Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/13
Outputs
Target Audience: The Land Grant Office recruited from the Santa Fe Indian School’s Agriscience high school tribal and IAIA’s tribal college students. IAIA as a 1994 land grant institution fulfilled to the best of its abilities to provide education and outreach mandates through the Center for Lifelong Education by providing relevant traditional and non-traditional agriculture and health & wellness education to reach tribal youth through the feasibility study. Changes/Problems: The time limitation (one year) of the project did not allow adequate time to identify and enroll dual credit students for the Fall 2012 semester, delaying the enrollment of seventeen (17) Santa Fe Indian School Agriscience students in “Indigenous Agriculture" until the Spring 2013 semester. Due to the delay, the students were not able to enroll in Ethnobotany. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Results and evaluation of the program evaluated by SFIS and IAIA staff. The “Indigenous Agricultural” course was developed and provided to SFIS and IAIA tribal students. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: SFIS' Community Based Agriscience Program was created in 2001 through a NASA Tribal College grant that was awarded to IAIA, thus beginning the collaborative agriculture relationship; the partnership had been relatively dormant until this year's research project facilitated its renewal. The Community Based Education Program (Environmental Science, Agriscience, Tribal Government, Economic Development) allows students to participate in community basedcurriculumin the above mentioned program areas through collaboration with the All Indian Pueblo Council and the Department of Natural Resources of the Nineteen Pueblos of New Mexico. During planning and discussion with Santa Fe Indian School, Supt. Chavez expressed a desire to have the two programs come together to create a "second tier" level of CBE, to allow students to earn dual credit in the community based program areas. Due to the schedule and community issues that had already been identified, Santa Fe Indian School expressed that agriculture should be the primary course to be developed. Due to the limited time frame of the one year project,curriculumin health and wellness, and traditional foods preparation education areas identified in the objective were not developed. Goal 2: Ninety percent of IAIA students enrolled in '"Indigenous Agriculture" had no knowledge of the traditional crops or practices of the Tewa or Keres communities surrounding IAIA. However, in the dual credit “Indigenous Agriculture" classes, the Pueblo students who had basic traditional agriculture knowledge increased their understanding of traditional agriculture practices through a comparison of western science in soil chemistry and plant production principles which consistently verifies the traditional practice. Goal 3: Twenty two students participated in the following: · Outdoor classroom project at Santa Fe Indian School with Sustainability program participants at Emerson College and the Senior Honors Project class at SFIS. Includes indigenous tree plantings and drip installation. Future Solar installation will power existing greenhouse and outdoor classroom power. Partners - IAIA, Emerson College, SFIS, Foodcorp. · Bosque restoration project on Santa Fe River. Reintroduction of Indigenous species of willow and cottonwood to replace invasive species of Salt cedar and Russian olive. Partners- IAIA, SFIS, Wild Earth Guardians, Skerry Farms. · Hosted Wooster Polytechnic Institute Sustainability Research Group at IAIA to participate with SFIS/IAIA students in developing a check dam/watershed restoration model to capture parking lot runoff for crop production and to provide water for an outdoor classroom natural growing area. Goal 4: Early season production demonstrations at IAIA last fall revealed a high potential for cool season production of greens and cold crops for the on-campus garden, which has many of the soil related problems associated with urban construction or home sites found in most Pueblo or tribal communities. Victims of the inherent nutrition related diseases of tribal communities (diabetes, obesity) can greatly benefit by infusing their existing diet with fresh, high fiber produce, especially when the early and fall season production potential extends the availability of these products during the high retail season. This research also aligns with the Diabetes Prevention Program at IAIA. Many of the Pueblo male students are already involved in crop production (alfalfa) and limited traditional food production for family purposes. However, the cash crop potential at local markets was immediately recognized, but the discussion of educating the consumer showed that marketing potential as well as consumer preference would hinge on consumer choices and affordability, which would require consumer education at the point of purchase level (farmers markets). The potential wholesale value of greens production is five dollars a pound (the price paid by Bon Appetite for greens produced in IA garden). This can be valued as lowering family food costs as well as increasing nutritional quality of local diets. Measurable Outcome 1: Twenty two students, (17 dual credit SFIS students, 5 IAIA students) earned three credit hours in ''Indigenous Agriculture", an Indigenous Liberal Studies elective course. The “Native American Agriculture Issues" course mentioned in Objective One is the companion course linked to the Agriscience course as a part of Santa Fe Indian School's Community Based Education program. Objective one's language implies that the students would take this course after having earned two college credits in Indigenous Agriculture when in actuality it was taken concurrently. Measurable Outcome 2: Twenty two students demonstrated knowledge and skills in traditional planting methods and gardening by participating in individual and group oral and hands-on pre and post assessments that more clearly align with Pueblo and traditional teaching and evaluation methods. Measurable Outcome 3: Twenty two students’ demonstrated knowledge and skills necessary to make healthy choices about personal nutrition and health by participating in individual and group oral and hand-on pre and post assessments that more clearly align with Pueblo and traditional teaching and evaluation methods. Measurable Outcome 4: Following the completion of the "Indigenous Agriculture" course work in Spring 2012 semester, the USDA Project Manager met with Anya Dozier, Ph.D. Curriculum/Professional Development Director at Santa Fe Indian School. Dr. Felisa Gulibert, Academic Director at Santa Fe Indian School, Mark Ericson. Matt Pecos, and Tony Dorame. Jr. Community Based Education Staff at Santa Fe Indian School, and Steve Wall, Indigenous Liberal Studies Department Chair at IAIA to determine and to measure effectiveness andgeneralizationto other institutions and tribal communities. The Santa Fe Indian School staff were all in agreement that the three hour Indigenous Liberal Studies elective, "Indigenous Agriculture", served its purpose as a pilot to determine the potential of IAIA 's developing dual credit offerings in community based education courses, such as agriculture. Measurable Outcome 5: In evaluating the feasibility of this project, staff from Santa Fe Indian School and IAIA were in agreement that in order to be most effective, the initial community based dual credit offering should be a four credit hour lab science course that will satisfy State dual credit as well as Core requirements for graduation. Conclusion: The conclusion of the SFIS staff was that because of increased graduation requirements by SFlS as well as the State of New Mexico PED, there is no time for a student to take dual credit courses that do not satisfy Core requirements for graduation. Therefore, in order to be most effective and applicable to our own tribal institutions and communities as well as others, the course should meet State Science Standards. They concluded that this would be satisfied by a four credit hour lab science course. Currently, staff from the CLE and the Native Science departments at IAIA, and Santa Fe Indian School are working together to reprise "Introduction to Native Science Concepts", a four credit hour lab science course that has been offered in the past and is still listed in the IAIA course catalog. If this course proves to be satisfactory, it will then need to be listed on the State Dual Credit Agreement in order for both institutions to be reimbursed for the costs of books and tuition associated with course delivery. In evaluating the feasibility of this project, staff from Santa Fe Indian School and IAIA were in agreement that in order to be most effective, the initial community based dual credit offering should be a four credit hour lab science course that will satisfy State dual credit as well as Core requirements for graduation.
Publications
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