Enlarging the Human Dimensions of Earth System Science

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Enlarging the Human Dimensionsof Earth System
Science

• George Seielstad
• University of North Dakota
• James Rattling Leaf
• Sinte Gleska University

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Conclusion

• Should one or Shouldnt one engage with
  minority-serving institutions?
• One should.

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Spaceship Earth No obvious boundaries All
Humanity on same journey
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Indian Reservations
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Tribal Colleges
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Mutual Advantages

• No culture has a monopoly on good ideas.
• All human societies contain innovative people.
• All have traditions that have survived for
  generations
• Strategy Maximize the pool of clever
• ideas to ensure the best are included.

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Insurance Principlefor Ecosystems
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
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Insurance Principlefor Social Systems

• CULTURAL DIVERSITY

A drift toward a homogeneous world risks
narrowing the entire imagination of humanity to a
generic mono-culture.
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Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium
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Tribal College Perspective

• Mission to complement traditional . . . resource
  management and environmental protection by
  merging Western geo-spatial science with
  empirical Native knowledge.
• To provide a
• diversity of knowledge and practice,
• of intuition and interpretation,
• of promise and hope,
• so that all humanity becomes aware of its status
  on the planet and becomes capable of doing it no
  harm.
• James Rattling Leaf and Jhon Goes In Center

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Value from Tribal Colleges

• Longest record of regions environment
• Close relationship between human and natural
  worlds
• Foresight 7 generations ahead
• Cyclical Thinking What we do today you will
  feel the consequences of tomorrow. Winona
  LaDuke

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Ethno-Mapping
Sinte Gleska University SD School of
Mines Jacquelyn Bolman James Rattling Leaf
Bear Butte, SD
Chief Mountain, MT
Salish-Kootenai College Blackfeet CC Tammie
Grant William Swaney
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Let us put our minds together and see what kind
of life we can make for our children
--Sitting Bull
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• George Seielstad
• University of North Dakota
• gseielst_at_aero.und.edu
• http//www.umac.org