Native Science Field Centers
Indigenous Science
There is a science derived from place; from cycles and seasons and living with the Earth, water, wind and sky. It is a science of close observation; a science of recording, documenting and experiencing. It is a science of experimentation and creation and perhaps most uniquely of all, considering Western science and its "rush to the future," it is a science of tradition.
It has become known as indigenous science, and in the 21st century with global warming, pollution and climate change, this may be the most critical science of all. It is the science of how we exist in a sustainable way on this continent and in the world. It is a science rooted in thousands of generations of native experience, and it is always and forever one generation away from disappearing. That the science still exists is a credit to the persistence of vision of Native American Elders, wisdom keepers and traditional scientists.
It is well-known that the culture of native people has not always been respected by non-natives. Laws have been passed prohibiting the use of native languages, the practice of native religions and the ability of native people to exist in their traditional landscapes and ecosystems. These have all had a tremendous impact on the very resilient, but still precarious tradition of indigenous place-based science. That this science persists into the next generation and that there be a "next" generation of indigenous scientists has become a rallying cry for three native peoples from very diverse places, one very mainstream institution and a host of collaborators, helpers, partners and people who care and share a vision.
Roots
The Native Science Field Centers were created by a group of concerned natives and non-natives who came together with a vision for a different way of preserving and perpetuating science knowledge. They realized that in order to safeguard this tradition they must commit not just to preserving knowledge, but to revitalizing the scientists themselves as the creators and caretakers of knowledge.
In native traditions it is often said that creation happens all the time and that there is not just one starting point, but many. The creation of the native science field centers parallels this belief. This effort can be seen to begin many places. One of the places is with a grant from the National Science Foundation. This grant was given to Hopa Mountain to establish three centers with the goal of providing "informal science learning activities" to native communities. This would allow native scientists (we often call them elders) to have the benefit and training of using not just their own tools, but the best tools of Western science.
Synergy it is often termed in literature. This is when two different things come together and empower each other to create a greater whole. Synergy is about creating useful and dynamic relationships that enlighten all participants. This is a scientific principle that native people have practiced for a very very long time.
Wind River
The Wind River Native Science Field Center was established two years ago to function as the third and final center funded as a National Science Foundation pilot project. It is the youngest of the three centers, the other two being at Blackfeet College and Oglala Lakota College. Each center by design functions within a rich tribal community context, therefore, each center is unique in its approaches, resources and the type of science that is supported and necessitated by the area.
The WRNSFC is located on the Wind River Reservation, home of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Nations. The Reservation is over 2 million acres of mountains, rivers, deserts, lakes and farm and ranch land in central Wyoming. It is 2 1/2 hours from Yellowstone National Park and is a remote place in a state famed for its remote places. It is a place of extraordinary biological and cultural wealth. It is from a small modular building in the heart of the reservation that the Wind River Native Science Field Center works at its goal of "fostering the next-generation of native scientists."
We have always been scientists
From its beginning, the Wind River Native Science Field Center has committed itself to the practice of creating relationships and involving tribal and community elders. Native American Elders hold a special place in their community; they not only embody decades of lived experience but they also are the bridge to a revered and prized cultural knowledge. This knowledge is largely oral and frequently spiritual in nature and as such is always somewhat private and frequently precarious. Elders are the Internet of tribal knowledge. They are the first place you turn and the last word on matters of tradition, language and indigenous science. They are also a very scarce resource and because of their age are fragile bearers of these legacies.
Reba Teran is an Eastern Shoshone elder, linguist and tribal cultural expert. She is in charge of compiling the Shoshone dictionary, is a videographer and serves as an elder consultant for the center. "We Shoshones have always been scientists. We know the water and land and nature like no one else. The Center helps us remember that and reclaim it. Most important though it reminds us to teach that and pass that on to our kids. It makes them proud Shoshone scientists. Those words sound good together. "Shoshone-Scientist" says Teran with a smile.
What's in a name
In a recent activity sponsored by the Wind River Native Science Field Center, Reba Teran joined a group of students on an expedition to Washakie Park. Set high in the mountains, Washakie Park is a special place the Shoshone people; it is a pharmacy, church, kitchen, laboratory and much much more. At Washakie Park students used the latest in Geographic Information Systems technology to help map the location of plants that are special and sacred to the Shoshone people. These plants have very practical uses as medicines and food sources, but also represent cultural treasures to the Eastern Shoshone.
Each plant has its own life, spirit, and most importantly name. Teran says, "The plants appreciate being called by their name in Shoshone. It is a sign of respect, and respect for all plant and animal life is our traditional way." Teran taught each student the name of the plant in Shoshone, taking great care to do a cultural, philosophical and spiritual translation that captures the essence of what the plant is and what it does.
Students were videotaped using the plants, naming them in Shoshone and describing their usage and how to harvest them within a system of Shoshone ecology. This requires that the harvesting be done with consideration for the "relationships" among the plants. As one student said, "You have to be careful how you do it. If you do it the wrong way it is like breaking up a family." This is only one of dozens of activities that encourage the students to develop a worldview that integrates Western science with the millennia-old place-based knowledge of the Shoshone people.
Technology
One of the hallmarks of the Wind River Native Science Field Center is its extensive use of digital video and audio to record the experiences of the students and the knowledge that the elders impart to them. As Center Director Lisa Lone Fight says, "Knowledge has changed. Students now deal with sound and image the same way we used to deal with pencil and paper. They need to be able to go back and review their experiences and then disseminate them using all the new media that is available. This is also their legacy, not just as Shoshones, but as children of the 21st century. These students don't remember a time before YouTube. Their world and its memory is digital."
Programs like the Wind River Native Science Field Center are not new and have been under development by native elder scientists for several decades now. The Wounded Hawk multimedia curriculum was a model collaboration by the Sahnish (Arikara) people and the North Dakota Science Center. The Rural Systemic Initiatives, which included Fort Washakie High School, have done pathbreaking work in the area. The Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative and its work have informed many subsequent indigenous science programs. Drawing on this knowledge is as much a tradition as drawing on any other cultural resource developed by native people.
Impact
Much of what the Native Science Field Center does is summarized by Arthur Kawagley, an elder, scholar and indigenous scientist who worked with The Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative and who now works closely with the Native Science Field Centers as a member of the Hopa Mountain Consensus Board. "It is for the ... People to strive for an educational system which recognizes their language and their culture, including their methods of doing science, by which they have learned from their environment and have lived in harmony with it" ( source ).
Ultimately though, in an educational world driven by outcomes, it is the tangible and measurable impact on the students that counts. The Wind River Native Science Field Center sponsors dozens of activities in a given year. These range from the earth to the water to the sky. Students have studied snow science in the Teton National Park. They have been lectured by geologists and elders while rafting down the Yellowstone and Wind Rivers. They've studied Shoshone physics by exploring the effects of acceleration and deceleration and its unique cultural meanings by comparing riding a roller coaster to the feeling of rolling down a mountain — and much, much more.
I have found it!
In the mountains of the Wind River Reservation the emerging generation of native scientists are living what they have learned: "Dun Do Thop" — "I have found it!," once again echoes from the lips of a Shoshone student as he locates a traditional plant that kept his people people from starvation. He and his fellow explorers have reclaimed discovery as a traditional Shoshone activity. They are Shoshone scientists and are responsible for saving a culture that may save a planet.
