Elder Be’sha Blondin, grandmother, healer, traditional knowledge holder. She has a lifetime of experience following the traditional spiritual and cultural protocols of the Dene Way of life. She developed her gifts from the teachings of the Elders and her parents on the east arm of Great Bear Lake. Be’sha is a traditional healer dedicated to protecting and healing Mother Earth, strengthening Aboriginal communities in the North, across Canada and globally, sharing her wisdom and knowledge with all people to live in peace and harmony. She is co-founder of the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation, and a Health Administrator and Community Development Expert. Be’sha has traveled the world to strengthen relationships among all people. She is an elder advisor to the Institute for Circumpolar Health Research (ICHR) and works with a team of advisors for the inVivo planetary health network, with Dr. Courtney Howard, CAPE, and the Planetary Health Alliance. Known for her genuine love for all people, for her delightful sense of humor and hearty laugh, and for being fearless while speaking truth to power. She unites all people through The Spirit of Water and is committed to reunifying the Original Peoples of Turtle Island through Grandmother Water.

Grandfather, Elder, hereditary leader, traditionalist, spiritualist, family man and community member. Francois Paulette is Dënesųłiné and a member of the Smith’s Landing Treaty 8 First Nation and is Chair of the Dene Nation Elders Council. He survived the residential school system before going on to become the youngest Chief in the NWT Indian Brotherhood in 1971. In 1972, along with sixteen other chiefs from the Mackenzie Valley, he challenged the Crown to recognize treaty and aboriginal rights and title to over 450,000 square miles of land in the historic Paulette case.

Francois is a passionate and outspoken advocate of treaty and aboriginal rights in all matters affecting his people and is recognized in the courts as an expert witness on historic treaties. He is an expert about the global water crisis. As Chief Negotiator for the Smith’s Landing First Nation, Francois worked diligently to conclude a Treaty Settlement Agreement, which has proven to be of critical importance in protecting the Slave River from hydro-electric development.

Central to his well-being is his life on the land of the Dënesųłiné; he continues to involve himself in efforts to protect the health and well-being of all children and Mother Earth. He serves as an interpreter of traditional knowledge and is a facilitator of cross-cultural understanding.

In 2020 Francois was named as an officer of the Order of Canada.

Tata Juan Nelson Rojas Calderon is a Traditional Knowledge-holder of the Nahuat Pipil First Nation of El Salvador. He is PULL TOGETHER NOW’s program coordinator for Mesoamerica and South America, organizing collaborations to protect the Original Free Peoples and Nations, their HomeWater, sacred sites and ancient ways of Life. Ruthless, greedy transnational cartels of miners, corporations, bankers, politicians, drug dealers, and individuals are poisoning and destroying sacred Water, Land, Forests, and Nature’s food and medicines — the continuation of over 500 years of genocide—domination, dehumanization, persecution, torture, disappearance, and slaughter.

Tata (Elder) Juan is a member The Council of Spiritual Guides and Healers including the Maya Chortí, Maya Pocomam, Nauat Pipil, Lenka, Kakawira, Nonualco, and Chorotega peoples.

He holds traditional knowledge of ancient cosmology, Mother Earth’s medicines and foods, and gardening with timeless traditions which some people today call Permaculture. Juan participates in ceremonies, gatherings, workshops, and conferences to share his knowledge of growing healthy traditional food and taking care of the Soil, Land and HomeWaters. He shows people that by following ancient cultural methods and protocols people can thrive in sacred balance, reclaim their traditional health and resilience, enjoy food and economic security, and address the impacts of climate crisis and the ongoing genocidal actions and policies of colonization.

Juan and his son Barry enjoy their time on the Rio Torola, the HomeWater where they belong.

Lisa founded PULL TOGETHER NOW (PTN) in response to the Indigenous Peoples’ message to the world, that it is our sacred responsibility to protect Mother Earth and the health and well-being of all children before all else; to be Good Ancestors and pass on a healthy, peaceful, and just world to The Future.

Her vision for PTN is also rooted in her family’s values and history of caring for the Land, the Water, the animals, and all other neighbors we live with. A rancher’s daughter, Lisa’s early views of the world were from the back of a fast horse on the wide open plains, broadened later by living among diverse people in cities and small towns in the US and Canada.

Lisa and her husband Mark have been together and independent business owners for 49 years. They live with their HomeWaters, the Big Blackfoot River, near Lincoln, Montana, home to their two children, Josh and Sarah, and their spouses and four grandchildren.

The Big Blackfoot region is the unceded homeland of the Salish, Kootenai, and Blackfeet Peoples and other Original Peoples who have flourished there and traveled “The Road to the Buffalo” for thousands of years.

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.” ~ Norman Maclean

Galen McKibben is an activist, community organizer and advisor to nonprofit organizations with over 50 years of experience working with cause-driven organizations throughout the U.S. He work with Nellie Stone Johnson in the 1960s to build low to moderate income housing on the predominantly Black north side of Minneapolis. In the 1970s and early 1980s Galen worked out of Washington, DC as a consultant to nonprofit organizations including the World Wildlife Fund, New York Botanical Gardens, American University, Wayne State University, numerous hospitals, the National Endowment for the Arts and others. Galen returned to his home state, Montana In the late 1980s, where he continued his work, co-creating ExplorationWorks, a museum of science and culture in downtown Helena. He has acted as advisor to the Governor's Taskforce on Endowments and Philanthropy, Montana Hunger Coalition, Montana Nonprofit Association and others. Galen served as an advisor to Bob Staffanson, founder of the American Indian Institute, for over 25 years.

Catitonauh is a teacher, community organizer, spiritual guide and author. She has served the disenfranchised on four continents. Raised to be honest about history, to be faithful to history, and to engage history, Catitonauh has lectured, organized, taught, trained and guided those who would challenge the illusions of progress and reclaim their rightful connections to the earth and others. Wherever she goes, she goes with heart. Her life is guided by the traditions nurtured by elders, seeded deep within the spirit of her being, remembering what so many have forgotten. “I am because the universe, the earth, and I are related. I feel her pain and she mine. The human task is to become a real person. The more you become a real person, you become a true human being, Real People are filled with gratitude and respect. True Ceremonies come to Real People. Have courage to know what you are, and you will receive all the Universe has to offer.”

Catitonauh means “the ancient one”.

Steve Newcomb is a Shawnee-Lenape scholar, author and expert on U.S. federal Indian law and the history of the Christian Doctrine of Discovery. He and his daughter Shawna Blue Star Newcomb work together to help lead the global movement for conscious change by speaking out about the Doctrine of Discovery and the Domination Code and what is the core of the current crisis and how can we move forward.

Mr. Newcomb has been studying and writing about U.S. federal Indian law and policy since the early 1980s, particularly the application of international law to Indigenous nations and peoples. He is the Director of the Indigenous Law Institute, which he co-founded with Birgil Kills Straight, a Traditional Headman and Elder of the Oglala Lakota Nation. Together they carried on a global campaign challenging imperial Vatican documents from the fifteenth century. Those documents resulted in the decimation of Original Nations and Peoples of Mother Earth and thereby deprived the planet of life-ways, sustainable ecosystems, and Sacred Teachings. Steve Newcomb’s book ‘Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery’ Pagans in the Promised Land provides a unique, well-researched challenge to U.S. federal Indian law and policy countering the presumption that American Indian nations are legitimately subject to the plenary power of the United States. Steve is collaborating with JoDe Goudy and Peter d’Errico , offering courses and webinars on US federal Indian law and other topics addressing genocide, ecocide, domination through colonization at RedThought.org.

Greg Chester lives in Maine with his wife Heidi.

Greg is the co-author of Community Knowledge Management: Indigenous, Rural, and Marginalized Communities - A Global Perspective, Paperback – March 4, 2014. Community Knowledge Management highlights an often-overlooked area: locating, maintaining, compensating for, and sharing the knowledge of rural, Indigenous, and marginalized (RIM) communities globally. This knowledge is valuable for all humans' prosperity, health, and survival and the planet's health. Respect for and fair compensation to the source communities is essential. Knowledge sharing includes the need for reciprocity for the process must be a two way street.

In 1988, Greg received a prophecy dream which he transcribed and titled ‘THEY ARE COMING TO THE HEART OF TURTLE ISLAND. TO THE HEART OF TURTLE ISLAND, THEY ARE COMING’. Greg has generously given PTN permission to use it as the core guide for PTN’s Living Ancestors’ Relay.

Greg is the former Library Director, Leech Lake Tribal College, Cass Lake, MN, USA. He is deeply committed to working with Indigenous Peoples to help protect Indigenous and rural peoples' knowledge, homelands, and their very lives, by helping to facilitate the exchange of ideas, and building trust and understanding while exploring technological avenues in reaching out to the hitherto unreached. Greg remembers fondly his years with Hopi Elder Thomas Banyacya, Phillip Deere, and Tadodaho Chief Leon Shenandoah, Clan Mother Audrey Shenandoah, Ahnisinahbaeojibway Elder Wub-e-ke-niew, and many other elders and the work they did together.

Carina Gustavsson, lives on the shore of Lake Vättern in Sweden where her family has thrived for generations. She serves PULL TOGETHER NOW as a helper and advisor with a European vantage point.

Carina has always stood in solidarity with Indigenous people to protect Mother Earth’s sacred water. Years ago, Carina co-hosted Dine Elder Roberta Blackgoat in Stockholm, to spread the word about Big Mountain where Peabody Coal carried out atrocities against the Dine and Hopi people and their Water. Roberta said, “Dear, one day you will see the fight come here when they come for your water.”

This warning came true. For almost 20 years now, Carina and her international network have been defending Sweden’s sacred Mother Lake, Lake Vättern, the second largest body of fresh water in Sweden and the 6th largest in Europe, from irreversible industrial mining connected to the “green energy” revolution taking place across the world.

There is no "Net-Zero", all over the world irreversible environmental damage is taking place due to "rare earth" mineral mining for green energy schemes. Defenders of Lake Vattern have held many emergency meetings with local residents and people in the US ( Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC) European Environmental Bureau in Brussels, Friends of the Earth Europe in Brussels plus several environmental organisations and Saami organisations in Sweden. Their network is growing rapidly as they collaborate to protect Water and defend their ecosystems. The mining industry is lobbying in the EU to fast track permitting new mines in Europe under the Critical Raw Materials Act. This law, if passed in the parliament and Council will make it close to impossible to stop the mine through legal means on the shore of the pristine Lake Vättern.

Lars Larsson lives with his wife Christina and family near Dala Jarna, Sweden. Lars is of Viking ancestry, and grew up on his grandmother’s farm in the forest north of Stockholm near the Sami People. Lars and his wife Christina and their sons and grandchildren are the 15th generation to live on their homeland and practice the traditional ways of living in the forest. With one hand working with timeless knowledge and the other using tools of the modern era, Lars is an inventor, electrical engineer, computer robotics engineer, complexity scientist, and a soil, water, and natural food scientist who researches, combines, and applies ancestral knowledge and traditions from the Vikings and other cultures around the world that thrive in diverse ecosystems all over the world. Knowledgeable in many areas, Lars integrates this timeless knowledge with new techniques and modern technology to create the systematic transformations necessary to restore environmental, social and economic well-being for all. He as been collecting old knowledge from different cultures for many years and now we can see clearly how that old “near nature” knowledge, in combination with new technologies, can solve many current problems.

John Brown is based in Helena, Montana but roams the wide-open West engaging with others in “soil crawls” to listen and learn about diverse ways to help renew, heal, and protect the soil, water, and the people through multicultural, intergenerational collaborations. John was born and raised in eastern Montana and grew up on the family farm. He is wholeheartedly dedicated to and passionate about utilizing organic material, biology, and diversity to build healthy soils. John says healthy soil creates opportunity. Healthy soil means higher yields, better water storage, drought resistance, less erosion, healthier food, and carbon storage. He is currently serving as a board member of the Northern Plains Resource Council and leads the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force which includes a new program to rewrite the organization’s by-laws that will include ways to make a space for “Voices of The Future” in all the work they do.

Erik Friend has lived in Cuernavaca, Mexico since 1988.

A deep passion for justice and fairness permeated his early years. A trip to Haiti as a late teen to work with Mother Teresa’s sisters of Charity anchored that passion into a lifelong commitment. After graduating from the Union Institute in San Diego he worked simultaneously in the development of automotive repair cooperatives, and coordination of the Mexico Immersion Program of the Lutheran church in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Living between two worlds brought great respect and appreciation for cultural and social diversity – a process that cycled through stages of guilt, outrage, appreciation, embrace, humility, etc. Presently he lives out these life-learnings in Mexico in his work with people with Disabilities who run a wheelchair repair shop, on the board Fundación Comunidad doing community development work, and as facilitator and training leader with the Awakening the Dreamer and the Drawdown program of the Pachamama Alliance. Erik has travelled to Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Ecuador to train and support local community leaders and change agents. Erik joined Rotary in 2011 immediately identifying and resonating with the values, principles and activities. Rotary offers a platform and structure that enhanced the reach of the wheelchair repair program and the employment of people with disabilities that it provides. That program called “Enchúlame la Silla” in Spanish, not only resulted in the repair of 3000 wheelchairs last year and a decent income for the twelve people with disabilities who do the work, but more importantly the program challenges people’s unconscious assumptions about what people with disabilities can do and assumptions about what disabilities are and what our own disabilities are. In 2016 started working with the Circulo Sagrado de Abuelas y Abuelo de Guatemaya (Sacred Circle of Grandmothers and Grandfathers of Guatemaya) traveling to the UN with them for a continental gathering of indigenous elders. Since then, he has accompanied them in other gatherings and workshops as well. Eric is married to Griselda Gonzalez, they have two sons.

Jeff Galuza, lives near the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in Maine, USA. His statement:

My interests and involvement with “Pull Together Now” is relatively new and I’m still learning more each day about my desire to be a good ancestor.

As a grandfather of one granddaughter I am now more acutely aware of the wisdom and love she brought with her when she showed up here in human form. My interest with “PTN” is about learning how to support her and show her my example of caring for the Earth mother so this planet is safe, healthy and accessible for all humankind.

My daily life is concerned with working with wood from my sawmill that can go directly to peoples homes. Kind of a farm to table deal.

I have been practicing Spiritual disciplines for nearly 30 years with Vision Quests, Sweat lodges and Sundance. Through these my life has been made more understandable and I know the feeling of primal, informed practices. I’m a grateful walker.

I’m grateful to be a listener and a part of this journey. I see that water is all of ours lifeblood.

Ted Bieth, Life long practicing artist and life long learner.

His statement:

I am age 71 born and raised in north central Iowa. Graduated from high school in 1970. Attended Bimidji State University, Bemidji Minnesota 1970-1972. Attended St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud Minnesota 1972-1974 where I received a BS degree in Art Education and Physical Education.

High School Art Teacher and Coach from 1974-2018 at a number of Iowa high schools. Adjunct instructor in the Art Department at North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City,Iowa. Teaching Drawing I and II. 2004 to present.

My spouse and best friend for most of my life, Helen, and I have twin daughters, Annie and Mollie, who are on their own now. We currently living near Plymouth, Iowa.