NDN Science Show

On today's show, we interview Dr. Robin Kimmerer. She's our major professor in the Sowing Synergy Program, she's an amazing botanist and the author of Braiding Sweetgrass, and she's also written numerous articles about traditional ecological knowledge. Robin shares all sorts of interesting stories with us. She talks about her childhood, important mentors, and her journey as an Indigenous scientist. Enjoy!

In this episode, Dr. Kimmerer shares things like:

- One of her favorite memories and her connection to plants

- The role of culture and education in her life

- Shifts in her thinking and reaching out to mentors

- Restoration ecology and learning from plants

- Ecological, Biocultural, and Reciprocal Restoration

- Science paradigms and value systems

- Robin's tips for being Indigenous in the modern world

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Links and Resources:

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses

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Kaya DeerInWater is a close friend of ours and we’re excited to finally have him on the show. He’s the other member of our graduate cohort and we’ve wanted to have him on the show for over a year now. Kaya’s a dedicated and loving family man, he’s a brilliant botanist in the making, and he has a lot of knowledge about ecological restoration.

Some of the main things we talk about today are:

- Kaya’s childhood, his connection to culture, and academic background

- How he got from California to graduate school in New York

- Some of the challenges he faced doing his research

- Where his love for plants started and made its way into his work

- The usefulness of his research for other Indigenous communities

- His children and the legacy he wants to leave them

- Kaya’s 3 tips for being Indigenous in the modern world

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Links & Resources:

Bob Marshall Info: Source 1, Source 2, Source 3

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We're back! With another edition of Being Indigenous in the Modern World... This is a huge topic that spans many different fields of study and all sorts of scientific disciplines, so we decided that this should be an ongoing conversation. On today's show, we jump around a bit but eventually focus our conversation around graduate school, our research projects, and the lessons we've learned from going through the process of doing research with an Indigenous community. Particularly our home community on the Flathead Reservation. Although broad, this topic is pretty obvious to a lot of people. Being Indigenous in the modern world is something we're all facing on a day-to-day basis, but it's also something none of us is prepared for when we're children. We approach this topic in a light-hearted way and had a lot of fun putting this one together.

Here are some of the main ideas we talk about:

- The importance of historical context

- An update on the challenges of graduate school

- The potential benefits of entering a Ph.D. study

- The value of understanding your limitations

- Unique challenges Indigenous students face

- What are your responsibilities?

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Links & Resources:

11 Lies About Indigenous Science

National Institute of Health Article on Syphilis

Mental Health Resources for Grad Students: One & Two

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Anna Whiting-Sorrell was the first woman teacher's assistant for the Political Science Department at the University of Montana, she has a master's degree in Public Administration, and she's the first political scientist we've had on the show. She's served her community as the director of Montana's Department of Public Health and Human Services... and she's also Annie's mom. In this episode of the NDN Science Show, Anna and Annie have a conversation about how we as Indigenous people need to heal our historic traumas and make sure we have a seat at the table where natives can defend natives. Anna believes deeply that Indigenous people need to tell their own stories. Enjoy!

Here are some of the main ideas in this episode:

- Anna's childhood and how alcoholism affected her siblings

- Her perspective on gender roles in the modern world

- The long road to getting her education and her work in politics

- Cultural appropriation, being a 'token Indin', and walking in two worlds

- The importance of having Indigenous voices in politics

- Anna's 3 Tips for being Indigenous in the modern world

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Today’s episode is about biopiracy… but first, we share an Indigi-Fact that turned out to be a cool surprise to both of us. After that, we dive into some history, a few definitions, a case study, and how biopiracy can affect Indigenous communities. We also explore some ideas for how this issue can be addressed now/in the future, and why this is such an important topic for Indigenous peoples around the planet. This one was interesting to bring together because it’s such a big topic that ties into things like intellectual property rights and discovery doctrines from Europe… and there’s a lot more to it so we’ll probably revisit this one again sometime soon. Enjoy!

Here are some of the main ideas we talk about:

- Biopiracy definitions and history

- Intellectual property rights and patent law

- Ayahuasca patents, culture, and place

- Ideas and Potential Solutions

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Links & Resources:

Seven Generations of Hominins

The Leach and the Earthworm

Introduction to Biopiracy

Biopiracy Definitions: One & Two

Intellectual Property Definitions: One & Two

Ayahuasca Article

Patents and Traditional Knowledge of the Uses of Plants: Is a Communal Patent Regime Part of the Solution to the Scourge of Bio Piracy

Bioneers Radio Audio Series

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Connecting to Place… what does it mean? This topic gets deep really quickly and seems to be a fundamental aspect of human nature that philosophers and scientists have been talking about for thousands of years. So we figured... hey, if they've been at it for thousands of years, we can tackle it in an hour, right? Well, we did our best and seem to keep coming back to this notion that a connection with place has the power to heal. It also has the power to reveal knowledge and wisdom in a way that our ancestors were intimately familiar with. And we feel like it's one of the many ways how we can begin to re-indigenize ourselves, no matter where we live.

Some of the main ideas we talk about are:

- IndigiFact/Stats

- Philosophy of Place

- History of Place

- Photography as a way to gain insights into places

- Personal Experiences with Place

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Links & Resources:

Voting Statistics from the Fort Belknap Daily Herald

Wisdom Sits in Places by Keith Basso

Basso, Keith. (1996). Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache (1st Edition). University of New Mexico Press Foley, Christa. (2004).

Understanding the connection between people and the land: Implications for Social-Ecological Health at Iskatewizaagegan No. 39 Independent First Nation. University of Manitoba, Manitoba, Canada

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Here's another excerpt from the live-stream event we did at the AISES National Conference on October 6th. This is an interview with Ronin Ruerup and will be the last download we'll be releasing from the AISES conference for this year. Ronin's from Alaska and he was the last guest we had for that day. He's Tlingit and had a lot of amazing things to say. His interests range from Sea Otter Populations to the consultation process and oil/mineral exploration.

Here are some of the main ideas we talked about:

Word Uses, Meanings, and Redefinitions... Indian - Indigenous - Savage

"Traditional Enemies"

Turtle Island/Indigenous War, and Old World War

Russian Colonization of Alaska and Sea Otter Populations

Alaskan Native Voices in Natural Resource Management

The Value of Balance

The Past is Important to Our Future, but it doesn't determine it

Sovereignty and Land

A Bunch of Random Live Stream Stuff

Ronin's 3 Tips for Being Indigenous in the Modern World

Consultation and Restoration in Alaska Compared to the Lower 48 States

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Links & Resources:

NASA L'SPACE Virtual Academy Application or by email: [email protected]

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

Hoonah Native Forest Partnership

All Our Relations by Winona LaDuke

AISES National Conference

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For this episode, we took a section of the live-stream event we did at the AISES National Conference on October 6th and turned it into a podcast download. Mikaela Montoya was the first person brave enough to step up to the mic and b.s. with us for a while... and it turned out great! She had a lot of powerful messages to share and we're glad to help her share them. This conversation was a lot of fun and it was cool to meet another Native scientist hard at work in her own community.

Some of the main ideas we talked about:

- Honor the Past

- Be the Future Leadership, Adaptability, Responsibility

- Inside-Out vs Outside-In Thinking

- Mikaela's 3 Tips for Being Indigenous in the Modern World

- What kind of medicine are you carrying with you?

- Thinking with your head and your heart

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Links & Resources:

AISES National Conference

Original Instructions

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Although being wrong is a part of being a scientist, correcting yourself when you recognize that you're wrong is also a part of it. On today's show, Annie and Turtle correct themselves for a few of the mistakes that they made in previously released episodes... Mostly sciency-type mistakes about facts and stuff.

Here are a few of the main points that were corrected and reflected:

- 100th Monkey Pseudoscience

- The Number of Federally Recognized Tribes in the US

- Operculum or Plastrons... which would you choose?

- Triassic, Jurassic, THEN Cretaceous

- Janzen's research wasn't in Africa

- What's up with NDN Time?

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Links & Resources:

100th Monkey Phenomenon

21 Grams Experiment

Different Numbers for Number of Federally Recognized Tribes... 567 or 573? Or How about the federal register number?

Operculum - Plastrons

Mesozoic Era

Tropical Ecological and Biocultural Restoration

Bitterroot

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