Cheryle “Cookie” Cobell Zwang is an advisor to the Foundation for America’s Public Lands who is supporting the Foundation’s initiatives to develop working relationships with Native nations within the Colorado River Basin, and to collaboratively work to enhance the drought resilience of BLM-managed lands and waters.
Through these efforts, Zwang will work with native nations and partners to create collaborative opportunities of mutual benefit. Zwang is an enrolled member of the Amskapi Piikani (Blackfeet Nation) of Montana and was born and raised on the 1.5 million acre reservation that borders what is now Glacier National Park.
Zwang has a long history of working collaboratively with Native nations and brings 30 years of professional experience working within two federal land management agencies—the U.S. Forest Service and the Idaho Bureau of Land Management. She previously served as a Tribal Liaison for the Interior Columbia River Basin Project and worked in partnership with the Shoshone-Paiute and Shoshone-Bannock Tribes to build greenhouses in connection with their high schools and facilitate community seed collection. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Glacier National Park Conservancy and is the Chair of the Conservancy’s Tribal Relations Committee. In these roles, she has helped to solidify relationships with the Blackfeet Nation (Amskapi Piikani) and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. In addition to her federal staff and leadership experience, Zwang graduated from Montana State University with a Bachelor of Science degree.
