Ndé Bikéeya co-founder Karen Weilacher first visited Arizona’s Dragoon Mountains as a young adult. Upon arrival in the Cochise Stronghold, she felt  a visceral spiritual kinship. Karen acquired a parcel of land in the stronghold in 1985 and returned annually for spiritual renewal. In 2005, she moved to the stronghold full-time and began developing the site that would become the home of Ndé Bikéeyá

After her initial visit, Karen immersed herself in the history and culture of the Chiricahua people. Discovering the injustice wrought on the Chiricahua through greed, misunderstanding, and the machinations of the dominant colonial society kindled her desire to right the great wrong inflicted upon them. Karen began to believe the best way to right this great wrong is to return her land to the Chiricahua people. However, the Chiricahua, as a tribe, have been separated from one another among several reservations and are not federally recognized as a whole. 

In 2021, Karen shared her desire with Jeff Haozous, who had also long been drawn to the land and had recently moved to the stronghold from Oklahoma after serving as Chairman of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe.  They agreed that a land trust, managed by a nonprofit, could provide a land base for  all Chiricahua people in their ancestral homeland.

In October 2022, Tina came to the stronghold to speak at an event commemorating the one hundred fiftieth year anniversary of the establishment of the Chiricahua Apache Reservation there. It was her first visit, and like Karen and Jeff before her, Tina was awed by the canyon’s power and beauty. In 2023, when Jeff & Karen began working to create the organization, Tina agreed to serve on its board.