Program success at tribal colleges and mainstream universities is often identified solely with matriculation and graduation rates. However, particularly for new STEM programs, capacity building is another key measure of success. In this paper, three of the co-authors, who are faculty members at a tribal college and participants in a multi-year collaborative pre-engineering education initiative between a tribal college and two Regental universities, provide their perspectives on capacity building in summer research activities within the alliance. The three each wrote essays reflecting on capacity building guided by pre-determined questions written by another co-author. Through qualitative analysis, we present common themes, divergent opinions, and quotations extracted from the essays from their unique perspective as faculty at a tribal college. We emphasize impacts among the partnering schools, faculty, students, and communities where the summer research activities took place. Three common themes dominated the essays including the importance of (1) building trust within the reservation community, (2) employing experiential and aspects of project-based service-learning approaches, and (3) encouraging tribal college and university leadership in the determination of research and educational foci in institutional collaborations such as ours.
In an effort to prepare more Native American engineers, counting the numbers who complete the educational task is important. More often overlooked, however, is that capacity building is another key measure of success, since reaching critical mass to obtain the numbers may take considerable time. In this paper, the co-authors are both the researchers and the research subjects. We are four engineers and/or scientists with advanced degrees with key roles in a multiyear collaborative pre-engineering education initiative between a tribally controlled college and two mainline universities. From our perspectives at one of those two mainline universities, we each wrote an essay reflecting on pre-determined questions. We briefly present our qualifications and then assess capacity building related to the summer camp experiential learning aspect of the initiative. We qualitatively analyze the essays and present persistent themes, along with consensus and divergent opinions. Four common themes dominated the essays including the importance of: (1) using experiential learning pedagogy, (2) building lasting relationships and networking, (3) including cross-disciplinary connectivity, and (4) taking advantage of positive but unintended consequences. We provide a recommended bibliography for faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduate student interns to provide a shared base of knowledge to improve collaborative cohesion.
Capacity building can be an important step in working to help more Native American engineering students to earn degrees. The success of educational programs is often evaluated by quantitative data such as matriculation rates. However, we make the case that a broader view of success in the early years of program development with tribal college pre-engineering partner schools may include capacity building as a form of qualitative assessment. If continued funding of such initiatives is withheld because of quantitative assessment alone, coalitions with tribal colleges may not reach their true potential because capacity building is often crucial, and it can take years to mature. In this paper, one co-author interviewed the other three co-authors, using a questionnaire designed to qualitatively assess the successes of the program in regards to capacity building on several levels. Thus, while all the authors are the researchers, three of the co-authors are the research subjects. All are engineers and scientists at the doctoral level. In the resulting essays, the interviewees expressed their opinions about capacity building in their roles in an NSF-sponsored pre-engineering alliance between two mainstream universities and a tribally controlled college. Those interviewed describe their unique qualifications to assess capacity building in this instance. From the perspective of one of the mainstream universities in the alliance, they address categories of capacity building at the following levels: the tribal college; the two participating mainstream universities; the reservation hosting the summer camp; student and faculty participants; tribal, State, and Federal agencies; and STEM disciplines in general. We present common themes in all three essays that reportedly encouraged capacity building, including: (1) building coalitions, (2) engaging in experiential learning, and (3) emphasizing improving the quality of life on Pine Ridge Reservation. We present secondary themes and nonconsensus opinions as additional support for the merits of qualitative assessment.
We present modern-day uses of traditionally used wild fruits among the Lakota on Rosebud Reservation as determined from interviews conducted in 2012. We quantify modern-day uses of wild fruits for food, beverages, tonics, medicines (physical and/or spiritual), and crafts. Use of buffaloberries, buffalo currants, chokecherries, riverbank grapes, plums, rosehips, and other plant parts remain as customs among the Lakota although the knowledge and practice of using wild fruits may be waning. Many interviewees implied that traditional uses of wild fruits could help sustain cultural identity.
American Indians are among the most under-represented groups in the engineering profession in the United States. With increasing interest in diversity, educators and engineers seek to understand why. Often overlooked is simply asking enrolled tribal members of prime college age, "Why don't more American Indians become engineers?" and "What would it take to attract more?" In this study, we asked these questions and invited commentary about what is needed to gain more engineers from the perspectives of enrolled tribal members from South Dakota, with some of the most poverty-stricken reservations in the nation. Overall, results indicated that the effects of poverty and the resulting survival mentality among American Indians divert attention from what are understood to be privileged pursuits such as engineering education. The study's findings indicated American Indian interviewees perceived the need for consistent attention to the following issues: 1) amelioration of poverty; 2) better understanding of what engineering is and its tribal relevancy; 3) exposure to engineering with an American Indian cultural emphasis in K-12 schools; 4) presence of role-model engineers in their daily lives; 5) encouragement and support from their peers, families, teachers, Elders, and tribal governments to value science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, particularly engineering fields; and (6) the embedded perceptions of math as a barrier to engineering studies.
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