Native Peoples' Wildlife Management Working Group

Remington Bracher is a Nêhiyaw (Cree) member of Muskoday First Nation, raised in Edmonton, Alberta. He is a wildlife biologist, hunter, angler, trapper and graduate student at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, in Adam Ford’s Wildlife Restoration Ecology Lab. His research focuses on restoring culturally meaningful harvests in National Parks through collaborative stewardship models that weave Indigenous Knowledge and Western science.

Remington’s passion for conservation stems from a deep, relational connection to the land and wildlife, shaped by his lived experiences, teachings and a commitment to reclaiming cultural practices disrupted by colonialism. He has served as the Student Director for the Alberta Chapter of The Wildlife Society (ACTWS) for the past four years, where he established the ACTWS Hunting Mentorship Program. He is currently working to develop an Indigenous branch of the program, which will support students in reconnecting with their culture and the land through wildlife, ceremony and land-based learning. Remington has served as coordinator since 2022 for the Native Student Professional Development (NSPD) Program for The Wildlife Society through the Native Peoples’ Wildlife Management Working Group. The NSPD Program supports Indigenous students from across North America by providing funding, mentorship and community at and beyond the TWS conference.

David Heit is the Wildlife Biologist for the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians in Manistee, Michigan. He received his B.S. in Fisheries & Wildlife from Michigan State University, and M.S. in Wildlife and Conservation Biology from the University of New Hampshire. His past research has largely focused on quantitative spatial ecology of carnivores and ungulates. Since starting at LRBOI he coordinates with state and federal agencies to uphold treaty hunting and gathering rights for Tribal members within the 1836 Ceded Territory, and has become very involved in conservation of American marten, elk and freshwater turtles. In his personal time he is an avid chef, birder and hunter, and an aspiring trapper and angler.

Kristin Peet joined Appalachian Mountain Club’s Land Department in July 2024 as the organization’s first Lands Planner to work comprehensively on AMC owned lands across 5 states (Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut). In this role, she is responsible for overseeing the creation of ecological management plans for all AMC owned properties and working collaboratively on conservation projects in the region. She also has taken the lead on coordinating AMC’s work with Indigenous communities and partners across the region. She is a certified wildlife biologist® and licensed forester and has spent the past 20 years working in conservation and with the Tribal communities in what is now Maine. Kristin earned her Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Ecology and a Master of Forestry degree from the University of Maine, Orono. She lives in Winterport, Maine with her family, dogs and honeybees.

Sarah E. Rinkevich received her Ph.D. in Wildlife Conservation from the University of Arizona’s School of Natural Resources and the Environment in 2012. Her research focused on a reintroduced population of gray wolves on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona. She worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Endangered Species Conservation for 32 years and working closely with the Tribes in the Southwest. She lives in Tucson, Arizona, and is a Research Assistant Scientist at the University of Arizona, School of Natural Resources and the Environment. Before retiring, she worked closely with the Office of Science and Technology Policy as well as with the National Science and Technology’s Subcommittee on Indigenous Knowledge, related to Presidential Memorandum on Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Federal Decision Making (November 15, 2021) and the subsequent Indigenous Knowledge Guidance Document. She led one of five Working Groups, the Indigenous Knowledge Training and Practice from 2022-2024. Additionally, she was recruited by the FWS’s Rocky Mountain Region to include Indigenous Knowledge of the gray wolf into the FWS’s Species Status Assessment and 12-month finding for the gray wolf. She conducted interviews with the Nez Perce, Blackfeet, Northern Arapaho, Eastern Shoshone and Salish-Kootenai tribes about their knowledge and cultural significance of the gray wolf.

Dr. Schmidt is an enrolled citizen of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and long-time member of the Native Peoples’ Wildlife Management Working Group (NPWMWG). She has dedicated over two decades to wildlife conservation through her employment and service to the NPWMWG, and beyond. Her contributions to research have been demonstrated through peer reviewed journal articles, reports and professional presentations spanning topics of waterfowl, marsh rabbits, human dimensions and national level presentations on Tribal engagement and Indigenous Knowledge. In her current professional role, Dr. Schmidt serves as the Project Director for the InterTribal Buffalo Council’s Southeast Regional Conservation Partnership Program.

Jamie, a proud Diné scientist, from Rock Point, Arizona is currently pursuing her M.S. in Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at Colorado State University, where she is leading research that supports the Navajo Nation’s desert bighorn sheep recovery efforts. Jamie is a graduate of Diné College, the first tribally controlled and accredited institution of higher education in the U.S., and a former field technician for the Navajo Nation Department of Fish and Wildlife. Her experience ranges from pseudoscorpion and mule deer research to wildlife disease testing, aerial surveys and hunter check stations across Navajo lands. As the inaugural Indigenous Bighorn Fellowship with the Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance, Jamie’s work explores disease risk, movement ecology and habitat use among bighorn sheep populations, particularly focusing on interactions with domestic sheep. Her research combines rigorous field science deploying GPS collars and testing for respiratory pathogens like Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae with deep community engagement. By working directly with Navajo families who graze domestic sheep, she bridges science and tradition to better understand and mitigate disease transmission risks.