Masayesva presented 2018 Emerging Leader Award

BROOMFIELD, Colo.

Western Resource Advocates has presented its 2018 Emerging Leader Award to Hopi outdoor education leader Marshall Masayesva.

Each year, WRA honors a young leader, age 35 and under, who has done exemplary work to advance conservation in the Mountain West. This year’s award was presented to Masayesva by SCARPA North America CEO Kim Miller during WRA’s annual “Protect the West Celebration” on Sept. 13 in Broomfield, Colorado.

“I would like to thank the WRA for the award as well as getting me in touch with good people,” Masayesva said. “This recognition will help to highlight the work that is happening out of a small shared office on the Hopi Reservation.”

“When I first talked to Marshall, he was working with a team of kids fashioning a zip line to carry trash off a mesa,” said Miller. “In that first conversation, I knew he was the real deal, dedicated to service and respect for the environment.”

Masayesva is Paaqapwungwu (Reed Clan) from the village of Bacavi. He graduated from Fort Lewis College with a degree in adventure education and immediately moved home to get to work developing new youth programs and promoting environmental conservation and stewardship using adventure education as a medium.

Masayesva is program coordinator for the Ancestral Lands Hopi office, and on weekends serves as program director for the Adventures for Hopi Program.

“Indigenous people have the opportunity to pursue viable economic opportunities that do not rely on natural resource exploitation or centralized profit centers, through simply utilizing, managing, and determining the direction of culturally relevant, sensitive, and responsible recreation,” Masayesva said.

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