Judy BlueHorse Skelton, (Nez Perce/Cherokee), Associate Professor (retired), Indigenous Nations Studies at Portland State University, developed and teaches courses in the Indigenous Traditional Ecological and Cultural Knowledge (ITECK) Certificate Program, including Indigenous Ecological Healing Practices, Indigenous Leadership for Sustainable Futures, Cultural Ecology: Indigenous Science, and Indigenous Gardens and Food Justice. She’s worked with federal, state and local governments, Native organizations and tribes throughout the Northwest for more than 30 years, conducting cultural activities and research to reclaim the urban forest for food, medicine, ceremony, and healthy lifeways, integrating ITECK practices with Indigenous community and student-centered projects on urban/regional sites.
Judy has advised on PSU’s Native American Student and Community Center, the Vernier Science Center, the Native Gathering Gardens at Cully Park, and most recently the Center for Tribal Nations in the OMSI District and the Oak Savanna ITECK Center.
Through these relationships, Judy has fostered the creation of a unique space for teaching and practicing ITECK at PSU with the Oak Savanna ITECK Center, engaging students, partners and Indigenous community in collaborative projects across the region, including camas and wapato restoration, annual salmon bakes, seasonal seed-scattering and land blessings, land toxicology testing, and work at natural areas to harvest culturally significant plants and assist in land reclamation practices – providing real-world experiences that can be life changing, to heal the Land and heal the People.