- I wanted to teach what it means to connect and the importance of our relationship with nature.

We started using rocks, jumping over logs, and doing all of these movements that we would do inside of a gym, but we were using nature.

Realizing we're surrounded by traditional plants, we're surrounded by our medicines.

Our ancestors were out here.

When I'm touching a log, I'm grounding and matching the rhythm of Mother Earth.

It became about this connection that was being created and also leaving no trace.

We could go into these natural spaces and leave them the way that we found them.

All of this evolved to what the Earth Gym is, recognizing that nature doesn't need us, but we 100% need nature.

- For Rachel Heaton, Muckleshoot tribal member and cultural educator, the outdoors is her safe space.

She works with Natives and non-Natives alike to teach them how to connect with nature.

Today, we're here at Federation Forest, Muckleshoot Ancestral Land, where she'll teach me about native plant medicines and the bounty that nature provides.

- We're going to do a little hike today, and we're going to check out some traditional and native plants and just tell you about why they're important to my community.

Are you ready?

- Let's do it.

- Alright.

(musical interlude) - We're going to see lots of cedar.

Cedar is super important to our tribal community.

Our canoes are carved from it.

Our regalia is made from it.

Our baskets are woven from it.

You can actually take the cedar boughs and you can make cedar steam, and it's anti-fungal, anti-viral.

The cedar tree is one of the greatest medicines that we have access to.

And so, yeah.

So we'll see these along on our walk.

We're going to check out this plant here.

This is definitely one that we see common in our areas.

This is salmonberry.

- Okay.

- Salmonberry is one of the first berries to come up in the season.

I'mma show you, I'mma reach through here and grab this.

It has its three leaves and if you hold this one back... - (gasps) - It looks like a butterfly.

- Oh my gosh.

- So that's one way that you can identify salmonberries.

- I got to tell that to my son, he's gonna be so excited.

(laughs) - My name is Rachel Heaton.

I'm a Muckleshoot tribal member, descendent of the Duwamish people, so the First Peoples of Seattle.

And I'm the owner of the Earth Gym.

I didn't always grow up here.

Grew up in Atlanta.

Felt like I was too dark for the white folks and I was too light for Black folks, so I was always trying to fit in.

I had found out when I think I was in seventh grade that I was Native, and so it was kind of like this a-ha moment.

- So you come to Seattle and you begin a connection with who you are.

How did you find yourself in the outdoors?

- Well, when I came here, I think I really just immerged myself into my community.

I lived by the Rez.

There's youth programs and different things, so I went straight into those programs.

At different stages of my life, I would retreat to nature whenever life felt really stressful, and I would sit by the river and I would watch the red-winged blackbirds, and I would listen to them, but I found myself doing it almost every single day.

I didn't realize it 'til later that all along nature was helping me heal.

It wasn't like this planned, like, "I know I'm going to go here and nature is going to help me do it."

It just evolved and I realized more and more like, wow, nature really does provide this healing and if you allow it, you will pick that up, you'll sense it, you'll feel it.

And so I just let it be my guide.

(laughs) So in this particular forest, there's quite a bit of old growth.

Whenever I take groups out, I'm always telling folks, like, if there's a tree that speaks to you, like always take time to touch it.

(musical interlude) When we touch trees and we feel that calm come over us, it's because we're matching the rhythm of Mother Earth.

Yeah, the phrase being "tree huggers" is a real thing.

(laughs) - This is nettle here.

And of course, as I'm touching it, I'm getting stung.

If you look at it, you can see all of its little... its little hairs there.

That's what's stinging you.

We use all parts of the nettle.

If it's first coming out of the ground, we use it for food.

And then as it gets older, we'll use it for tea.

When it gets 5, 6ft tall, we can use it for basket we can use it for basket weaving we can use it for fishing nets.

It's very, very strong.

Nettles get a bad rap.

-Yeah.

- And they're actually a really nutritious, useful plant.

The Earth Gym, I would say, really evolved during Covid.

I used to be a competitive bodybuilder and then I owned a gym.

So whenever I was also going through things, I would go to the gym, go to the gym.

But then Covid hit and I didn't have this space to go to.

As a single mom, I also couldn't take a toddler, so it became this question of, "What am I going to do?"

"How am I going to work out?"

We need resistance, we need cardio.

Okay, I have a baby.

- (laughs) - I'mma throw him a pack.

- It's about 30 pounds.

- I was like, yep, he's about 30 pounds.

He's going to be my resistance and we're going to go hiking.

And so it started off very selfishly.

It wasn't this intent or thought that I was going to start a business with it.

I was working for the culture department at that time and I used to do summer workouts with the youth.

I'm like, "Well, let's just take it out in nature."

The youth could go outside and recognize, "I could find a log to do squats on."

"I can, you know, lift a rock and do rock carries or overhead carries."

"I can use the rocks for deadlifts."

"I can use tree branches for pull ups."

They were finding ways to move their body, but they were also touching nature.

And they felt better when they were done.

They felt calmer and more peaceful.

All of this evolved to what the Earth Gym is, and also wanting to educate folks that we're constantly taking from nature.

We always think of nature as, it provides paper and food and all of these things, but what can we give nature?

How can we give back to nature and give thanks to what nature provides for us?

This is always a good area to come out and just be present for a few moments.

If we bring groups out, we're lot of times talking and you know, we're out here we're enjoying it, but are we really connecting?

Are we being intentional?

So I'll always do a moment of silence.

When you think of the ripples moving down the, you know, over the rocks, the river will never hit that rock like that ever again.

And so it just makes you realize how important time is.

(meditative music) I think more than ever, we see the impacts of what's happening to nature.

We see the issues of climate change.

Native communities and minorities are the first ones affected by climate change.

So my hope from this is that people are more likely to get involved because they've created a connection to it.

Nature for me, is my peaceful place.

It's my calm.

It's always been a safe place for me, but now I get to exist in it all the time so, I love being out here.