our children’s knowledge of self. We have used the Northern Ute Tribe’s Ethnobotony project to encourage and enhance our Tribal Traditions and promote the Ute Language through field trips to the original homelands of the Utes. These field trips connect Tribal Youth with Tribal Elders, record oral histories of families, and create a Tribal herbarium. While these are some of the outcome there has been a resurgent of interest by tribal people to learn the history of the Ute Tribe. I will speak to the formal process of consultation and how the Ute Tribe utilizes the process to meet the needs of the Tribe.