Grantee Research Project Results
2004 Progress Report: Iakotisa'tstentsera:wis Ne Ohontsia: Reducing Risk by Restoring Relationships
EPA Grant Number: R831044Title: Iakotisa'tstentsera:wis Ne Ohontsia: Reducing Risk by Restoring Relationships
Investigators: Arquette, Mary , Thompson, Darrell , Arquette, David , Sargent, Elvera , King, Joyce , David, Leroy
Current Investigators: Arquette, Mary , Thompson, Darrell , Arquette, David , Sargent, Elvera , King, Joyce
Institution: Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force , Akwesasne Freedom School , Akwesasne Task Force on the Environment Inc.
Current Institution: Akwesasne Task Force on the Environment Inc. , Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: April 1, 2004 through March 31, 2007
Project Period Covered by this Report: April 1, 2004 through March 31, 2005
Project Amount: $450,000
RFA: Lifestyle and Cultural Practices of Tribal Populations and Risks from Toxic Substances in the Environment (2002) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Environmental Justice , Climate Change , Tribal Environmental Health Research , Human Health , Safer Chemicals
Objective:
The objective of the research is to transfer expertise about environmental risk and cultural practices to teachers, students, and Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force (HETF) staff responsible for environmental management through hands-on training sessions and direct interactions.
Progress Summary:
This research has begun the difficult search to find ways in which cultural practices can be promoted and restored at the same time that remediation is occurring at contaminated sites. To accomplish this task, a series of 15 professional development days were organized to provide training to teachers at the Akwesasne Freedom School and environmental staff of the HETF. Training sessions were taught by knowledgeable elders and scientists to educate teachers and staff about environmental health threats, while identifying strategies to maintain/restore traditional cultural practices.
Following the cycle of the natural world, workshops were organized to meet the four key areas outlined in the original proposal (fish workshops; protein and alternative protein workshops; medicine and edible plants workshops; and cultural narratives and oral tradition workshops). A variety of culturally appropriate materials and curricula were developed on an as needed basis.
In all, 15 days of training were held involving 10 teachers, 10 assistant teachers, 2 staff members, 1 research scientist, 12 different elders from the Mohawk community of Akwesasne, and 3 elders from other Haudenosaunee communities. Twenty classroom activities were designed throughout the first year of the project, providing services to 10 teachers, 10 assistant teachers, 2 staff members, 1 research scientist, and 85 Native American students in grades pre-kindergarten to 8. All participants are Mohawk. In addition, three activities involved traveling to other Haudenosaunee communities to participate in traditional cultural practices in areas where there are no industrial pollutant sources or federal Superfund sites nearby.
As a result of this work, 120 youth, teachers, teacher assistants, and environmental scientists have learned about toxic substances at the same time they have learned valuable skills associated with participating in traditional cultural practices. They now are better able to protect their health at the same time they participate in traditional cultural practices such as fishing, planting, gathering, hunting, food preservation, and the gathering and use of traditional medicines.
In addition, Mohawk scientists and our community-based environmental organizations have learned to better articulate the need for protection of traditional cultural practices, including the importance of teaching and promoting our Mohawk language. The project has used GIS maps to discuss risk associated with use of specific contaminated areas that are used for hunting, fishing, and gathering of traditional plants and medicines. The majority of our work has centered on the field-level training and hands-on, total participatory response techniques to engage youth and teachers and promote healthy traditional cultural practices. Workshops that have been completed with teachers and research scientists have included:
1. Fish workshops
- Curriculum has been designed in the Mohawk language to explain basic fish identification, anatomy, and fish preparation techniques that can be used to minimize exposure to certain toxic substances.
- Elders and fishermen have shared information about fishing and fish preparation in the Mohawk language and shared information on traditional cultural practices associated with fishing.
- Fishermen have done guided tours with teachers, teacher trainees, parents, community members, and students to discuss the rivers in our territory and our many islands and their proximity to contaminated sites
- Teachers and youth have fished in less contaminated areas and learned language and skills associated with fishing (making fishing poles, proper cultural protocols, skills, and techniques).
2. Protein and alternative protein workshops
- Curriculum has been designed to explain the basics of traditional foods in the Mohawk language.
- Elders, farmers, hunters, and those who gather foods have come to the school to teach about traditional foods and food preparation at workshops held for teachers, teacher trainees, community members, and environmental scientists.
- Students and teachers have been involved in hands-on workshops to prepare traditional foods.
3. Medicine and edible plants workshop
- Curriculum has been designed to explain the basics of traditional medicines, their names, their uses, and the appropriate protocols that go along with gathering and using traditional medicines.
- Traditional healers and elders will be invited to share their knowledge of plants, protocol, and traditional stories concerning medicine.
- Alternative sites have been explored to take children, parents, teachers, and teacher trainees to harvest traditional plant foods that are located away from contaminated sites; these have included visiting other Mohawk and Haudenosaunee communities in other locations.
4. Cultural narratives and oral tradition workshops
- Workshops have been held with teachers to explore the importance of cultural narratives and oral tradition in maintaining community health.
- Curriculum has been designed to compile traditional knowledge related to the environment and environmental health.
The project team was satisfied with accomplishments for Year 1 of the project. Work has occurred at a steady pace to meet our objectives including: (1) empowering and strengthening the capacity of Haudenosaunee scientists and educators to participate in community-based research, design intervention materials in the Mohawk language, and plan hands-on, participatory programs that are based on oral tradition; (2) strengthening partnerships between other Haudenosaunee Nations; (3) conducting a series of hands-on training sessions to give elders (those people who serve as holders of cultural knowledge, regardless of their age) and scientists the opportunity to discuss the impacts and identify ways in which traditional cultural practices can be maintained and restored at the same time that exposure to toxic substances is decreased; and (4) identifying effective and culturally appropriate communication strategies.
We continue to work on our fifth objective, to identify strategies that effectively evaluate the success of the project by measuring changes in knowledge, attitudes, and practice of our target audiences, which include HETF staff and delegates, participating Haudenosaunee teachers, and Native youth.
A series of culturally sensitive intervention materials written in the Mohawk language related to our four project areas (fish and fishing; protein and alternative proteins; medicine and edible plants; and cultural narratives and oral tradition) have been developed, although these remain, as yet, unpublished.
Participation and review in the design of environmental standards developed by the HETF as part of a Haudenosaunee Environmental Protection Process. Although these standards are in an early draft state, they are extremely unique in their cultural content, complexity, and comprehensive nature.
The Principal Investigator, Dr. Mary Arquette, was asked to participate in an invitation-only, technical workshop sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the University of Michigan, and others that looked at environmental health disparities and discussed the research that links social and physical environment to health disparities. She actively participated in discussions about impacts to culture and ways to promote community health.
Future Activities:
This project, which is in its first year of operation, has worked to define impacts to the Mohawk Nation Community of Akwesasne by identifying and implementing ways to support, protect, and restore traditional cultural and subsistence practices that have been negatively impacted by toxic substances such as polychlorinated biphenyls. We have used culturally appropriate communication methods based on oral tradition to work with teachers, environmental scientists, and youth to promote cultural practices and beliefs and improve understanding of negative impacts that have resulted from contamination of adjacent land, air, and watersheds. The use of the Mohawk language has proven essential to this work and also has been one of our greatest challenges and our greatest area of success.
In the future, we will continue participatory educational programs based on oral tradition to successfully prepare youth and community members who engage in culturally important subsistence practices to protect their health and the health of future generations. In addition to training teachers and environmental staff, more direct interactions and hands-on participatory workshops will occur with younger ages of children.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 8 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
indigenous knowledge, traditional environmental knowledge, cultural impacts,, RFA, Health, Scientific Discipline, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, Waste, Health Risk Assessment, Risk Assessments, Hazardous Waste, Ecology and Ecosystems, Hazardous, outreach material, contaminant transport, contaminant dynamics, human exposure, native americans, technology transfer, human health risk, technical outreach, community support, hazardous substance contaminationProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.