NORIKO ISHIYAMA
Noriko Ishiyama sat curled up in a chair in the institute's living room talking about the research she is doing to complete her Ph.D. Ishiyama is a political geographer who is doing research on environmental justice and Native American tribes for her thesis.
"I am doing a case study of an Indian tribe in Utah that is going to lease land to a power company so it can store nuclear waste. .. In the past, tribes have criticized that advocates don't understand the unique sovereign status of tribes and they under estimate the tribes' ability to make accurate assessments. The tribe is fighting for its right to make an informed decision. It's an issue of control, an issue of tribal sovereignty and an issue of conflict between the state and the tribal nation."
In the fourth year of a 5-year Fulbright fellowship, Ishiyama has received grants from the Association of American University Woman, Matsushita International Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and Rutgers University to support her research. Ishiyama has been associated with IIIRM since 1997 when she had an internship.
Born in Tokyo, Japan Ishiyama, who is 29 years old, received her bachelors and masters degrees from Japan Women's University and was an exchange student at Wellesley College where she took classes in American Studies and sociology. She became involved in Native American environmental issues almost by accident.
"My major was American Studies and I read an article on the Navajo and uranium mining. I wrote letters to a lot of people…being an activist, I wanted to talk to activists here and I received some letters from Kim TallBear who works here and her letter was so interesting. She talked about the complexity of sovereignty and environmental injustice. I didn't know the unique status of Indian tribes and her letter opened my eyes so I met with Kim and Merv in 1996." Her work with the institute, she says, has been invaluable.
"It has been great. I didn't have a very strong background about environmental justice in the context of American Indian tribes. Merv and Jeanne became good advisors to me. I have very good advisors at Rutgers but to do research you have to know a lot of the history, culture and context of American Indian Tribes and they have really good resources here. Their library is great and just talking to them is very helpful. They give me good contacts, who I should talk to and very specific advice. It has been very exciting."