\u201cI was a\nlittle shocked,\u201d Yazzie said. \u201cIn my mind, they\u2019re\none big family. To lose one would be like losing a sibling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yazzie, who is Din\u00e9, took a different approach with her research. Instead of looking at which trees they could keep or lose, she applied her experiences and priorities as a Native American researcher and asked what society could change so the whole forest, in all its interconnectedness of species, land and people, could adapt as their environment changed. It was born out of the Navajo concept of K\u2019\u00e9<\/em>, or kinship, and the belief that people\u2019s relationship to the forest ecosystem was as powerful and necessary to preserve as people\u2019s relationships to each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\nstemmed from that \u201clight bulb moment\u201d was a research project that combined\nwestern science and modeling tools with Indigenous knowledge and bringing\nvoices into a conversation that haven\u2019t always been considered. Yazzie\u2019s\nresearch, \u201cDine kinship as a framework for conserving native tree species in\nclimate change,\u201d was published in July in Ecological Applications<\/a>. The other authors are\nforestry professors Peter <\/strong>Ful\u00e9<\/strong>, Yeon-Su Kim<\/strong> and Andrew S\u00e1nchez Meado<\/strong>r<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The idea\nfor this type of study began several years ago when Ful\u00e9\napproached tribes in the Southwest looking for collaborative research efforts.\nThe Navajo (Din\u00e9) Nation was one of the\ninterested tribes, and they worked with Ful\u00e9\nto apply for an agroforestry grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Ful\u00e9 then recruited Native students to lead the research.\nYazzie, then a master\u2019s student in the School of Forestry, jumped at the\nopportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking\nat the scientific methodology, this study looked much like other studies: The\nteam used the Climate-Forest Vegetation Simulator and input data from the most\nrecent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report to determine how\nforests could be affected based on different climate events and the effects of\nspecific human-led activities to mitigate the effects of those events. But\nbehind the data and simulations, the entire process centered on Indigenous knowledge\nand beliefs about the forest, such as how the ecosystem affected society, the\nspiritual value of the forest to the people and what the people owed the forest\nin terms of responsibility and reciprocity for what the forest had given. It\nshifted the entire conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe found\nthat substantial forest loss was inevitable under the warming climate\nscenarios,\u201d the authors wrote. \u201cThe Indigenous principle of respecting nature\ndoes promote adaptive management, rather than complacency. The modeling framework\nallowed us to evaluate the management treatments, including planting, for\nconserving multiple tree species in mixed conifer forests, thus providing an\nanchor for biodiversity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the\nteam was doing this climate study, Yazzie and Kim were concurrently running a\nrelated project that focused on outreach and education to the tribes. They hosted\nlocal meetings with community members living in the Navajo Nation to discuss\npriorities, share what they were learning and listen to concerns from the\ntribes, which changed the way they modeled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\nalso meant telling the tribal members what they learned. That was a rough day\nfor Yazzie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese\nresults are devastating,\u201d she said. \u201cFor the tribes, this is devastating. In\nworkshops I held with community members, the response was silence. We had just\ngone through how valuable this forest is, how meaningful it is; it\u2019s not just\nthat they have a connection to the land now, but the land connected them to\ntheir ancestors. It connected them to the next generation, their children,\ntheir grandchildren, and many more that are to come. These results just left\nthem shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They\nwere quiet for a moment, digesting. Then her community members spoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRight\naway they said, \u2018OK, what can we do? What is being done? What is the tribe\ndoing, what are the forest managers doing, what are other tribes doing, what is\nthe Forest Service doing? They were thinking about how we can take this\ninformation and use it in order to ensure that there\u2019s something for the next\ngeneration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s one of the amazing things about my community. There are a lot of concerns about changing ecosystems, but all of our teachings, all of our knowledge has principles and concepts for us to apply to teach us how to be adaptable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kim said incorporating these different ideas is critical in science, which scientists are increasingly recognizing. Getting buy-in and being able to make changes will be much easier if these groups are working together, with the same priorities and same information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne\nof the most urgent problems we face with climate change is the disconnect\nbetween what we know from science and what we actually do about it,\u201d Kim said.\n\u201cIt is imperative to produce and communicate relevant information with\nstakeholders\u2014tribal members, in this case\u2014so they can act on it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\nYazzie, who is now an NAU employee, is doing is continuing to work with her\ncommunity to effect positive change on the forest but also to promote the use\nof Indigenous knowledge in the scientific community. This project showed her how\ninfrequently Indigenous voices are considered in western science and the\nimportance of including those voices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy\ngrandpa used to talk about knowledge as a crystal\u2014you can see it from one side,\nthen you turn it and there\u2019s another side. That\u2019s what knowledge is,\u201d she said.\n\u201cThat\u2019s how you learn, that\u2019s how you teach is that we have these multiple\nsides. I think predominantly western academia places a lot of weight into\nwestern science and puts other knowledges at the opposite end. Really, it\u2019s\nwestern science and all these other ways of knowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think there\u2019s just a lack of incorporation of other knowledges. When we\u2019re discussing a huge issue like changing ecosystems, it\u2019s important to see it from all sides.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Overview](\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/YazzieIMG_7-1024x768.jpeg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"Sheep](\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/YazzieIMG_9-1024x680.jpeg\")
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Heidi Toth | NAU Communications
(928) 523-8737 | heidi.toth@nau.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"