Today and every day, we honor the memory of David Bartecchi: a beloved husband and father, an esteemed member of his community, and a good relative to the earth and all people.
David served as the Executive Director of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Village Earth from 2008 onward. In 2019, he co-founded the Native Lands Advocacy Project. David had over 20 years of experience working in Indian Country with a focus on Indian Land Tenure, Community Mapping, Bison Restoration, and challenging the numbers used by HUD in the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG).
During his years of work on the Pine Ridge Reservation, he learned there was a vast array of public data that could be useful for tribal land planning, but was instead inaccessible or unusable for Native communities in its existing formats. From his desire to remove these unnecessary and cumbersome barriers to data, the Native Lands Advocacy Project and our website, the Native Land Information System, were born.
David Bartecchi was a caring and humble leader with a good heart that was apparent to all who knew him. He was a thoughtful listener, an innovative thinker, and a cheerful presence. He brought an array of invaluable interpersonal and technical skills to the Native Lands Advocacy Project, and he was always eager to be on the cutting-edge of developing useful and accessible data tools for Native communities in the U.S.
All who love David were profoundly shaken by his unexpected death on September 28, 2023, doing what he loved: white water rafting on the beautiful Rogue River. David’s death was met with an outpouring of love and grief not only among his family and close friends, but also by many in Indian Country. He’d become known as a kind and trustworthy relative among our Native friends and partners, and we seek to honor his legacy by carrying forth his vision and maintaining the relationships and trust he built in Indian Country.
David’s legacy is many-faceted. The Native Land Information System, a free repository of data for Native communities, is a testament to his decades-long commitment to serving Indian Country. His years of work with Village Earth are memorialized through relationships he made across the globe, as well as by the many articles he authored about community-based development and grassroots empowerment.
But his legacy is much larger than even the impressive body of research and grassroots work he leaves behind. David built relationships of mutual respect and care everywhere he went. He is loved and dearly missed by his wife, their two daughters, and all of his relations. We at NLAP miss David not only as a coworker and leader, but as a friend. Through our work, we carry on his vision and seek to honor his memory.
“Dave was someone we looked up to and held in the highest regard. Apart from his talents, skills, and credentials, he was one of the most genuinely empathetic and visionary individuals we’ve ever worked with. […] As co-founder of the Native Lands Advocacy Project, Dave worked tirelessly to help Tribes map treaty-protected lands across the west, and has trained hundreds of students and professionals around the world in community resource mapping and GIS skills. His commitment to Indigenous sovereignty was infinite – it was part of who he was and what fueled his passion.
He leaves behind a wife and two daughters he adored, and so many people in Fort Collins and across the world who loved him for the outstanding human he was. We have lost a force for good in our community, and his absence will be felt for decades to come.”
Read Trees, Water, & People’s full statement in memory of Dave
