Impact Story
Michael Jack, Parks & Recreation Director for the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, talks about the importance of community service. “You cannot be a leader of the people if you don’t serve your people.”
The Parks & Recreation Department of the Quechan Indian Tribe is creating positive pathways for young people in the Fort Yuma community. Through a hands-on, community-serving Youth Council, the department is developing confident, Native leaders, powered by their history, culture, and language.
Parks & Recreation Director Michael Jack explains, “We’re focused on youth in leadership because if we’re not focusing on where we’re going to be 20 years from now, how do we know we’re going to exist 100 years from now?”
Jack says that, fittingly, the department’s motto is “Show Up and Show Out,” and the Youth Council’s motto is “Be the change you want to see.” In this video, Jack, who has served his tribe for over 15 years as a Social Services Director, Tribal Councilman, and Tribal Vice President, shares how the department’s Leadership Program focuses first on who the Quechan are as Native people.
“That has to be the driving force behind our youth,” he says. “You’ve got to show these youth what’s important. And that’s your culture, your language, your history.”
A Foundation of Culture, Language, and History
As part of the program, the Youth Council joins with the tribe’s youth dance group, traveling across California and up to Las Vegas, Nevada, sharing their songs. Meanwhile, they learn about the tribe’s history, from the roots of their tribal constitution, to when and how they became federally recognized. Kids are encouraged to look at their own histories, the effect of boarding schools on their families, and the generational loss of language and culture.
The goal is to teach youth about themselves and where they came from, which creates a foundation for great leadership, and a pathway to impactful opportunities for their futures.
Through the California Tribal Fund, First Nations has provided grants to the Quechan Indian Tribe since 2023 for general operations and drought mitigation. In 2025, First Nations learned about the Parks & Rec Department and awarded a $20,000 grant in support of the Leadership Program.
Donald Salcedo (Quechan and Laguna), lead program officer for the California Tribal Fund, says, “First Nations’ funding really gave the tribe and the Parks & Rec Department the visibility to stand out of the tribe and get the focus to come back in. This visibility that they’re receiving really gives youth a lot of passion, a lot of strength, and the self-confidence to do big things.”
Michael Jack and the Parks & Recreation team join First Nations’ community partners at the Future Leaders Summit in June 2026.
A Focus on Service
The leadership skills honed through the program are key to serving the Quechan community. The Youth Council works directly with Parks & Rec staff, interacting and serving, year-round:
- 350 Father’s Day meals
- Easter Egg Hunts, filling 400 Easter baskets
- 600 Easter plates
Service also takes the form of education.
Youth learn about issues affecting their communities such as land back, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives, and data centers. They learn firsthand from Native American leaders they know. They see strength and power beyond the tribal community, and they see how they can make a difference as lawmakers and policy makers.
The Leadership Program teaches youth to aim high, anchored by the strength of their culture, and the wisdom of their ancestors.
“We need people who can infiltrate the cities and counties that surround the tribe and let them now that we are the center pole. We are the cornerstone of your community,” says Jack. “Without the Quechan, you wouldn’t have a way to cross the river and come in for the Gold Rush and settle into California. You wouldn’t have that, and this is why we’re important and that’s what we’re exposing our youth council to.”
A Look to the Future
Salcedo explains how, through the California Tribal Fund, First Nations invests in youth-driven programs because they’re our future, and how a more formal fending approach is being developed with the Parks and Recreation Department. “This is what they do with a seed,” he says. “Like we dropped a small seed and it just blossomed and it flourished.”
Jack encourages people to learn more about the department and see its success in action. “Come visit me and Parks & Recreation and come see what we do. You will see that we’re making changes out here. My youth will show you who they are.”
Learn more about the Parks & Recreation Department and the Quechan Indian Tribe here.
