Four Corners Studies
For the past three years, the Nature Conservancy has hosted a small cohort of Indigenous college students at their Canyonlands Research Center in southeast Utah. The program, known as N.A.T.U.R.E. (Native American Tribes Upholding Restoration & Education), seeks to empower the next generation of science and conservation leaders on the Colorado Plateau. During those seven weeks, students work with Indigenous knowledge holders and scientists, Western scientists, and program mentors to learn and teach about the science, conservation, and knowledge of the region’s landscape and conduct their own original capstone research projects. In this episode, Science Moab talks with two students from the 2023 N.A.T.U.R.E. cohort, James Johanntoberns (Kiowa/Caddo/Pawnee) and Shundeen Smith (Diné). We talk about their experiences in the program and their capstone research projects focused on ant-biocrust interactions and the legacy of abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation.
Meet the Scientist: James Johanntoberns
Nowah. Kwah ahat. Hatso aim toy ah. James Johanntoberns ah kahn. Originally from Oklahoma, I am an enrolled member of the Kiowa Tribe, and also of the Caddo and Pawnee Nations on my mother’s side. I have always been raised and taught cultural values by my family. While growing up in Tucson, Arizona, I fell in love with the beauty of the desert and gained a deep appreciation for the environment. That and my values have made me want to do my best, not just for myself or my people, but also for the very land that I live upon and call home. With pursuing higher education, I try to incorporate those values and teachings into my education. Over the Summer of 2023, I had the opportunity to become an intern with the N.A.T.U.R.E. program under the Nature Conservancy. During the internship, I had the chance to do groundbreaking research, gain amazing perspectives, and to find a calling for me to continue with my education. I am currently pursuing my undergraduate degree at Fort Lewis College in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy with a focus on Sustainability and Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
Meet the Scientist: Shundeen Smith
Shundeen Smith is currently obtaining her associate’s degree in biology at San Juan College as well as being currently employed at the San Juan College Herbarium as a Student Employee. As a Diné (Navajo) girl growing up, her family frequently traveled in and out of the Navajo Nation to both Lukachukai, AZ and Blue Gap, AZ, visiting family and helping to tend to farmland. Assisting with the farmland and foraging ceremonial plants for family ceremonies, she built her passion for her studies from her family’s land and experiences. She hopes to become a biogeochemist to aid the Navajo Nation in Uranium mine remediation and clean-up.
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Interview Excerpt - The Next Generation of Indigenous Scientists
Today we’re talking about the Native American tribes upholding restoration and education or nature program, a science and conservation leadership program for indigenous college students in the Four Corners region. The nature program is sponsored by the Nature Conservancy and hosted at the Canyonlands Research Center in southeast Utah. In the summer of 2023, seven native college students from diverse tribal backgrounds, universities and majors spent seven weeks in southeast Utah in southwest Colorado. They worked with indigenous knowledge holders and scientists, Western scientists and program mentors to learn and teach about the science, conservation and knowledge of this region and to conduct their own original capstone research projects. Today we’re talking with two of these students, James Johanntoberns and Shundeen Smith.
ScienceMoab: Can you tell me more about the nature program? What was that experience like for you?
Johanntoberns: For me, it was definitely eye opening, getting to travel around the Four Corners region. I really enjoyed that experience and getting to learn new skills that I can incorporate into my academic and professional career was something that I just really held dear. Overall, the experience was amazing. I loved it having a mix of both fieldwork and in class type of learning. It was a really good blend for me, I will cherish those memories.
Smith: The seven weeks for me helped me see what I can do and how much more I am capable of than I realized. learning face to face with other scientists and even other indigenous elders, where I got to sit down with and learn so much from them. It was overall just really, really great and eye opening, and I really recommend it.
ScienceMoab: Tell me more about your capstone research project. you came up with the idea on your own, developed the project, and then ultimately presented it in a symposium at the end of the program. Can each of you tell me about the topic that you chose to research and why you chose that topic and kind of how you went about researching that topic?
Johanntoberns: My capstone project was done on how ant colonies impact bio crust and dryland ecosystems. What initially started that entire idea was a simple question that I had while we were out at the dugout Ranch, which is just how burrowing insects impact bio crust. no one could really give me an answer and even doing some research on my own, I couldn’t find a lot of studies done on the subject. Really, the only thing that people could give me was theories, ideas, hypotheticals, but no actual research. Getting all that information together. And doing the research was really eye opening, as I got to learn so much about bio crest, which was a brand new topic for me and it sparked an entire research thing within me that I just had to try and figure out the answer to. Along with that I have my own cultural significance with ants, as that’s where my creation story comes from. My people, we came from ants. Incorporating that respect that I have for ants along with wanting to do the science and the research and merging the traditional knowledge from my tribe with Western science was not difficult, but it wasn’t easy. I found that ants do affect the stability of biocrust, but there were a few things that led me to thinking that there could potentially be a relationship between ant colonies and biocrust that grow with age to where they form a symbiotic relationship. I think with more research, I could potentially figure out if that’s actually true, or if there are more variables that come into play.
Smith: My capstone project is on the legacy of the abandoned uranium mines on and around the Navajo Nation and my basic research methods were literature review and interviews. What had inspired me to do this capstone project specifically was seeing all these videos and different documentaries about the abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation and how detrimental effect it has on residents and natives people living near and on the reservation. I came across something that said, cell walls of fungi can break down uranium, or radioactive waste. So that was something that I wanted to learn more about. It ties into my family history as well, as my paternal grandfather was a uranium mine worker. He was a uranium mine worker for about 17 years and hearing from my father and my aunt about what he did as a uranium miner, and then the detrimental health effects he had afterwards was really the full driving force of what made me want to continue researching about it. What I found out was that the abandoned uranium mines aren’t as abandoned as I initially thought. There are multiple organizations and that are working on remediating and cleaning up these sites. So that’s what really brought peace to me. And then also what I think would be a solution to the abandoned uranium mines such as like using micro remediation and bacterial remediation, and also maybe incorporating those bacteria or mediations with bio crests to mitigate the spread of radioactive waste from natural rainfall or snow.
