TEA Center: Sitting Bull College’s Native American Prairie Ecosystems Research Center (PERC)

A goal of the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) is to increase the intellectual leadership of TCUP institutions so that they can address scientific or engineering needs or interests, specifically for their tribes or communities, or broadly for the Nation. The TCU Enterprise Advancement Centers (TEA Centers) strand allows TCUP institutions to capitalize on their investments in STEM instructional and research capacity.

This project aligns directly with that goal, and moreover will have a direct impact on tribal communities in areas related to prairie ecosystem services, ecology, and restoration. Sitting Bull College’s (SBC) Prairie Ecosystems Research Center (PERC) leverages diverse research expertise and local Indigenous ecological knowledge to research solutions to community-identified ecosystem problems.

PERC leverages the resources and faculty of SBC and local reservation communities to solve issues that arise in the community using grounded practices that align with cultural traditions and have a direct impact on tribal communities in the Great Plains. The center will serve as the primary repository for Indigenous information and knowledge about the plains region and will deliver a database on the ecology of the plains environment for use by both scientists and the community.

PERC will develop a solutions platform, using scientific research to address environmental and natural resource issues of importance to tribal communities while institutionalizing research opportunities for undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty. A multidisciplinary team will contribute to advancing knowledge in a variety of fields including soil science, water quality, genetics, wildlife and plant ecology, microbiology, molecular ecology, and engineering.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.