Welcome, Braidan Weeks!

We are excited to welcome Braidan Weeks as our Fall '21 Community Practitioner-in-Residence. This position is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Learn more about our grant from the Mellon Foundation here. 

Braidan Weeks was born and raised in rural Utah. He is Yampah’tkah or White River Band Ute. Currently, he serves as the Executive Director of the Ute Land Trust. In this position, he works to preserve ancestral Ute land and place-based cultural knowledge. The trust’s work reconnects the people of these lands by engaging with other Tribes, federal, state, and local governments to partner in land stewardship and traditional conservation efforts. Braidan believes in a holistic and community-driven approach to environmental advocacy and racial justice. There cannot be one without the other. In response to President Trump’s repeal of the Bears Ears National Monument, he helped organize the largest rally for public lands in Utah’s history. 

Braidan also serves as a board member with Equality Utah PAC and the Natural History Museum of Utah’s Native Advisory Board. On KRCL 90.9fm, Braidan hosts Living the Circle of Life, a music and news program dedicated to the Indigenous peoples of Utah. 

Braidan says, “I’m hoping that my time with the University of Utah’s Environmental Humanities Program will help build relationships and understandings between cultures and generations. Nuhnahmuh.”