My colleagues and I have been groping with the idea of Native Science.
One reason is our earnest attempt to legitimize American Indian perspectives–whether it’s science, story-telling, art or language.
Labels emerge: native science, local knowledge, ways-of-knowing, and more.
The problem with the label “science” is it instantly cleaves folks and two groups emerge: pro-science and anti-science.
At this week’s meeting in Washington DC with science communicators, my pal Doug Herman, a geographer at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, landed on one simple term: knowledge.
The landscape is about knowledge.
In our opinion that levels the playing field.
And rather than starting the conversation from a dichotomous perspective–rather than focussing on us versus them–let’s consider that communities possess knowledge systems, informed by a variety of experiences.
We all possess knowledge.
Cynthia (Ištá Tȟó Tȟó) Coleman Emery's Blog 
I have a wonderful memory of a Traditional teacher on mine. We were in a bar in the Amazon. My teacher, who holds PhD’s in Anthro and Ecology, was telling us (a mixed group of Europeans and Native Americans from a variety of tribal backgrounds) that his people interbreed with porpoise. We got into a huge discussion about the impossibility of that – genetically. It was one of those splendid cross-cultural moments. (Even at 65 I tend to struggle to integrate my two culturally framed world views.
Thanks for the post!
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Great: thanks for letting me know
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