Город Лонгмонт углубляет партнерство с племенем северных арапахо через культурные обмены и управление землями

Longmont’s relationship with the Northern Arapaho Tribe continues to grow this summer through cultural and educational exchanges between the two communities. The relationship is also expanding beyond traditional Sister Cities programming. City officials and Northern Arapaho representatives are now discussing land management, consultation and the tribe’s traditional homelands. Among the exchanges this summer was the annual Chokecherry Harvest Collaborative. The weekend of July 25, three Northern Arapaho representatives joined Longmont Open Space staff and community partners to collect 178 pounds of chokecherries throughout Longmont to bring back to the Wind River Reservation. Taylor Gifford, who works in volunteer stewardship and environmental education for Longmont, highlighted the effort in an update given to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board on Monday. Despite relatively little fruit this year, organizers expanded the harvest across smaller events on public and residential properties, according to the update. The chokecherries will be used in Northern Arapaho ceremonies and distributed to homebound tribal elders. During the visit, city staff and tribal representatives also shared meals and discussed consultation, land management practices and what tribal members would like to see on their traditional homelands, Gifford’s update said. Mayor Susie Hidalgo-Fahring also joined the group for lunch on July 25. Gifford called the conversations “a major step forward in relationship building for the city.” Other July events included a public chokecherry educational program at the Longmont Museum, an Indigenous storytelling event with Northern Arapaho elder Herb Welsh, and a Sister Cities Youth Exchange on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. The Northern Arapaho relationship was also highlighted at the Longmont Sister Cities dinner on July 25. Tribal representatives were unable to attend, but students who traveled to the reservation spoke about their experiences alongside visiting delegations from Longmont’s sister cities in Japan and Ciudad Guzmán, Mexico. During the tail end of last Tuesday’s study session, Hidalgo-Fahring took a moment to display gifts from the Japanese and Mexican delegations, including a handcrafted clay piece from Mexico and a large hand-painted Japanese flag incorporating Longmont’s flag. She said the gifts are expected to be displayed in the Civic Center later in August. Longmont’s relationship with the Northern Arapaho dates to 2018 and became the first Sister City partnership between a U.S. city and a sovereign tribal nation in September 2021. The relationship expanded in 2025 with the first Elder Exchange between a U.S. city and a sovereign tribal nation. Elder exchange program strengthens Longmont-Northern Arapaho ties Sixteen Northern Arapaho elders and family members arrived in Longmont for a four-day visit in March of 2025. Twenty Longmont elders then traveled to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming that July. Longmont Senior Services Manager Ronnie Maynes told the Times-Call following those exchanges that participants continued communicating, with elders from both communities beginning to refer to one another as family. “This is what it’s all about,” Maynes said. “Those relationships are really rooted in our community now.” Subscribe to our new newsletter to get Longmont’s latest news sent straight to your inbox.