Using Indigenous research frameworks to enhance connections between Traditional Knowledge and Western science at Acoma Pueblo, NM

Abstract

A day-long geoscience educational module, “Sharing and Learning: The Natural Environments of Acoma Pueblo,” provided an opportunity to explore the various connections that Acoma Pueblo community members make between their cultural values and geologic concepts. The purpose of such an exploration is to make explicit the cultural understandings of the geologic environment that bring meaning to the Western scientific knowledge, for both future Acoma Pueblo community members and other Indigenous scholars. A mixed-methods approach [sequential transformative design] was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data during the project concerning participants’ sense of place and perception of geoscience concepts in relation to Acoma Pueblo cultural values. Indigenous research frameworks informed the analysis of the datasets and provided opportunities during the module for Western science to enhance the Indigenous knowledge system celebrated within the Acoma Pueblo community. In this article, we focus on the analysis of the qualitative portion of the larger mixed-methods study. The qualitative data analysis of a group interview after implementation of the Sharing/Learning program distinguished six primary themes: Traditional Knowledge, Western Geoscience, Education, Stories, Natural Resources, and Geoconnections that persisted throughout the group interview. Results from the study support the idea that a brief intervention which presented geoscientific information alongside Traditional Knowledge did have an impact, with newly recognized “geoconnections” as evidence. Furthermore, engaging Indigenous communities through connections between culture and geoscience has the potential to foster respectful relationships between academic researchers and Indigenous community members, especially when research practices are informed by Indigenous research frameworks. These respectful relationships are the foundation for authentic future research collaborations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples.

Keywords:

• Indigenous research frameworks
• qualitative research
• geology
• place-based education

Introduction

Acoma Pueblo is a place of rich cultural diversity, situated among many different Indigenous cultures, and is visually striking because of outcrops of sedimentary rocks dating back millions of years (Figures 1 and 2). As inhabitants of one of the oldest continually inhabited villages in the United States, Acoma Pueblo community members have valuable insight into how Indigenous groups of people value and respect the local geology of their homelands. Every year, the Acoma Pueblo community hosts Earth Day events that are meant to highlight the many ways that the Acoma Pueblo community is connected to the earth as well as how these connections impact the overall health and well-being of the Acoma Pueblo community.

Figure 1. Acoma Pueblo is located on top of a mesa within the southwestern United States.

Figure 2. Acoma Pueblo, NM (red dot) is located about sixty miles west of Albuquerque, NM. Map from: http://www.geomapapp.org.

As a member of the Acoma community and a geologist, I (first author, Darryl Reano) saw an opportunity to participate in these events by creating place-based geoscience education materials that could eventually be used by the community’s local schools and educational enrichment programs. The day-long geoscience educational module was titled: “Sharing and Learning: The Natural Environments of Acoma Pueblo” (Figure 3). This program provided an opportunity to explore connections that Acoma Pueblo community members make between their cultural values and the geologic concepts that were presented during the module. The purpose of such an exploration is to make explicit the cultural understandings of the geologic environment that bring meaning to the Western scientific knowledge, for future Acoma Pueblo community members and other Indigenous scholars. This is different from the isolated geologic understandings that Acoma community members would receive if the geologic information was shared within a primarily Western scientific context that does not incorporate culturally responsive educational practices (Brayboy & Castagno, 2008).

Figure 3. An outline of the agenda for the Sharing/Learning Program held at Acoma Pueblo, NM.

The Sharing/Learning Program was implemented as informally as possible. Particular emphasis was placed on the expert cultural knowledge that Acoma Pueblo community members already held before attending the Sharing/Learning Program. This informal Sharing/Learning Program is the preliminary starting point to develop more formal, geoscience curricular materials that are place-based and culturally relevant for the Acoma Pueblo community. All of the educational materials used to implement the Sharing/Learning Program have been presented to the Acoma Pueblo Tribal Council and all future iterations of the Sharing/Learning Program will need approval from the Acoma Pueblo Tribal Council.

The research aim of the larger mixed-methods project is to explore Acoma community members’ connections to geoscience concepts (i.e. “geoconnections”) after participating in a Sharing/Learning Program designed to teach earth science concepts developed from the use of Indigenous research frameworks. More specifically, our research question for the qualitative component of our project is: What specific geoconnections between geoscience concepts and Acoma Pueblo culture do Acoma Pueblo community members make after participating in the Sharing/Learning Program?

Theoretical framework

The guiding perspective for this study is a combination of the socioTransformative constructivism [sTc] framework (Rodriguez, 1998) and Tribal Critical Race Theory [TribalCrit] (Figure 4; Brayboy, 2005). The sTc framework proposes that knowledge “is socially constructed, mediated by cultural, historical, and institutional contexts” (Rodriguez, 1998). Meaningful dialogues among participants concerning their local communities is one advantage of using sTc (Rodriguez, 1998; Rodriguez & Berryman, 2002; Zozakiewicz & Rodriguez, 2007). sTc views teaching and learning as political acts, requiring recognition of the issue of power-holding which affects the dynamics between teachers/learners from dominant societal groups and teachers/learners from underrepresented societal groups (Rodriguez & Berryman, 2002). This is especially important within Indigenous communities where Western hierarchical social orders may not align with Traditional power structures of specific Indigenous communities. Respecting the matrilineal and matriarchal social structure of the Acoma Pueblo community as well as the wishes of Elders during the activities was pivotal for the success of the Sharing/Learning Program.

Figure 4. Sequential transformative research design showing the sequential collection of datasets followed by an integration phase. Both datasets were treated as equally important during implementation of the study.

sTc has four main components which are used to create transformational educational environments: dialogic conversation, authentic activities, metacognition, and reflexivity (Rodriguez, 1998, Rodriguez & Berryman, 2002). Every component of this theoretical framework played an important role in the development of the place-based educational activities that were created to enhance connections between culture and geology for Acoma community members. According to Rodriguez (1998), the dialogic conversation component creates a respectful, safe space in the sharing/learning environment so that participants are able to speak openly and share their culturally-based knowledge and beliefs with each other. However, it should be noted that this does not mean that the conversations are devoid of tension or disagreement. The dialogic conversation component is also necessary to align with sTc’s stance that knowledge is socially constructed (Rodriguez, 1998).

Culturally relevant, authentic activities are used for learners to scaffold previously held knowledge (i.e. Indigenous Knowledge) with newly presented geoscientific concepts. Without the meaningful context of authentic activities, some learners have been shown to be unable to demonstrate knowledge construction (Russell, 2014). For many Pueblo community members, knowledge is valued for its practicality and usefulness for enhancing the well-being of the community as a whole (Cajete, 2000).

The metacognition component of the sTc framework requires learners to question why certain knowledge is being taught (Rodriguez, 1998). This includes omitted information that may be part of an Indigenous learner’s cultural knowledge but that is not necessarily part of the instructor’s previously held knowledge. This deep thinking of the learning process helps learners contextualize their experiences in the learning environment. It can also reshape expectations of learning goals. For learners from the Acoma Pueblo community, Western science may provide opportunities to enhance their understanding of Acoma Pueblo Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Learners might also gain greater insight to the underlying values of Western science.

Reflexivity describes the way that students put their particular educational experience into a much broader perspective (Rodriguez, 1998). This enables students to understand why certain information is deemed critical for their education while other topics are seen as unnecessary. Opportunities for students to transform their educational experience are created within these critical thinking activities (Rodriguez, 1998, 2008). In this component of sTc, the practical nature of knowledge is realized and enacted within explicit historical, political, and institutional contexts. For Acoma Pueblo community members, learning how other Indigenous communities have used Western science to benefit their respective communities provides examples for incorporating Western science into an Indigenous context. This includes both positive and negative aspects of attempts to intermingle Traditional Knowledge and Western science.

Collectively, these four components of sTc (Rodriguez & Berryman, 2002) are used to create agency for participants in educational activities. Agency refers to the conscious role that we fulfill in spreading beneficial change for everyone, especially for disadvantaged individuals and groups of people (Rodriguez & Berryman, 2002). While sTc can be used in many contexts, Indigenous research frameworks such as TribalCrit have been developed to ensure that the specific needs and perspectives of Indigenous communities are not neglected during the implementation of research activities.

TribalCrit describes a theoretical framework where pedagogical practices may incorporate discussions about historical contexts of power, especially between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples (Brayboy, 2005; Zywicki, 2013). Indigenous communities have survived genocide, endured forced removal from their homelands/territories, and have continued to protest the denial of rights to practice their Traditional cultures freely and without consequence (Battiste, 2008; Smith, 1999). Acknowledging the historical context of Indigenous people in the United States is necessary to provide Indigenous students with an equitable learning environment that also provides agency to transform their communities through the use of Western scientific (e.g. geologic) concepts (Atwater et al., 2014; Brayboy, 2005; Masta, 2018). TribalCrit is integrated into our project framework because it specifically addresses “American Indians’ liminality as both legal/political and racialized beings” (Brayboy, 2005, p. 427). This is a vital perspective when working with complexly situated sovereign nations, such as the Acoma Pueblo community. TribalCrit addresses nine tenets (Brayboy, 2005), but the most critical tenets that are relevant for this project are: colonization is endemic to society; the meaning of the concepts of culture, knowledge, and power can be uniquely understood through an Indigenous lens; Tribal philosophies, beliefs, customs, traditions, and visions for the future are necessary to understand the lived realities of Indigenous peoples; and stories are not separate from theory—they are real and legitimate sources of knowledge that inform Indigenous ways of being (Battiste, 2008; Brayboy, 2005).

Methodology

Participants and setting

I (first author, Darryl Reano) grew up immersed within the Acoma Pueblo culture and maintain connections to my family and community there. My perspective, as an Acoma Pueblo community member and academic researcher, is uniquely situated to draw attention to geoconnections. These dual identities also ensured that the role of Acoma Pueblo’s governing bodies in determining what is appropriate to publicize and share with outsiders to our community was respected. Approval for the content of the Sharing/Learning Program was secured by meeting with the Acoma Pueblo Tribal Council before each of the following stages of the research process: conducting the geologic field research that informed the Western science information within the Sharing/Learning Program, implementation of the Sharing/Learning Program, and multiple points during the preparation of the written text of this manuscript to report results from the Sharing/Learning Program. At the end of the Sharing/Learning Program, the materials were placed under the supervision of the Acoma Pueblo Tribal Council. The Acoma Pueblo Tribal Council established the Pueblo of Acoma Department of Education in 2007 to promote educational excellence within the community while also maintaining the Acoma culture and language (Pueblo of Acoma, n.d.).

The Sharing/Learning Program was held in the Acoma Community Center, a social meeting place for community members across the Acoma Reservation. The Pueblo of Acoma was consulted and informed of all recruitment activities. Advertisements displaying the date, time, location, and subject matter of the program were posted on social media, in local newspapers, community centers, post offices, schools, elderly centers, as well as by word of mouth. An informational table was set up the day before the Sharing/Learning Program took place at the local community recreation center, in the same location where the Sharing/Learning Program was held. Darryl Reano was available for potential participants to address any questions or concerns they had about the program. Interested individuals were given a brief description of the geology program and the consent, assent, and parental consent forms were explained in detail.

Fifteen participants came to events for the Sharing/Learning Program. These Acoma Pueblo community members included seven children (under the age of 18) and eight adults. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that about 2784 individuals lived on the Acoma Pueblo Reservation between 2014 and 2018, which is concurrent with the approximate timeframe when the Sharing/Learning Program took place (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019). Therefore, our participants represent less than 1% of the Acoma Pueblo resident population and cannot represent the full spectrum of diversity found within the Acoma Pueblo community.

Some of the participants maintain a role as an Elder in the Acoma Pueblo community. Indigenous Elders are integral parts of many Indigenous communities because of their lived experience, their roles as knowledge bearers, as well as their wisdom in navigating the world. However, not all Indigenous Elders keep the same precise relationships within their home communities because every Indigenous community has a unique understanding of what characteristics an Elder should have and embody. Furthermore, these understandings change and develop over time as Indigenous communities continue to thrive in contemporary society. The following description of Indigenous Elders may provide insight for those not familiar with the concept:

Age does not denote Eldership. There are no application forms posted when a certain age is reached. People are observed and their activities noted in much the same fashion as when children are undergoing their transition to maturity. Later in life when it is felt that their minds are receptive to understanding their role in adult society, they will be invited to become a member of the Elders group not as an Elder in their own individual right but for what they can contribute to society as a group.

–Uncle Bob Anderson, Quandamooka, Ngugi Elder.(Martin & Mirraboopa, 2003)

Other Indigenous scholars have maintained that Indigenous knowledge is held in community (Battiste, 2008; Smith, 1999). As a result, Elders and youth each provide useful aspects of the Indigenous knowledge system (Battiste, 2008; Smith, 1999). Italics will be used to differentiate quotes of these Indigenous perspectives from the Western scientific perspectives represented in this research. In order to avoid the automatic over-privileging of Indigenous Knowledge shared by Acoma Elders by non-Indigenous entities, the attributions of quotes in the results section are labeled only as “Acoma Pueblo community member.” This is one way of practicing Indigenous data sovereignty on behalf of the Acoma community. Indigenous data sovereignty (Battiste, 2008; Davíd-Chavez & Gavin, 2018) refers to “the right of Native nations to govern the collection, ownership, and application of its own data” (not limited by geographic jurisdiction or digital form) (Rainie et al., 2017, p. 1). The rich information presented in this research will only fully be wielded by other members of the Acoma Pueblo community.

Methods & research design

The Sharing/Learning Program was implemented as a day-long geoscience educational experience for Acoma Pueblo community members. The focus of this Sharing/Learning Program was to connect depositional environments of sedimentary rocks with everyday uses of those earth materials by Acoma Pueblo community members (Reano, 2014; Reano & Ridgway, 2015). The researchers for this project refer to these connections between culture and geology as “geoconnections,” but other researchers may have multiple terms for these connections depending on the specific relationships involved (Cajete, 2008; Chinn, 2008; Davíd-Chavez & Gavin, 2018; Garcia, 2018; Gibson & Puniwai, 2006; Semken & Morgan, 1997; Smith, 1999).

The Sharing/Learning Program did not take place at the Traditional village of Acoma Pueblo (Figure 1). The Sharing/Learning Program was purposefully held in a neutral building that is designated for less culturally significant activities that do not incorporate Traditional ceremonies or sacred objects. It is a space that community members respect as a common meeting place. This was done because the introduction of Western geoscientific concepts is inherently a disruption to Traditional ways of being. The Acoma Pueblo Officials deemed this program appropriate for the Earth Day activities, which includes other Western science-oriented programs related to recycling and health monitoring. Most, if not all, research activities would not be allowed to take place at the Traditional village of Acoma.

The educational materials used in the Sharing/Learning Program were developed using a backward design approach (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998). The purpose in creating these materials was not to educate Acoma Pueblo community members about Traditional Knowledge they might (or might not) hold depending on their various roles (e.g., Elder status, matriarch, etc.) within the community. Therefore, specific Traditional Knowledge was not part of the previously prepared educational materials that were presented in the Sharing/Learning program. Traditional Knowledge was discussed during the Sharing/Learning Program experience only when participants brought it up during the program, which occurred frequently. Instead, our approach focused on geoscience concepts derived from the M.S. work of the first author, which detailed depositional environments found within the geologic framework of Acoma Pueblo, NM (Reano, 2014; Reano & Ridgway, 2015). Three separate activities took place during the Sharing/Learning Program (Figure 3): (1) A Rock House Activity, (2) A Depositional Environment Gallery Walk, and (3) A Google Earth Exploration of the Acoma Reservation. The rock house activity focused on introducing the use of hand lenses and grain size cards, tools used by many field geologists. Participants then observed and described the mostly sedimentary rocks (e.g. Dakota Sandstone) that make up the building structure that the program was held in (Figure 5), which was built with rocks from the same quarry that many community members use to build and upkeep their Traditional homes.

Figure 5. During the “Rock House Activity,” Darryl Reano indicates different features of rocks that might be interesting for the participants to observe.

In the second activity, participants described geoconnections during a “gallery walk.” Posters of various depositional environments were hung on the walls and participants used post-it notes to describe their own personal geoconnections to the various representations of depositional environments (Figure 6). When possible, the posters featured local geologic features that community members would recognize as being located within the Acoma Pueblo reservation. In some instances, pictures taken of modern depositional environments from locations outside of the Acoma Pueblo reservation were used (e.g. the Rio Grande River). However, only pictures of geologic strata from the Acoma Pueblo geologic framework were used on the posters.

Figure 6. An example of a poster hung during the “Depositional Environment Gallery Walk.”

In the third activity, we used Google Earth to navigate to different areas of the Acoma Pueblo reservation participants were interested in discussing. At the end of the day, a group discussion that included all of the available participants was held. In order to encourage talking, the facilitator asked one question: “What did you like about the program?” This discussion allowed participants to describe the various aspects of the Sharing/Learning Program that they enjoyed most as well as to communicate which geoconnections were most interesting to them, given their exposure to new Western geoscientific knowledge.

The educational materials that were formally prepared for the Sharing/Learning Program were completely written in the English language. All of the participants were fluent in English and so the majority of the Sharing/Learning Program was conducted in English. However, during the final group discussion many concepts and words from the Keres language were used by the participants because some concepts/words are not directly translatable into the English language. In many of these instances, the speakers clarified as much as possible in English.

A sequential transformative design (Figure 4) was used to design our research plan to assess the impacts of a place-based educational module on Acoma Pueblo community members’ connections to geoscience concepts. A sequential transformative design consists of the collection of quantitative and qualitative data with a strong theoretical perspective that guides the study’s research questions (Creswell et al., 2003). This design calls for the integration of the qualitative and quantitative data during the interpretation phase of the study after both datasets have been collected. This type of mixed method study treats the qualitative and quantitative data equally so that both sets of data are of high quality and the sequential order of data collection enhances the study’s findings (Creswell et al., 2003).

In this article, we present our findings from the qualitative component of our mixed-methods project. For the qualitative component, a semi-structured group interview was conducted with all of the participants who attended the Sharing/Learning Program. This group interview included only 13 out of the 15 total participants because two of the participants left before the end of the Sharing/Learning Program. An audio recording of this interview was transcribed and analyzed qualitatively to identify participants’ perceptions of geology, participants’ use of geoscience terminology, and the relevance of geology to their daily lives (i.e. geoconnections). We used a thematic analysis method (Braun & Clark, 2006) to identify and analyze common themes from the contributions of the interview participants.

While a major part of this project is to privilege Indigenous perspectives, it was also important to the researchers that Western scientific perspectives were equally represented. In order to achieve this, non-Indigenous geoscientists were recruited to verify our interpretations of geoscience concepts described in the results. An iterative coding scheme was developed where individual coders (4 total) progressively identified and then subsequently modified the codes used to analyze the transcript with NVivo qualitative analysis software (Bazely & Jackson, 2013). All four coders self-identified as geoscientists and had basic training in Western geoscience to at least the undergraduate level.

One purpose of including these non-Indigenous geoscientists in the code development was to ensure that the Western geoscientific concepts within the analysis were recognizable and agreed upon by members-at-large from the academic geoscience community. A second purpose for the relatively high number of coders used in this project was to advance the training of two undergraduate researchers (i.e. second author, Hasara) in qualitative research methods. The final analysis presented in this paper is the product of the primary researcher’s (Darryl Reano) singular analysis of the final interview. The set of codes developed and agreed upon in conjunction with the other geoscientist researchers was used in this analysis. The codes were grouped together into six major themes which are reported in the results section below.

Results

Six major emergent themes were identified in the group interview transcript: Traditional Knowledge (TK), Western Geoscience (WG), Education, Stories (including personal experiences), Natural Resources, and Geoconnections (between TK and WG). The following paragraphs will describe in more detail the criteria used to designate passages within the transcript as part of a particular emergent theme. Examples of each theme are also provided.

The Traditional Knowledge (TK) theme was used to indicate instances where participants described culturally-invested processes, materials, and/or ideas relating to the physical earth. This theme also included spiritual beliefs of the Acoma Pueblo Traditional religion, as well as contemporary sources of practical, Traditional Knowledge relevant to current household practices (such as cooking, farming, and ranch duties). Within the TK theme we had one major sub theme we designated as “responsibility of future generations.” Indigenous spaces often involve Elders from the community passing on Traditional Knowledge to younger generations which can include both explicit and implied sets of responsibilities. We also included passages that contained behaviors or motivations linked to striving for advancement (i.e. being more knowledgeable, communicating Traditional practices, etc.) in any aspect.

Examples of passages from the transcript that fit into this theme include (brackets have been added by the researcher for clarity):

Those cottonwood trees, we used to make bubblegum out of those things.

   -Acoma Pueblo community member

Also learning from our Elders too about those stories. I never knew about the whole thing about the runners, how they put that [earth materials] on their legs. I never knew that.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

Well, for people who have built their houses for centuries, thousands of years, that’s an important idea. How to find that kind of stuff [stones] to build. Even though they did that a long time ago and knew about that, somebody who’s building the house right now might get the wrong kind of stone and cause some of their house to deteriorate just because of the erosion.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

In these quotes, Acoma Pueblo community members are identifying earth materials that have cultural value within the community. Cottonwood trees are used for a treat, earth materials impart culturally valued attributes (i.e. swifter running), and also provide a means for survival (e.g. the building of homes). The Acoma Pueblo community member speaking about building homes recognizes that this information is valuable. They further explain what could happen if this Traditional Knowledge is not used: the home that is built from the wrong stones will deteriorate. These three quotes are authentically situated examples of how the Acoma Pueblo community relies on earth materials found locally on the Acoma Pueblo reservation.

The Western Geoscience (WG) theme applied when participants referenced Western scientific topics from the Sharing/Learning Program or from previously held knowledge of the participants. The use of academic Western geoscience terminology was automatically included in this theme. The other major subtheme we included with WG was “time.” The passage of time was used by participants to describe geologic changes in the local environment within a human timescale.

Examples of passages from the transcript that fit into this theme include:

But it’s really interesting to see how those changes have evolved. How those changes have been made and we look at a rock and we really don’t see anything except a rock. But then this helps to learn the different layers and kind of visualize or imagine how many millions of years it took [to form that rock].

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

The story of that it talks about…why lava has all those bubbles and vesicles.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

It’s just about the geology but I think that geology is where sand comes from. The geology is where our air come from. The geology is where everything else came from. All the chemical makeup of all the rocks that we have on this earth created our waters, created our air.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

There’s things we do all the time, there’s things we see all the time…erosion and changes and systems and like I said, the morphology of all the rocks around there.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

One of the community members (1st quote) is referring to how some people simply “see a rock” but after the Sharing/Learning Program they also see “how many millions of years it took” to form that rock. This is an example of metacognitive thinking that has engaged the community member to think about how what they are seeing, “different layers,” could be explained from a Western scientific perspective. This community member has made a direct connection between everyday rocks and the geoscientific processes that created that rock.

The second quote in this theme represents a direct connection between a culturally significant story that describes how geologic features were created. Since this article will be viewed by many outsiders to the Acoma Pueblo community, I will not explain what Traditional story was shared with the participants. However, it is evident that the Traditional story was enhanced as a result of the Sharing/Learning Program because the words “vesicles” and “lava” were used to describe the geologic features within the story. One of the gallery walk posters featured Mt. Taylor, an extinct volcano that is culturally significant for the Acoma Pueblo community. This is an example of how the geoscientific information presented in the Sharing/Learning program was used to enhance Traditional Knowledge. As a result, listeners of the story learned an enhanced version of the culturally significant story. The participant sharing the story reinforced the use of geoscience terminology that was presented during the Sharing/Learning Program by relating it to Traditional Knowledge.

The Education theme was used to indicate when participants advocated for increased learning opportunities for teaching and learning. This theme also indicated when participants expressed satisfaction that the community would benefit from the Sharing/Learning Program. Three subthemes of Education also had a marked, direct relationship to the Sharing/Learning Program: “interest,” “gratitude,” and “curiosity.” We used the interest subtheme to describe instances where participants expressed personal interest in learning more about Traditional Knowledge and/or a Western scientific concept. Interest also included references to specific aspects of the program that the participants explicitly said they enjoyed. The gratitude subtheme was used to designate passages where participants expressed an appreciation for receiving knowledge (both TK and WG). Curiosity designated passages where participants asked a question about the environment or if the participant expressed an interest in a concept related to the environment.

Examples of passages from the transcript that fit into this theme include:

I really wish they would do that with the water, with hydrology. Do that a lot more so that we get to understand who we are as Acomas and have more pride in what our land is all about.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

How can we raise better crops, more crops. How can we raise better animals, more healthy animals? How can we sustain ourselves here?

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

In terms of the kids that are here, sometimes that would’ve been a good thing to have brought all different kind of other samples. You brought a few in, but maybe just grab a whole bunch and let them decide, like a little test with just sedimentary or just igneous.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

All this teaching is very helpful to get the idea of how those changes happened and how that came about. So, thank you very much for enlightening us.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

In the first quote, the Acoma Pueblo community member is remarking on how the land is only one aspect of a holistic identity that Acoma people hold. Water and “hydrology” are also important to the identity of Acoma people. In addition, the third quote listed is describing how one community member is already thinking ahead to how the Sharing/Learning Program could be improved. This community member is practicing their agency by consciously deciding how they would modify the educational experience to provide another geoscience learning experience for the younger generation.

Another major theme from our analysis indicated intense personal relationships directly with the environment, which included social events that happened in particular localities. Memories/personal experiences were frequently recounted throughout the entire group interview as a way to provide context for Traditional Knowledge (e.g. how it is known, why it is used, historical relationships). To showcase such a broad theme, we decided to use a broad term, Stories. This is not meant to diminish the importance of the knowledge carried within these remarks. One of the tenets of TribalCrit specifically points out that “stories are not separate from theory; they make up theory and are, therefore, real and legitimate sources of data and ways of being” (Brayboy, 2005, p. 430). Within the stories theme, we included four subthemes: family, community, personal experiences, and recreation.

Examples of passages from the transcript that fit into this theme include:

My mom used to tell me about how to build a house, even though she never built a house. She watched her father, [Participant name]'s father and other uncles build homes. She would always call those rocks different things.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

But it used to be a big hill and it was a long ways on the North side. We used to slide down that way (laughing). Then try to climb back, get up there, push each other down all the way to the bottom and there were no weeds at all. It was just clean sand dune. We don’t wear shoes and we don’t get scratched on our legs but now all there are all those weeds.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

The second quote is an example of reflexive thinking that the Acoma Pueblo community member is exhibiting. The second quote also describes how environmental changes influence children’s recreational activities. The fact that the community member describes “weeds” covering a formerly “clean sand dune” provides evidence that the community member is recognizing specific examples of how the environmental landscape is changing over time. In this case, it is not a result of human influence on the environment, but rather the environmental changes are influencing human behavior.

The Natural Resources theme was used to highlight passages that specifically mentioned earth (e.g. rocks) and water resources for the Acoma Pueblo community. This theme included the cultivation of these resources as well as when participants described the uses for these resources.

Examples of passages from the transcript that fit into this theme include:

It’s about resources. I've always liked and enjoyed natural resources. Then everything we talked about, the land is one important theme to all of us, especially here at Acoma.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

We have a lot of problems and a lot of concerns with water. Not only that, but other natural resources, as well.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

Even though we don’t build that much with those kinds of materials anymore, the understanding on how we built things [homes] and why we used what we used [earth materials] to build them… is learning about geology, about how the particular properties of any kind of mineral or stone are important to us.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

The third quote is another example of reflexivity. The community member is thinking about how some Traditional Knowledge is being lost because “we don’t build that much with those kinds of materials anymore.” However, they also make the connection that Western science is connected to those same ideas of Traditional Knowledge because both knowledge systems are concerned with “the particular properties of any kind of mineral or stone.” The community member finds relevance in natural resources because the properties of different earth materials impacted “how we built things and why we used what we used to build them.”

The Geoconnection theme was used when participants described connections between Traditional Knowledge and Western Geoscience, with identity as a subtheme. We coded passages as “identity” if participants identified their identity, if they described a connection between their identity and the Sharing/Learning Program, as well as when participants described aspects of the Acoma Pueblo community’s identity.

Examples of passages from the transcript that fit into this theme include:

The earth is our mother and what we learn from it. All of this to make one big connection with who we are. Just our identity. As a people, as a society, and the individuals. All of us that sit here as humans make that connection.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

Why do those sand dunes move? And where have they gone in the climate of our area? Even though that relates to a story of how she grew up, it is science. It is science…The idea though is that they’re all kind of - how do they say that word - interconnected.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

She said, ‘Don’t ever build a house with that sugar rock.’ And I said, ‘Sugar rock? I'll just take that off that …’ (laughs) She said, ‘Yeah, that’s sugar rock,’ and I said, ‘What’s the difference?’ ‘It’s that kind of rock that falls apart.’ I said, ‘Oh, you mean like sandstone?" Of course, maybe mom didn’t really understand sandstone, limestone, whatever. It’s sugar rock.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

The third quote is an example of why using Indigenous research frameworks such as TribalCrit is important when communicating with Indigenous people. The community member is expressing how stories can be used to transmit scientifically sound information (Brayboy, 2005, p. 430). In this particular instance, the community member is describing how geoscientific disciplines (e.g. geologic processes are influenced by climate) are all connected.

Discussion & implications

The overall aim of this project was to explore connections that the Sharing/Learning Program participants made between their culture and Western modern science, “geoconnections.” An Indigenous research framework was used to design the Sharing/Learning Program. This approach encouraged individuals to direct the conversation toward topics they wanted to discuss. Thus, the geoconnections recognized in this analysis feature direct communication of the value that Acoma Pueblo community members have for Western geoscience concepts. “Geoscience” is purposefully used rather than “geology” because we wanted to be more inclusive of non-geology disciplines related to the Earth (e.g. biology and chemistry).

The specific geoconnections that participants made included: building traditional homes from specific sandstone layers, changes in the physical configuration of geomorphic features (e.g. migration of sand dunes, weathering and erosion of Acoma Mesa), as well as using earth materials to cook food. However, the geoconnections also included links between their culture (Traditional Knowledge) and other non-geologic disciplines such as the harvesting of prickly pear berries (biology) for natural dyes (chemistry), the harvesting of other traditional foods (sweet potatoes, agronomy), the human impact of wearing seeds as necklaces (cultural behaviors interacting with the environment) on the movement of plants (a tree on top of the mesa, ecology).

We used to make necklaces out of those seeds come up and maybe that’s how that tree grew up on top. The only tree we have. Because as kids we run around with a bunch of those leaves and maybe that’s where it created that plant. Now look how big it is. That’s the only tree we have on top. That’s about 40, 50-year-old tree there.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

We used to pick whatever Mother Nature put out there, like…that sweet potato. It’s real sweet. That’s our candy because those leaves are sweet.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

We were charging [money] down below [the Traditional village] because of the prickly pears up there (laughing). Everybody was up there picking.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

Another important topic the analysis revealed was how the participants defined Traditional Knowledge. As trained, Western scientists our conception of Traditional Knowledge is influenced by non-Indigenous ways of knowing. However, an exciting outcome from the closing group discussion was that the participants collectively began to describe in their own words what their conceptions of “Traditional Knowledge” and “Traditional Education” are. They also discussed the difference between Western Science and Traditional Knowledge. From the Acoma perspective, Traditional Knowledge has utility. It is not simply knowledge for the sake of having knowledge, but it has a purpose or usefulness for the people living within a particular environment:

Please children, listen and learn a lot of our culture and our land that our ancestors left for us too, to use and live on this world… This is our home. This is our life here. Even though you may say you won’t come home, it’s too hard living on the Rez, but someday you’re going to come home. You’re going to live here, back where you belong.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

A lot of those stories that I've taught, even to my own children maybe I don’t know if they remember, kind of put a tie on that on why we need to understand, why we need to know it [Traditional Knowledge]. And why science is important for us to understand what happened, even though it might be a story.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

That’s what Pueblo people and Indian people have always done. We’ve always learned it as a group of understanding and never as a math or a geology or uh English. It’s all been one whole thing, one whole idea. I think maybe that’s … Darryl’s trying to make it into how it used to be. How we used to live.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

Traditional teaching practices were described as recognizing the interconnectedness of the natural world and its relationships to people, animals, and other lifeforms within the environment. This implies that educational pedagogies that are interdisciplinary in nature may be more effective for learners from Acoma Pueblo because this holistic perspective aligns with Acoma Pueblo cultural values. Traditional Knowledge is also described as something that is being forgotten and less utilized than in previous generations. Characteristics of Traditional learning environments were also described during the group discussion: maintenance of a spiritual connection/resurgence of Traditional values/maintaining self as a member of the community:

Don’t ever disconnect yourself from your people, from who you are as Acomas…come back and share some of that.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

I think Darryl trying to make that connection is trying to go back to how we used to be. Trying to learn and understand how our environment is and how it relates to us.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

Then we can at least come with some understanding on how we need to live and not take charge of any of it, but to use it to help us to continue to live. There’s not very many of us anymore and I know there’s a lot of people that need to know this information.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

Maybe other communities might not see this, but for us, I think it’s something we’ve been doing for centuries and we’re not doing that as much anymore. I think maybe students like Darryl and all the other guys that are going to college and universities, I hope they have that same sense of idea that you can learn these things but don’t disconnect from where you come from, in terms of how they relate to your lives. And your religion. I think that’s a good point.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

But not knowing those things [Traditional Knowledge] I think is a way that we’re losing part of our identity.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

Western science was described by the participants as being associated with “facts” and textbook knowledge, in a way that is decontextualized or “separate”:

We’re kind of used to the Western version of learning, so public school systems. It’s just textbooks and facts and whatever.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

Western education - the way that all of you have gone to public school or college or university – always kind of separate. They call ‘compartmentalize’ stuff.

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

These differences in how Acoma Pueblo community members perceive Western science classrooms and Traditional Knowledge learning environments offer key information for designing culturally relevant curricula for Acoma Pueblo community members in the future. The community members describe how an interdisciplinary, interconnected approach to teaching Western science would align more closely with Traditional learning environments. Practical applications of Western science that reinforce Traditional ways of being within the Acoma Pueblo community would also support Acoma Pueblo community members desire to “continue to live.”

This Sharing/Learning Program is different from many other community outreach programs because it was designed using Indigenous research framework components. Indigenous research frameworks diminish power hierarchies that Indigenous learners face in most non-Indigenous learning environments. Stressful emotions stemming from the lack of familiarity with Western scientific concepts may discourage Indigenous learners from finding value in Western science. During the Sharing/Learning Program, the facilitator explicitly acknowledged that all of the participants had valuable knowledge to offer and share during the program. The participants then felt comfortable taking control of the final group discussion to serve their interests. This included showing thanks for the program activities as well as the opportunity to hear Traditional Knowledge shared by the Elders during the hands-on activities when participants interacted in small groups. The Acoma community behavioral norms empowered Sharing/Learning Program participants of all ages to share information and ideas about the earth materials we were observing during the program. Using TribalCrit and sTc conjunctively also allowed the participants to reflect on their experience within the Sharing/Learning Program and transform that experience into something the learners felt would benefit themselves and the broader Acoma Pueblo community.

During the final interview, participants were not heavily questioned about what particular aspects of the Sharing/Learning Program were most prescient for them. Instead, participants framed their experience in their own words. This allowed for the emergence of context-driven, sociohistorical descriptions that embodied the complex relationship between Acoma Pueblo community members and their environment. The group discussion was dominated by Elders from the community, which is a normal pattern of social behavior in group settings at Acoma Pueblo.

The rich cultural understandings of Acoma Pueblo as a place for nurturing direct relationships with the local geology are explicit and direct. Many of the participants recognized a need for a balance between cultural revitalization and promulgation of Traditional Knowledge while at the same time incorporating Western scientific knowledge into their framework for dealing with outsiders to the Acoma Pueblo community:

A lot of these things, these stories, these ideas, these concepts are not in any book anywhere. They’re all in the people that grew up listening to these things. Unfortunately, we’re not at a point where we’re really that comfortable as a Tribe to actually write these things [Traditional Knowledge] down. Or even to interview people…

   –Acoma Pueblo community member

From the community’s perspective, they have control over the enculturation of Acoma Pueblo cultural values and practices but they do not yet feel comfortable utilizing Western scientific practices, such as documenting Traditional Knowledge. The continued implementation of a modified Sharing/Learning program is an opportunity to address this concern by illustrating how Western science can be used by Indigenous communities to enhance Traditional Knowledge. The results of this project illustrate one example of how Western science can be called to serve the interests (e.g. meaningful representation of Acoma Pueblo Traditional Knowledge within Western science educational materials) of Indigenous communities.

Non-Indigenous educators may wish to use educational materials developed from Indigenous research frameworks similar to the activities used in the Sharing/Learning Program. These educators will need to devote time and patience to understanding the underlying values of Indigenous research frameworks and the specific context of cultural values within particular Indigenous communities such as Acoma Pueblo. Another way for non-Indigenous educators to respect Indigenous knowledge systems is to explicitly recognize their positionality as an outsider to Indigenous communities, such as Acoma Pueblo.

Approaches to research that promote the agency of local communities in the research process should be a priority for Western scientists. Doing so will maintain a respectful relationship with the many communities, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, in which they conduct research. It is our intention to be part of a revolution that promotes respect between academic researchers and contemporary Indigenous communities. We implore future scholars to mindfully use the information in this article in ways that do not harm or take advantage of Indigenous communities through disrespectful behaviors such as cultural appropriation.

Limitations

The Sharing/Learning Program discussed in this article had great value for many of the participants. However, as stated previously, the participants in this qualitative study represent less than 1% of the population of community members residing on the Acoma Pueblo reservation. Qualitative studies often do not seek to achieve statistical generalizability but instead focus on understanding a specific phenomenon in greater depth than quantitative approaches (Kelle, 2006; Tuli, 2010). In our context, we do not claim that the geoconnections described by the participants in this article is an exhaustive list of all geoconnections that Acoma Pueblo community members recognize. A different group of participants or a program longer than one day might lead to recognition of more diverse geoconnections.

The use of Indigenous research frameworks limits the dominance of the researcher over participants in a research study. This sharing of power limited the ability of the interviewer to guide the discussion after the Sharing/Learning Program. Perhaps more geoconnections would have been revealed if more specific questions were directed toward the participants. However, respecting social norms and behaviors of the Acoma Pueblo community helped to develop trust and allowed for authentic ideas to be shared by the participants. The dialogic conversation component of the sTc framework might have been compromised if the group discussion had been managed more closely.

The societal roles, gender, and Elder status of the participants most certainly impacted the geoconnections discussed by the participants. However, we did not seek permission from the Acoma Pueblo Tribal Council to discuss these aspects of Acoma Pueblo culture in our writing. As researchers dedicated to the authentic use of Indigenous research frameworks, we felt that protecting the integrity of the Traditional Knowledge and the anonymity of the participants was paramount to preserving a sound relationship with the Acoma Pueblo community and its governing Officials. We also have not yet received permission to further develop the educational materials created for the Sharing/Learning Program, but this may be possible in the future.

Conclusion

Acoma Pueblo community members maintain a direct relationship with their local environment and geologic framework. The Sharing/Learning Program that was implemented at Acoma Pueblo focused on discussing the intersection of Western scientific geologic concepts in tandem with Acoma Pueblo community members’ use of earth materials. By using an Indigenous research framework, our Sharing/Learning Program created a unique learning environment where participants shared information with each other informally. This freedom in discussion encouraged participants to contextualize the Western scientific concepts presented during the Sharing/Learning Program with their unique cultural experiences and values. Throughout the Sharing/Learning Program, Acoma Pueblo behavioral norms dictated that the Elders participating in the program maintained a striking presence, often guiding the discussion back to Acoma cultural values and history. Analysis of the closing interview of the participants identified geoconnections that represent a multitude of connections between Traditional Knowledge and multiple scientific disciplines. It is our hope that engaging diverse communities, such as Acoma Pueblo, with earth science concepts will foster respectful relationships that may serve to engage future earth scientist scholars from those communities. As part of our commitment to the use of Indigenous research frameworks, it is our intent that the information contained within this article should be maintained by the Acoma Pueblo community and all educational materials derived from this information should be approved by the Acoma Pueblo community’s Officials.

Acknowledgements

The researchers would like to extend our gratitude and appreciation to all members of the Acoma Pueblo community. This work would serve little purpose and have no meaning without the Acoma community. We thank the Acoma Pueblo Tribal Council and the many administrative departments at Acoma Pueblo that provided support for the Sharing/Learning Program as well as those individuals who communicated with us as we prepared this written document. We also gratefully acknowledge the following individuals for their contributions and feedback that benefitted this research: Dr. Jon Harbor, Dr. Stephanie Masta, Dr. Alberto Rodriguez, Mia McGee, Dr. Ken Ridgway, Felica Ahasteen-Bryant, Dr. Nievita Bueno Watts, Dr. Christopher Roemmele, and Dr. Faith Weeks. We also thank Dr. Anita Marshall, two anonymous reviewers, and the Journal of Geoscience Education Editors that were assigned to our manuscript for their detailed feedback during the review process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The National Science Foundation under grant No. 1712378, The Geological Society of America [Graduate Research Award, 2015], the Purdue Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment, and Research, and the Purdue Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Department.