Integrating Native Science Into a Tribal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Abstract

American Indian science encompasses tribal processes of conceiving, considering, and experimenting that produce ways of knowing about the physical and natural worlds. The cultural science of Chemehuevis and their Southern Paiute relatives is deeply rooted in the Americas, where Indians have learned paradigms and scientific philosophies for successfully navigating diverse environments for thousands of years. Varied indigenous knowledge systems systematically build on the collective wisdom, practical experiences, and adaptations learned throughout time and among generations through the oral tradition. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, science is “[t]he state or fact of knowing; knowledge or cognizance or something specified or implied.” American Indians have enjoyed centuries of scientific knowledge based on observation, experimentation, and application and referred to as tribal traditional knowledge. Chemehuevis see the Tribal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a powerful instrument of change that can slow devastating processes putting tribes at physical, mental, spiritual, and cultural risk.