The Indigenous Earth Sciences Project serves to coordinate cooperating independent programs based at the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Purdue. We work in partnership with regional universities and tribal colleges around the country to provide access to the best earth science education and outreach available for Native American students and communities. The IESP is one of many programs united under Purdue University’s Tecumseh Project, a university-wide, coordinated effort to improve Indian education in the all fields of study, and to provide access for Native American communities to the collected research expertise and resources at Purdue.
Sharing the Land
Sharing the Land is a program working with tribes in Southern California. The program has the dual goals of increasing on-reservation expertise in the earth and environmental sciences, and of developing a better understanding of how to integrate culturally-held, indigenous, scientific earth science knowledge into the teaching of the earth sciences for American Indian communities nationwide. It has three major parts:
Explorers Clubs. The Explorers Clubs are designed for younger children and are on-reservation outdoor science programs that focus on learning to understand and enjoy the connections between the environment, culture, and science.
Young Native Scholars (YNS). YNS is a high school to college summer and year-round bridge program. Students become well-prepared for college science and aware of the earth sciences as an important career option.
Tribal Enivornmental Internships. Our high school programs are augmented by project-supported real work experience in tribal environmental management offices on their home reservations for participating students.
GEMscholars
The GEMscholars program is an opportunity for undergraduate students to conduct research that addresses environmental issues in their home communities.Under the mentorship of faculty from Purdue University, Bemidji State University, Leech Lake Tribal College and Red Lake Nation College, GEMscholars design and conduct their own research projects. Upon completion of their projects, thestudents travel to Purdue University to participate in the GEMscholars Symposium. Our goals are to excite undergraduate students about Science, introduce career possibilities in the Geosciences and increase the number of Native American students successfully pursuing graduate geoscience degrees.
Contact information For more information about any of the programs listed here, please contact Eric Riggs, IESP Director, (765) 496-1974 or emriggs@purdue.edu. For specific information on the GEMscholars program, contact Suzanne Zurn-Birkhimer, (765) 494-4753, zurnbirk@purdue.edu