HR: 0800h
AN: ED31B-0746 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Fostering Indigenous Earth Science: Increasing Native American Participation in the Earth Science Enterprise
AU: * Riggs, E M
EM: eriggs@geology.sdsu.edu
AF: San Diego State University, Dept. of Geological Sciences, San Diego, CA 92182-1020 United States
AB: Attracting Native American students into the geosciences is one of the priorities of diversity efforts, but success remains limited and local. The need for geoscientific expertise on American Indian reservations continues to grow as Native populations and economic development on and around reservations expands. Typically tribal governments respond by hiring outside consultants to meet their scientific needs, but these relationships can sometimes be problematic. The solution is to increase the amount of Native American people who have sufficient geoscience education and training to manage tribal resources. However, there are multiple barriers to doing this created by a combination of economic, political, and cultural forces. Many Native American nations are enjoying a modest increase in prosperity, but tribes are still relatively poor compared with the non-Native population, even on gaming reservations. Furthermore, the legal status of Indian reservations as domestic dependent nations creates a unique and complex relationship between tribes, outside agencies and geoscientists, as data from tribal lands is considered proprietary and is guarded closely by tribal governments. There is a clear history of geoscience data collected on tribal lands often being used to drive subsequent instances of natural resources being taken out of tribal hands. These violations of tribal sovereignty make tribes cautious and wary of geoscience, slowing efforts to enhance geoscience education on reservations. Attracting young Native students to geoscience is also beset by difficulties in cross-cultural science instruction, poor understanding of the relevance of geoscience, and logistical problems related to the remote location of most reservations. Despite these problems, real progress is being made through close partnerships between geoscientists and tribal environmental professionals and other tribal organizations. A number of successful, but local, efforts are beginning to draw Native students into the geosciences and general strategies for success are emerging. This presentation will share what has been learned about educational, political, and academic solutions to these issues, and how all geoscientists can contribute to the success of these efforts.
UR: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~eriggs/IESP
DE: 6605 Education
DE: 6620 Science policy
DE: 6630 Workforce
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting