AN INDIGENOUS PHYSICAL-GEOLOGY COURSE FOR NAVAJO UNDERGRADUATES

The introductory physical-geology course at Diné College, the college of the Navajo (Diné) people, has been reconfigured as Indigenous Physical Geology with support from the New Mexico Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation (NSF DUE-9653973). The term Indigenous implies that the syllabus focuses on place (the geology of Diné bikéyah, the Navajo homeland on the Colorado Plateau) and on culture (Navajo ethnogeology and other ethnoscientific concepts in concert with Western scientific knowledge).

Indigenous content and teaching methods enhance the interest of Navajo geoscience majors and nonmajors alike; the latter include a significant number of pre-service and in-service K-12 teachers. Indigenous science has been embraced by the governing bodies of many Navajo Nation school systems as one of several means toward more appropriate and effective subject matter and standards.

Development of the Indigenous Physical Geology syllabus was guided by four general concepts: (1) respect for the sacred: understanding and heed of the spiritual value of the natural environment for many Diné, tempered by epistemological separation of empirical and revealed knowledge, and cultural proscriptions against misuse of places and ceremonies; (2) case studies: specific examples of how the physiography, climate, geology, and resources of the Colorado Plateau influence Diné history and lifeways; (3) study and integration of ethnogeology derived from traditional Diné knowledge, such as the role of coupled endogenic-exogenic (Earth-Sky) and constructive-destructive (female-male) Earth processes; and (4) emphasis on field studies, to enhance students' sense of place. Much of the specific content and examples employed are uniquely Diné, but the four general concepts underlying their use are not, and can be adapted to develop Indigenous geoscience curricula and activities for other groups.