GEOSCIENCE ALLIANCE: BUILDING CAPACITY TO USE SCIENCE FOR SOVEREIGNTY IN NATIVE COMMUNITIES
The authors of this paper are GA members committed to providing day-to-day leadership of the GA between formal meetings and events. In this session members of the alliance present information pertinent to building capacity in Native communities to use science as a means of securing sovereignty in resource management decisions on tribal lands. It is our position that this capacity is necessary, and can be achieved through the attainment of both high-school and higher education degrees in Earth and environmental science by tribal members. In the talks which follow, the authors respond to recommendations of the Geoscience Alliance for broadening participation of Native Americans in Geosciences (Geoscience Alliance, 2010): 1) Start Early—Improve K-12 Preparation for STEM Careers; 2) Incorporate Traditional Knowledge into Geoscience Education for Native Students; 3) Understand and Address Barriers to Obtaining Undergraduate and Graduate Degrees in the Geosciences; and 4): Create Culturally-Appropriate Assessment and Evaluation in Indian Country.
We summarize the results from Bueno Watts’s dissertation research on “Broadening Participation of Native Americans in the Earth Sciences,” which was both inspired by her participation in the GA, and facilitated by interviews with several GA members. This research is supported by findings from the first Geoscience Alliance National Conference (Cloquet, MN, September 2010), as well as the second held at Salish Kootenai College (Pablo, MT, March 2012). Since then, members of the GA have been involved in several projects specifically aimed to address the issues and barriers raised above, and do so with a focus on responding to issues raised in Native American communities under the stress of Anthropogenic global changes. We invite you to learn about our organization, and the third Geoscience Alliance National Conference.