Thank you for your comments, Sue. It was great to see your video and the project you are working on.

 

Around half of the current fellows come from Indigenous communities. Part of how culture and values has come into the training is through a recent Spring Break Immersion Trip: https://energy.arizona.edu/news/2019/03/indige-fewss-spring-break-immersion-navajo-country

While we met with Dine College and Navajo Technical University, we also got to experience some of the food, energy and water issues facing Navajo Nation. The fellows from Navajo Nation made this trip possible by connecting us with their families where we got to spend the night in a hogan and hear traditional stories and haul water for a community member. Traveling to Tuba City to tour the Rare Metals Department of Energy Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Site with a fellow who's family is from Tuba City grounded the scientific learning in the real world challenges communities are facing. As we move forward, it would be great to bring in fellows' various cultures and values even more. How does your project bring in culture and values into the training? We are always looking to learn more.

Thank you Sue for your comment. In addition to the spring break immersion trip, the students are trained in indigenous based community participatory methods, co-design, learn from others working with tribes and receiving training in traditional knowledge and de-colonized approaches.

Hi Isabelle, thank you for your comment and you are absolutely correct, as a trainee in the Indige-FEWSS program I feel like the community-based approach we have taken is helping greatly in allowing us to reach the goals collectively in working with a diverse group of individuals at the University of Arizona and throughout the Navajo Nation. I applaud your work with Science Strikes Back as well working with young students and cultivating their interest in STEM.

Thank you, Noah. Very important question you've raised. In general, the tone of the project is set by Karletta who is a scientist and also very active in the environmental issues facing her community on Navajo Nation. The projects she's worked on such as the Gold King Mine spill has established deep community connections that inform the overall direction of this project. I think part of how the indigenous knowledge interacts with the science is through having the PI and our internal and external advisory boards connect these two areas. It's taking their understanding and having regular contact with community members who ground any science or engineering questions in concrete practical issues.

 

This summer, after the first full year of the fellowship program, fellows will do internships, most of which are connected to indigenous communities and that will give them first-hand experience learning about challenges and working with community members on potential solutions. The first week of June we’re headed up to Dine College in Tsaile where UA faculty and fellows will work with Dine College students for a week. On June 7th, Dine students are going to demonstrate a mobile water purifying unit that was built at UA. We plan to demo the unit with chapter house leadership from across Navajo Nation and brainstorm how these types of units could be used and modified. The regular trips we've been making up there have been focused on listening and learning and bringing together the UA faculty expertise and the community expertise in local issues and indigenous ways of knowing. I think we will learn a lot this summer about how these diverse perspectives play out in the internships and what joint solutions are developed.

 

The question about how to make room for these diverse perspectives is something we will need to continue to work on, in the larger vision of the project, the fellow's experience, and even the speakers we bring in to our ongoing seminar series. The FEWS challenges are pressing, so the solutions have to involve the full spectrum of viewpoints of sovereign nations. For me, it's really the numerous indigenous scientist who work on this project who incorporate these viewpoints in their daily lives that lead the way and keep the conversation inclusive.

 

There are many projects I look to for inspiration (some of which I’ve just discovered through this conference.) There is a project that was just funded here at UA through the Haury Foundation https://www.haury.arizona.edu/ that sponsors environmental and social justice projects that feature an authentic partnerships called, “A Student’s Journey: From a Tribal College to the University” that I’m inspired by.  It's a partnership between Tohono O’odham Community College and UA Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center where they are working to create a culturally relevant pathway for community college students to enter the university. I'm eager to see the model they develop and it's implications for all of us who work with sovereign nations and universities.

Dear Noah,

We rely on Indigenous partners to lead this, one who is Perry Charley, director of Dine' College Dine' Environmental Institute. He ensures that Dine' centered epistemology, Dine' Center science/problem solving and traditional knowledge is integrated in our work with Dine' College.

Hi Joni, I am one of the twelve student trainees participating in Indige-FEWSS I just wanted to let you know first-hand that I absolutely love being a part of the program. Being an Indigenous person makes this project even more exciting because I get to help take on these real problems my community faces on the Navajo Nation. I appreciate that there is a program such as Indige-FEWSS that allows me to share my culture and values in an academic setting.

Wow, that demonstration to the community and thier feedback will be so interesting. Videotape it for next year's video showcase! Congrats on such an interesting project!

 

Dear Kathryn,

Thank you for your question. Through the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, we share our best practices and so that other tribal colleges can learn about our work. We work with the Tohono O'odham Community College on mining impacts and learning modules and Salish Kootenai Tribal College on Water in the Native World: The Intersection of indigenous knowledge and hydrologic sciences. We went to Brazil to meet the Xerente People and learned about their FEWS challenges. This summer, we are planning to go to New Zealand to learn about the Indigenous water and knowledge and expand our network internationally.

I am at a community college, but I find that some of our Native students need a direction to help them when they transfer. At my community college, we have had, or still have, the largest percentage of Native American students than any non-tribal college. I would love to have some direction for them for going into a STEM career. I am always heart broken when I have any students who drop out of college because of family obligations or not seeing a direction for their studies. This program looks like it could provide this focus for some of our students. I have sent your video to my assistant provost and my provost to see if they want to try to get our students involved in this. By they way, I teach at Coconino Community College, in Flagstaff, AZ.

Dear Kathryn,

Hello. The challenge facing Native students at community college is one that I am a little familiar with. I went to CCCC during the summer when I was 18 to take summer classes while I was at Stanford. It would be great if community colleges in AZ could have a stronger connection with 4 year universities. My department SWES is creating a 2+2 in environmental sciences with community colleges and tribal colleges. Perhaps you know about this effort? If not, please email Scott Cowell at cowell@email.arizona.edu as it will start in the fall. The Haury Foundation recently awarded Dr. Marti Lindsay a grant with the Tohono O'odham Community College to address this exact same challenge. It is amazing that not more has been done. Let us stay in touch to keep those opportunities of engagement open.

Thank you for your question. Through the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, we share our best practices and so that other tribal colleges can learn about our work. We work with the Tohono O'odham Community College on mining impacts and learning modules and Salish Kootenai Tribal College on Water in the Native World: The Intersection of indigenous knowledge and hydrologic sciences. We went to Brazil to meet the Xerente People and learned about their FEWS challenges. This summer, we are planning to go to New Zealand to learn about the Indigenous water and knowledge and expand our network internationally.

Thank you for sharing - this is exciting dissemination reach! 

We recruit participants from diverse backgrounds. We are partnering with the UA Sloan Indigenous Fellowship to recruit and retain Native American students. The criteria is admission in addition to them being admitted to their graduate program are:

Interest/Plan in FEWS research for thesis/dissertation  Applicable skills for Indige-FEWSS project Engineering foundation Prior experience working with indigenous or underserved population Experience with formal/informal teaching Recommendation from Faculty Advisor

Anne, I am not familiar with the tribes in the NW. I suggest getting buy in from the tribe at all levels from the grassroots, community to the chairman/president. This is the process that we worked with and having a lead tribal partner and tribal advisory community that can guide us.

Yes, while the Tribal leaders and elders are very supportive of our work and in education overall, there are huge poverty, housing, as well as environmental issues. We do partner with the Tribe's Department of Natural Resources and have had many active participants in our projects, but it just seems that we are impacting only a few youth at a time, ones that want to come back and work in STEM for the Tribe!

I guess I am just impatient.

 

Working with tribes is a long term commitment. We have a long ways to catch up with mainstream and dominant minorities. Helping one STEM Native student will make a huge impact in increasing the numbers in STEM. There are less than 1% of Native Americans in college. Keep up the great work!

Wow, what an important perspective to keep in mind!  Thank you, Dr. Karietta!

Thank you for your question. I believe building this community and making it stronger is an ongoing process and is different for each student. We have many opportunities for students to engage with the Native American community as well as trainings. One group community strengthening was the spring break immersion trip. https://energy.arizona.edu/news/2019/03/indige-fewss-spring-break-immersion-navajo-country One of students was so passionate about her project with the Navajo community that the community adopted her in. They supported her and in the end, they traveled 6 hours by car to witness her graduation and to celebrate it. It was a very special moment.