PUBLISHING AND COMMUNICATING GEOSCIENCE ISSUES TO INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES

The fortuitous discovery of mineral wealth beneath Native American reservations - and the significant disruption that accompanies such wealth extraction - brings with it the responsibility to publish and communicate geoscience to those who live and work immediately above ground. Dialogue about the accuracy, truthfulness, ethics and methods of publishing and communicating about water and subsurface minerals and the compelling reasons for their removal are analyzed from a Native perspective. This presentation will survey a range of instructive examples - publications, documents and media - and examples of lingo and jargon that have surfaced on reservations during the past ten years. Recommendations will be made for improving the dialogue amongst field professionals that require a degree of thoughtfulness in terminology and perspective when approaching impacted communities where religious and human rights are mandatory issues in the mineral extraction industry.