Lexington, KY, March 30-April 1, 2000. International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management (IIIRM) in collaboration with Center for Risk Excellence of the Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored thirteen students from five tribal colleges to the 15th Annual Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) conference in Lexington, KY.
MANRRS began as a vision shared by a group of agriculture students and faculty at Michigan State University and Pennsylvania State University in 1985. Their goal was to develop a partnership between minority students in agriculture and natural resources and professionals from academic institutions, government institutions and industry. They designed the annual meetings to promote professional development, networking, and career placement in a user-friendly environment.
Membership is open to people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds who support the objective of full ethnic group participation and achievement in agricultural and related science careers. Current membership is made up of over 1,500 undergraduate students, graduate students, and professionals in 45 chapters, and includes men and women of African American, Hispanic, Asian American, Native American, and Caucasian backgrounds.
Conference participants had the opportunity to visit with government agencies and private corporations about employment opportunities. They also toured the University of Kentucky, Kentucky Horse Park, and Kentucky State University.
IIIRM sponsored 13 of 30 tribal college students who attended the conference. They were from Blackfeet Community College; Haskell Indian Nations University; Northwest Indian College; Salish Kootenai College; and Sitting Bull College. The students are environmental science majors or have a strong interest in science fields.
Alecia Cayen, Northwest Indian College environmental science student will be on an international internship in Belgium this summer, studying and recording the inter-connectedness that she refers to as "the Sacred Circle of Life." She will study the interrelationship and interdependency of species in the different trophic levels.
Brice Normandeau, a Salish Kootenai freshman majoring in environmental science is interested in environmental restoration. He also plans to teach young Native American children at first or second grade levels about the environment. Normandeau said that the networking at the conference was very helpful and found a lot of opportunities for internships.
Dwight Hohenstein, Sitting Bull College sophomore in Bison Management, expects contacts he made at the conference will be sources of technical and professional support when he completes his study. His goal is to operate a Bison ranch or cooperative.
Ernestine Jane Jamerson, Sitting Bull College environmental science student, is working to complete her bachelor's degree in environmental science at Oglala Community College through a cooperative effort of Sitting Bull College and Oglala Lakota College.
This year's new workshop topic was Native American Wisdom presented by Elroy DuBray from Sitting Bull College and Terry Tatsey from Blackfeet Community College. DuBray talked about the Bison Education project at Sitting Bull College that strives to teach students about the importance of Bison to the Lakota people. DuBray believes that the project will help restore spirituality and the environment using a holistic approach. He explained how buffalo is the center of the Lakota spirituality and the language. The project also aims to restore the use of language that was almost lost by the slaughtering of the buffaloes and the prohibition of some tribal ceremonies.
"If the center of your spirituality is not there, there is nothing to talk about," explains DuBray, referring to how Lakota language was almost lost.
Terry Tatsey noted the importance of integrating western science and comparing it with traditional Indian knowledge. He explained how traditional knowledge is gained through careful observation of the activities in the environment similar to the western science procedures used in conducting an experiment to reach a scientific conclusion. Tatsey finds his students are more motivated when they understand that Indian traditional knowledge is just as valid as the practices of western sciences.
IIIRM and DOE were recognized as Bronze level Supporters by providing $15,000 in scholarships to tribal college students to attend the MANRRS conference.
For more Information about IIIRM contact Mervyn Tano at 303-733-0481. For more information about MANRRS visit http://www.MANRRS.org. Click here to see photos of tribal college participants.