Walking Through The Seasons

PROGRAM STARTS OCTOBER 25th | EARLY BIRD ENDS OCTOBER 31st

Learn ancestral plant knowledge, seasonal ceremony, and traditional skills with Ktunaxa knowledge keepers Darcy and Jenny Fisher on ʔamakis Ktunaxa (Ktunaxa territory).

Why Our Ancestors Walked

Long ago, our people moved with the seasons—following rivers, roots, berries, and medicines. To walk this way was belonging, not just survival.

Each season taught something essential. Spring brought camas and serviceberry. Summer meant salmon runs. Autumn was root digging and preserving. Winter brought ceremony and storytelling by firelight.

Movement was respect—we let the land rest, breathe, and grow strong. Movement was precision—knowledge carried in the body about where to be and when. Movement was spirit—stones laid, songs sung, prayers whispered.

This program teaches you to walk this way again.

Not as historical reenactment, but as living practice that works now, in the world we're actually living in.

What You'll Experience

Walk through a complete year learning to live in rhythm with the land the way our ancestors did. Each month brings new teachings, hands-on skills, and medicines you'll create with your own hands.

12 monthly weekend gatherings (Friday evening through Sunday afternoon) on the land near Cranbrook and Invermere, BC. Every gathering includes all materials, shared meals prepared together, and facilitation by 2-3 teachers.

12 monthly online circles (90 minutes, third Tuesday each month) to integrate teachings, stay connected to community, and deepen your practice between gatherings.

Complete medicine bundle you create throughout the year—herbal salves and teas, handmade cordage, ceremony tools, preserved foods, traditional crafts.

Walking Through the Seasons book (gifted during December solstice gathering) documenting the full depth of these Ktunaxa seasonal teachings.

Location: All gatherings take place on ʔamakis Ktunaxa (Ktunaxa traditional territory) in British Columbia, Canada. This program honors the protocols and relationships of this specific territory.

The Complete 12-Month Journey

AUTUMN | Gathering & Gratitude

October 25-27, 2025: Magical Brews & Medicines

The month of return, where warmth meets mystery and the healer awakens. Our ancestors knew which plants to harvest before frost, how to concentrate summer's medicine into syrups and oils that would carry through winter.

You'll learn:

• Custom tea blending for your specific needs

• Resin-infused oils for winter protection

• Herbal syrups, oxymels, and children's cough remedies

• Devil's Club bead stringing and ceremonial stir stick carving

• Snowberry cleansing whisks

You'll leave with: Your personal apothecary of autumn medicines and tools for tending your family's health through winter.

November 2025: Tree Wisdom

Trees as teachers of deep roots, resilience, and sustenance. When other foods grew scarce, our ancestors knew which trees would feed them—cambium that could be eaten, tips that made medicine, resin that healed wounds.

You'll learn:

• Tree tip and cambium teas (spruce, pine, fir, juniper)

• Resin salves for protection and healing

• Juniper-infused oil and sacred smoke teachings

• Ancestral tallow rendering and crafting

• Traditional tortilla-making and shared storytelling

You'll leave with: Tree medicines and the knowledge of which trees sustain you when everything else is bare.

December 2025: Winter Solstice & Ceremony

Light in the darkness—ceremony, reflection, and renewal. Our ancestors marked the longest night with fire and prayer, understanding that their participation mattered in calling the light back.

You'll learn:

• Candle-making (mullein torches and beeswax)

• Smoke medicine and smudge blending

• Smudge salve crafting for portable ceremony

• Earth pigments (red ochre, charcoal, mineral paints)

• Fabric tie dolls for protection and intention

• Creating your personal ceremony kit

You'll leave with: Your ceremony bundle and your copy of Walking Through the Seasons book, connecting you to the full year of teachings.

WINTER | Stillness & Ceremony

January 2026: Weaving & Cordage

Weaving strength, patience, and continuity through fiber work. Winter was when our ancestors created the tools they'd need for the rest of the year—nets for fishing, cordage for carrying, baskets for gathering.

You'll learn:

• Cordage creation from Indian hemp, cattail, and tule

• Simple weaving and ancestral fiber techniques

• The teaching of "Threads of Survival"—how we weave our own lives

• Continuation of candle and smudge work (winter to spring transition)

You'll leave with: Functional cordage and weavings you've made, plus embodied understanding of patience and repetition.

February 2026: Heart Health & Self-Care

Loving the self, strengthening the heart for spring ahead. Late winter was when our ancestors' bodies were most vulnerable—food stores low, energy depleted, hearts needing tending before the intensity of spring work began.

You'll learn:

• Herbal heart tonics and circulation teas

• Breathwork and heart coherence meditation

• Herbal steam facials and therapeutic foot soaks

• Plant-infused overnight oats and daily nourishment

• Body butter blending for self-care

• Creating your sustainable "Listening to the Body" plan

You'll leave with: Heart medicines and daily practices that prepare you to meet spring with strength.

SPRING | Renewal & Awakening

March 2026: Spring Equinox Renewal

Rebirth, cleansing, and renewal as the earth awakens. Our ancestors knew exactly when to tap trees for medicine, which early plants cleansed winter's heaviness from the body, how to prepare themselves and their living spaces for the growing season ahead.

You'll learn:

• Tree tapping for birch and maple sap medicine

• Spring plant hair rinses and body care

• Natural soap making with herbs and oils

• Stories and foods of renewal and new beginnings

You'll leave with: Cleansing medicines and renewed energy as spring arrives.

April 2026: Spring Cleansing Foods

Awakening the body, welcoming the visitors (migratory birds, returning life). Our ancestors watched for the first green shoots—nettles, dandelions, wild onions—and knew these plants were specifically designed to cleanse bodies that had eaten heavy winter foods for months.

You'll learn:

• Wild green salads and cleansing soups

• Working with nettle, dandelion, and early spring medicines

• Digestive bitters for renewal

• Cottonwood bud medicine and healing balm

• Spring bird migrations and cycles of return

You'll leave with: Spring detox medicines and relationship with the plants that prepare your body for summer work.

May 2026: Roots & Blossoms

Rooted strength and blossoming potential. This was root digging time for our ancestors—when bear root, camas, and other medicines were ready to harvest. Simultaneously, trees and plants were flowering, offering different medicines in their blossoms.

You'll learn:

• Root harvesting and medicine preparation

• Blossom teas, cordials, and fritters

• Wild foraging and floral syrup making

• The teaching of resilience through deep roots allowing beauty to rise

You'll leave with: Root and blossom medicines, plus understanding of proper harvest timing and protocols.

Meet Your Facilitators

Darcy and Jenny Fisher are Ktunaxa and Salish knowledge keepers, authors of Walking Through the Seasons: A Living Archive of Ceremony, Territory, and the Plants That Remember Us, and founders of Keepers of the Seasons LLC.

Darcy Fisher (Ktunaxa/Kootenai descent)

Darcy holds a Wellness Counsellor Diploma with specialized training in abuse and trauma, basic counseling, and career counseling. He brings over 20 years of experience in human services, Indigenous education, and community governance, including multiple terms as elected tribal official contributing to land and resource management within the Ktunaxa Nation.

His work has always bridged cultural knowledge and contemporary systems—whether facilitating parenting programs, mentoring youth, or creating educational initiatives that have served communities across the U.S. and Canada. As a counsellor, Darcy understands that healing isn't linear and that transformation requires both time and relationship. This understanding shapes how he teaches: with patience, cultural grounding, and recognition that each person's path back to the land looks different.

As a facilitator, Darcy teaches the way his ancestors did—through story, through direct experience on the land, and through relationship that honors both individual journey and collective healing. His approach integrates traditional ecological knowledge with trauma-informed care, creating space where people can safely remember what they've been disconnected from.

Jenny Fisher (Salish and Kootenai, Pend Oreille descent)

Jenny has dedicated decades to human services work, supporting families and communities through crisis, transition, and healing. As former Director for Montana CASA/GAL (Court Appointed Special Advocates), she advocated for children navigating trauma and complex systems. Her career spans early childhood development, suicide prevention, grief and loss facilitation, and the creation of youth programs that continue to serve communities years after their founding.

Jenny's approach to facilitation is informed by years of holding space for people in their most vulnerable moments. Her formal training in herbalism and land-based practices isn't separate from her human services work—it's an extension of it. She understands that sometimes the healing people need can't be found in an office or through talk therapy alone. Sometimes they need their hands in soil, their bodies moving with seasonal rhythms, and permission to grieve what was taken from their families.

Her teaching carries the gentleness and strength of someone who has sat with people through addiction, suicide attempts, family separation, and intergenerational trauma—and has witnessed what becomes possible when they're given tools to tend their own healing.

Together: Human Services Meets Cultural Restoration

Darcy and Jenny represent a unique partnership: both are trained in human services AND carry cultural knowledge passed through their families. They understand Western therapeutic frameworks and Indigenous healing practices—and more importantly, they know how to bridge them.

Together, they've facilitated parenting programs, youth development initiatives, grief and loss workshops, and cultural education across diverse settings. Through Keepers of the Seasons, they've delivered over $200,000 in programming for tribal governments, schools, nonprofits, and community organizations. Through Six Twenty Skincare and Wellness, they demonstrate daily how ancestral plant knowledge translates into sustainable livelihood and embodied practice.

What makes them uniquely qualified to hold this work:

• Clinical training meets cultural grounding: Darcy's counseling credentials combined with both of their lived cultural knowledge means they can recognize when someone is in crisis, hold trauma-informed space, and know when to refer to additional support

• They've worked with people in crisis: Suicide prevention, abuse recovery, addiction, grief—they understand the population drawn to land-based healing and can hold complexity with care

• They live what they teach: This isn't academic knowledge about plants and seasons. They harvest these medicines, feed their families from the land, practice these ceremonies in their own lives

• Long-term program development: Creating youth programs and parenting initiatives that sustain over years demonstrates they build things that last, not just deliver one-off workshops

• Bridging systems: Their experience in governance, education, and human services means they can translate traditional knowledge in ways that serve contemporary life without compromising its integrity

This program reflects decades of learning how healing actually happens: Not through information alone, but through consistent practice, land-based relationship, trauma-informed care, and being held by both skilled facilitators and accountable community. They know that many people come to this work carrying pain—and they're trained to hold that with both cultural wisdom and professional competence.

A Note on Safety and Support

We recognize that many people drawn to land-based learning are navigating mental health challenges, grief, trauma, or recovery. With backgrounds in wellness counseling, suicide prevention, and crisis support, we know how to create safe containers for people in vulnerable moments while recognizing the limits of what this program offers.

This is not therapy or clinical treatment. It is healing work rooted in cultural practice, seasonal relationship, and community accountability. If you're currently in active crisis, acute mental health episodes, or early addiction recovery, we ask that you be in concurrent care with a therapist or clinical support program. We're here to walk with you through the seasons and support your connection to land-based healing—not to replace professional mental health care you may need.

We maintain referral relationships with therapists and support services for participants who need additional help, and we're trained to recognize when someone would benefit from that support.

SUMMER | Abundance & Community

June 2026: Summer Camp & Earth Bake

Community, abundance, and ancestral cooking technologies. Our ancestors came together in summer for communal feasts, earth baking that fed dozens of people, shared work on projects too large for individuals.

You'll learn:

• Traditional earth bake (pit cooking) and communal feast preparation

• Hide tanning process begins (Part 1 of 2)

• Herbal-infused oils and honey making

• Water cleanse ceremony

• Bark basketry and simple utensil carving

You'll leave with: Experience of communal creation and summer medicines, plus hide tanning started for completion in August.

July 2026: Summer Abundance

Gratitude, celebration, and fullness of life at peak season. This was berry time, the height of plant medicine, when our ancestors gathered what would sustain them through the coming year. First fruits were always offered back to the land in gratitude.

You'll learn:

• Berry harvesting and summer medicine gathering

• Jam, syrup, and wild tea making

• Ceremonial first fruits offering to the land

• The practice of tending abundance within yourself

You'll leave with: Preserved summer foods and deepened gratitude practice.

August 2026: Craft & Continuity

Ancestral technology and the art of continuance. Late summer was when our ancestors completed major projects started earlier—finishing hides, preparing dried foods for winter, creating the tools that would last years.

You'll learn:

• Hide tanning completion (Part 2, continuing from June)

• Fish tanning demonstration and discussion

• Fishing trap and simple net creation

• Natural dyes from plants and minerals

• Dried and preserved food preparation for winter storage

• Earth pit boil and community feast hosting

You'll leave with: Completed ancestral crafts and preserved foods, plus skills to teach others.

THE CLOSING CIRCLE

September 2026: Autumn Harvest Gathering

Harvest, community, and gratitude as the circle closes. Our ancestors understood that harvest was when you proved whether you'd listened well all year—whether you maintained good relationship with plants and place, whether you'd be sustained through winter.

You'll learn:

• Root gathering and fall medicine harvest

• Seed saving for next year's cycle

• Moccasin making and harvest bundle creation

• Fall equinox gratitude feast and tea ceremony

• Year reflection and winter preparation

You'll leave with: Your completed living medicine bundle and gratitude for the full circle walked.

October 2026: Walking with the Seasons Expo

Reflection, reciprocity, and sharing what the land taught you. Our ancestors understood that knowledge wasn't meant to be hoarded—those who learned were expected to teach, to share, to contribute back to community.

What happens:

• Seasonal foraging and gatherer's showcase of your year's work

• Native foods and "food as medicine" tastings

• Ancestral skills and sustainable practice demonstrations

• Cultural arts presentations

Transition moment: Year One graduates are celebrated. Invitation extended into Year Two: Carriers of Seasonal Knowledge for those called to deepen their practice and become teachers themselves.

Critical Dates & Deadlines

October 25-27, 2025: Program begins (Month 1: Magical Brews & Medicines)

October 31, 2025: Early bird enrollment closes (last chance for $5,000 rate)

November 30, 2025: Final enrollment closes (program begins December for late enrollees)

Space limited to 15 students. When full, enrollment closes immediately regardless of deadline.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if I miss a gathering?
Life happens. Missing up to 3 sessions with advance notice is acceptable. You'll receive mailed materials and online circle access. Missing 4+ sessions may result in program dismissal without refund.

Can I join late or leave early?
Enrollment closes November 30th. All payments are non-refundable after that date. This is a commitment to walking the full circle together.

What about lodging and meals?
You arrange your own lodging and transportation (camping available at summer gatherings). We provide lunch, snacks, and usually one dinner during gatherings, plus coffee and tea throughout the day.

Is this only for Indigenous people?
No. All who approach with respect and humility are welcome. We do prioritize Indigenous applicants for work-trade scholarship.

What if I have accessibility needs?
Contact us directly. We work with each person to accommodate what we can while being honest about the physical nature of outdoor learning.

Do you offer payment plans?
Yes, through Klarna at checkout. You can also pay $500 deposit and choose monthly or seasonal installments.

Will there be a Year Two option?
Yes. Graduates can continue into Carriers of Seasonal Knowledge leadership track ($6,500) to deepen practice and learn to teach in their own communities.

MORE QUESTIONS? EMAIL US: info@kotstek.com

[PHOTO GALLERY FROM PAST GATHERINGS]

Ready to Walk?

Enrollment closes November 30th. Early bird rate ends October 31st. Space limited to 15.

The land is already teaching. The seasons are already turning. The question is whether you're ready to remember how to walk with them.

Questions? Let's Talk.

📧 Email: info@kotstek.com
🌐 Website: sixtwenty.net
📬 Mail: Keepers of the Seasons, LLC | PO Box 733 | Arlee, MT 59821

We respond within 48 hours to all inquiries.

To walk is to remember.
To listen is to heal.
To serve is to belong.

Keepers of the Seasons, LLC
Ktunaxa-owned | Guided by ancestral knowledge | Rooted in ʔamakis Ktunaxa