Independent news from the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance
May 20, 2024
Environment

Native Science Field Centers unite youth, Western science and indigenous knowledge

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear
by
jodi@imfreedomalliance.org https://twitter.com/JodiRave
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A photo of Cole Brings Plenty with his cousin Candi Brings Plenty's dog stood in the center of the Memorial Park Bandshell in Rapid City at an April 14 vigil. (Photo by Amelia Schafer, ICT/Rapid City Journal)

The Native Science Field Centers (NSFC) offer year-round environmental science field programs that integrate traditional ways of knowing, Native language and Western science methods.

Three Native Science Field Centers are working with youth, including one on the Blackfeet Reservation in collaboration with Blackfeet Community College, one on the Wind River Reservation in collaboration with Fremont County School District No. 21, and one on the Pine Ridge Reservation in collaboration with Oglala Lakota College. A local director and Community Advisory Board administer each Center.

The NSFCs engage youth and adults in outdoor science and cultural programs to encourage their long-term involvement with their environment.

The NSFCs are made possible with generous support from the National Science Foundation and the Bush Foundation.

Posted in EnvironmentTagged
Jodi Rave Spotted Bear
jodi@imfreedomalliance.org https://twitter.com/JodiRave

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear is the founder and director of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, a 501-C-3 nonprofit organization with offices in Bismarck, N.D. and the Fort Berthold Reservation. Jodi spent 15 years reporting for the mainstream press. She's been awarded prestigious Nieman and John S. Knight journalism fellowships at Harvard and Stanford, respectively. She also an MIT Knight Science Journalism Project fellow. Her writing is featured in "The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity," published by Columbia University Press. Jodi currently serves as a Society of Professional Journalists at-large board member, an SPJ Foundation board member, and she chairs the SPJ Freedom of Information Committee. Jodi has won top journalism awards from mainstream and Native press organizations. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

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