Environmental Education in a Tribal College: An Emergent Learning Community

1. Environmental Education in a Tribal College: An Emergent Learning Community The following is a presentation given by the TENRM faculty at The Washington Center for the Improvement of Undergraduate Education Conference on February 22, 2002. Click the left mouse button to move forward through the presentation. Click the right mouse button to reverse.

2. Environmental Education in a Tribal College: An Emergent Learning CommunityPhillip Duran, Ted Williams, Sharon Kinley, Roberto Gonzalez-Plaza, Northwest Indian College, Gigi Berardi, Lynn Robbins, Western Washington University Environmental Science Education is a colossal task for at least three reasons: the history of neglect and under-funding of reservation Indian education, the phenomenal changes taking place in "mainstream" science and science education and the outstanding perception that "science" is the only knowledge that describes reality coherently...

3. The meltdown of scientific reductionism

4. TENRM derives its essence from the personal (tribal) identity of the students, from faculty and the community advocating non-coercion and non-abandonment and from systemic, non-linear "science" learning. We hope to graduate self-reliant, psychologically independent human beings who work for the welfare of their communities.

6. Articulation (H. Nouwen) The person who can articulate the movements of inner life, the person who can name experiences is no longer a victim of the system, psychologically, and no longer a victim of itself

7. Coexistence & compassion • Coexistence of science & Indian knowledge (in the sense of orchestrate) (“integrate”) • Coexistence of spirits realized in compassion ( the source of authority)

8. What are we doing today ? • First, Phillip Duran will discuss an Indian college theory of being • Second, Gigi Berardi will review the fundamental principles of the program • Thirdly, Ted Williams will discuss the challenges of the program

9. “You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round…” -Black Elk (Oglala Lakota) The Circle, the Powers

10. North West East South The Sacred Directions

11. Turtle Island Turtle Turtle Island

12. Elder Adult Child Adolescent The Seasons of Life

13. Wisdom Compassion Bravery Fortitude Cardinal Virtues (Lakota)

14. Night Sunset Sunrise Noon The Times of the Day

15. Sweet Grass Cedar Tobacco Sage Sacred Plants

16. Mental Physical Spiritual Emotional Four Sides of the Human Being

17. Wholeness Growth Protection Nourishment Human Development

18. EARTH Native Science (Earth is our Mother  respect) Everything Has Spirit All Things Related Change is Constant System of Cycles All Matter Vibrating Energy Natural Law Preeminent Renewal

19. EARTH Western Paradigm (Earth is a Commodity  control) Earth a Resource Take more than you need Consumption Individualism Development Conquest / Control Individualism Accumulation for profit Linear patterns of behavior Preeminence of written law

20. Westward Expansion Loss of land base Broken Treaties Depopulation Indian Land Indian Land Indian Land Indian Land • Land transferred to settlers • Children severed from parents • Native religions outlawed • Subsistence to dependency • Tribal unity destroyed • “Kill the Indian, save the Man”

21. Mending the Sacred Hoop invisibility sacred sites Indian values identity crisis sovereignty short life expectancy assimilation life patenting tuberculosis religious freedom unemployment broken treaties hazardous waste political conflict poverty adoptions education FAS alcohol mortality housing diabetes youth suicides

22. Indigenous Education “All My Relations” holistic relevant compassionate experiential spiritual practical ecological oral communal

23. “[The mother] studies the family life of the birds, so exquisite in its emotional intensity and its patient devotion, until she seems to feel the universal mother-heart beating in her own breast.” -Ohiyesa (Dakota) Motherhood

24. “In due time children take of their own accord the attitude of prayer, and speak reverently of the Powers. They feel that all living creatures are blood brothers and sisters; the storm wind is to them a messenger of the Great Mystery.” -Ohiyesa (Dakota) Child’s First Lesson

25. How Science is Changing From “Geology” to “Earth System Science” Earth a Single System (of subsystems) Quantum Theory and Views of Reality From “steady state” to expanding universe “Environmentalism” vs. Traditional Knowledge From“Unrelated” Phenomena to Complex Adaptive Systems Separate Disciplines Merging into Meta Domains of Knowledge

26. Educational Paradoxes Non-Linear “Science” using Linear Resources Natives Fear of “Science” but not Nature Experiment vs. Experience vs. Reality Land-based Education in a Temporal Environment Tribal Graduates for a Consumer Society Tribal Identity amidst Mainstream Ideologies

27. Returning to the Circle "Upon suffering beyond suffering, the Red Nation shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for a sick world. A world filled with broken promises, selfishness and separations. A World longing for light again. I see a time long after the skies have grown dark and dirty and the water has become bad smelling. I see a time of seven generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the Sacred Tree of Life and one whole earth will become one circle again." - Chief Crazy Horse

28. The End… and the beginning

29. “When people live far from scenes of the Great Spirit’s making, it’s easy for them to forget his laws.” -Tatanga Mani (Stoney) ~~~ “Only in reference to the earth can [the Indian] persist in his true identity.” -N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa)

30. “There is one God looking down on us all. We are all children of the one God. God is listening to me. The sun, the darkness, the winds, are all listening to what we now say.” -Geronimo (Apache) “If you have one hundred people who live together, and if each one cares for the rest, there is One Mind.” -Shining Arrows (Crow)

31. “We do not walk alone. Great Being walks beside us. Know this and be grateful.” -Polingaysi Qöyawayma (Hopi) ~~~~~ “We may misunderstand, but we do not misexperience.” -Vine Deloria, Jr. (Yankton Sioux)

32. “We believed in one God, the Great Spirit. We believed in our own kind of Ten commandments. And we behaved as though we believed in them.” -Vine Deloria, Jr. (Yankton Sioux) “We are related, we are all one. The Indian acknowledges this and so discovers the most liberating aspect of Native science: life renews, and all things which support life are renewable.” -Dr. Pam Colorado (Oneida)

33. Principles and Adaptation of the Tribal Environmental And Natural Resources Management (TENRM) Model for Tribal Colleges

34. By Gigi Berardi, Dan Burns, Phil Duran, Roberto Gonzalez-Plaza, Sharon Kinley, Lynn Robbins, Ted Williams, and Wayne Woods TENRM Is a NSF-Funded Project of the Science and Mathematics Division Northwest Indian College 2522 Kwina Road Bellingham, WA 98225 NSF Grant No. DUE-9752076 http://www.nwic.edu/tenrm

35. SECTION I. INTRODUCTION

36. WELCOME • Background to TENRM • Profile of TENRM

37. SECTION II. FOUNDATIONS OF THE TENRM PROGRAM

38. Mission of the Program • Goals and Program Features • Foundation Principles  • Theoretical Assumptions, and Other Guiding Principles

39. Foundations of TENRM Program First Principle Integration of Tribal & Western Knowledge – Coarticulation and Coexistence of Knowledge Second Principle Non-Abandonment Policy and Non-Coercion Third Principle Developmental Education

40. SECTION III. STRUCTURE OF THE PROGRAM

41. Curriculum and Themes  • Courses • Expected Competencies • External Evaluation

42. To Be the Eagles’ View Water Land and Land Use Oceans Making Connections, Finding a Balance Bringing It All Together (Project)

43. Curriculum and Themes • Courses • Expected Competencies • External Evaluation

44. Biology Chemistry Computer Applications Economics English Humanities Mathematics Indian History and Culture Physical Geography or Geology Political Science Speech Spiritual/Cultural Study Statistics

45. SECTION IV. LESSONS LEARNED

46. Student Assessment • Program Leadership • Building Community Through Addressing Conflict • Retention • Best Practices

47. SECTION V.ADAPTING THE TENRM MODEL FOR YOUR SITE

48. Getting Started • Adapting the Model • Revisiting the Continuum of Possibilities

49. CHALLENGES Of The TENRM learning community • Living and teaching the coexistence and paradoxes of Western and Native knowledges • Student success and encouragement (AKA Retention) Living as a whole community • Program sustainability - life within the larger community

50. Living and Teaching in two worlds • What is “integration” of parallel systems of knowledge and how is it done in TENRM? • How do faculty pay attention? Emergent Design • The need for faculty cohesion and understanding of systems of knowledge requires significant time for faculty development and community building Rainbow Lodge!