2026 Norm Evans Lecture and Film Screenings

About this event

CSU Location: Lory Student Center Theatre

Event Contact Name: Bethany Howell

Event Contact Email: bethany.howell@colostate.edu

Audience: Alumni,Community,Faculty,Graduate Student,Retiree / Em eritus Faculty,Staff,Student,Youth

Cost: Free

Dept / Unit / Pro gram: Colorado Water Institute

Link: https://watercenter.colostate.edu/events/norm-evans-lecture-series/

The 2026 Norm Evans Lecture Series welcomes keynote speaker Ernest House, Jr., an enrolled member o f the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and a leader in Native American affairs. He is the senior policy director and director for the Center for Tribal and Indigenous Engagement at the Keystone Policy Center, as well as co-director of the Water and Tribes Initiative.

The keynote lecture will be followed by two, short documentary film screenings: 'Root ed: A Story of Rematriation' and 'River as Teacher'. The screenings will be held in partnership with the Navajo Nation, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, the Montezuma Land Conservancy, Trees, Water & ; People, the National Park Service, USGS, and Western Colorado Univ ersity.

The films feature Indigenous relationships with land and water: 'River as Teacher,' on Navajo river monitoring and tea chings in the Grand Canyon, and 'Rooted: A Story of Rematriation, ' which follows the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe's journey toward land access and watershed restoration through the Traditional Harvest Project.

Both films will be screened simultaneously at Colorado State University in Fort Collins and at Western University in Gunnison, and will feature post-screening QandA panel discussions to foster a deeper connection between the audience and the films' topics.