Become a sponsor of the 18th Annual Gila River Festival

May 23, 2022

Dear Friend of the Gila River,

We are gearing up for the 18th Annual Gila River Festival - One Water, Many Currents scheduled for September 22 – 25. We’ve got exciting speakers and events planned that we’d like to share with you, along with letting you know how you can continue to support the festival’s unique programming.

This year’s event will explore the many ways in which water connects us and is the common thread weaving together the Gila River watershed's human and ecological communities of the past, present and into the future.

We’ll be organizing another hybrid (in-person and virtual) festival, featuring Nuevomexicana writer and biologist Leeanna Torres, who will share her personal narrative through the thread of the great Gila as the Sonnie Sussillo Memorial Keynote presenter. Leeanna’s latest piece about the Gila appears in First & Wildest The Gila Wilderness at 100 recently released by Torrey House Press.

A panel discussion focused on the indigenous connections to the Gila River from its headwaters in New Mexico to the Great Bend of the Gila in southwest Arizona includes Archaeology Southwest's Tribal Outreach Fellow Skylar Begay, Gila River Indian Community historic preservation officer Barnaby Lewis, Fort Sill Apache Tribe Chairwoman Lori Gooday Ware (invited) and moderated by Diné anthropologist Alex Mares.

Daytime field trips include rock art interpretation with Alex Mares, an ever-popular Gila River Festival presenter of Diné and Mexican descent, along with Fort Sill Apache Tribal Historian Michael Darrow.  Owners of Pitchfork Ranch, A.T. and Cinda Cole, will showcase the results of years of restoration work at Burro Ciénega.  Other festival field trips will include birding, wildflowers, archaeology, hydrology, riparian restoration, butterflies, and fishing, as well as the Dance of the Mountain Spirits by the Fort Sill Apache Fire Dancers with the Gooday Family.

We know that the economic situation is difficult right now for many. We sincerely hope that you will join with other Gila River Festival supporters at the highest level you are able so that we can continue to bring high quality festival programming to our community.

On behalf of New Mexico’s last wild river, we thank you for your support! 

For the Gila,

Jody Norman, Coordinator

Gila River Festival