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A Community-Based Interdisciplinary Framework to Strengthen Capacity Building Among Mining-Impacted Native American Tribes
Citation:
Weaver, A., K. Torso, C. Meyer, AND A. Kern. A Community-Based Interdisciplinary Framework to Strengthen Capacity Building Among Mining-Impacted Native American Tribes. 2022 Virtual International Association for Society and Natural Resources, NA, NC, October 04 - 06, 2022.
Impact/Purpose:
Historical mining contamination adversely impacts cultural practices, health, and self-determination of Native American tribes. This presentation describes a community partnership with the Coeur d'Alene Tribe to support the Tribe's capacity to address complex water issues stemming from legacy mining contamination. We will discuss interdisciplinary approaches, Participatory Action Research, Indigenous Research Methodology, and lessons learned from this collaboration.
Description:
Indigenous communities are disproportionately impacted by historical mining contamination worldwide. In the United States (U.S.), this reality is gravely apparent for Native American tribes grappling with complex water resources issues resulting from legacy mining contamination. The majority of abandoned mines in the U.S. are located in close proximity to Native American lands, causing these communities to be adversely affected by legacy contamination. Collectively, these issues impact cultural practices, health equity, and self-determination of Native American tribes. For my doctoral research, conducted at the University of Idaho – Water Resources Graduate Program, I established a community-university partnership with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, a mining-impacted Native American Tribe of northern Idaho, U.S. Together, we developed a community-based interdisciplinary research framework spanning the social-ecological sciences to support the capacity of this Tribal community to address complex water quality issues stemming from legacy mining contamination. We measured the impact of this framework in strengthening the capacity building goals of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe through the “Five Core Values”, a set of culturally based principles developed and adopted by the Tribe. This presentation will summarize the culturally relevant participatory research approaches that were used to guide this community-university partnership, Participatory Action Research grounded in the fundamental principles of Indigenous Research Methodology. We will then describe the components of the interdisciplinary framework that was developed during the partnership. Lastly, we will discuss the capacity building outcomes from the framework as measured by the Five Core Values. The presentation will conclude with lessons learned from the community-university partnership, implementation of interdisciplinary methods, and community capacity building outcomes.