Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Increasing threats to biodiversity from climate change and other human impacts are forcing scientists to realize the importance of acknowledging and utilizing the Traditional Ecological Knowledge and strategies of Indigenous peoples who have lived with and within their respective ecosystems for millennia. Research on and incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge has become increasingly popular among conservation biologists who collaborate with and work within the traditional homelands of many Indigenous groups.

However, these successes have largely occurred without a complete understanding of how these different forms of knowledge can work synergistically. Furthermore, most conservation initiatives are developed by non-Indigenous groups and institutions. This project uses research methods developed by Indigenous scholars to understand how Indigenous institutions develop and implement their own conservation goals and policies.

An equally important outcome will be understanding how conservation policies interface with traditional Indigenous lifeways, specifically those based in animal agriculture.

To this end, the project will use a combination of interviews and surveys developed in collaboration with Indigenous scholars to gauge how different groups leverage their knowledges and experiences to achieve conservation and agricultural goals. Data collection will focus on Navajo Nation Department of Fish and Wildlife and Navajo Nation Department of Agriculture, which are ideal institutions for modeling how this kind of knowledge exchange and translation occurs.

These institutions have more than 100-years of combined experience using both traditional Navajo knowledge and scientific knowledge to develop and achieve conservation and management outcomes that are important to the members of the Nation. Responses will be analyzed by appealing explicitly to categories and types of knowledge that are exclusive to Navajo worldviews.

By modeling the synergies of scientific and Indigenous knowledge through perspectives specific to individual Indigenous groups, future collaborations in these areas will be more equitable, just, and preserve the autonomy and agency of Indigenous groups.

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.