Connections to water: How water governance has affected the connections between the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation Peoples and the Yakima River

部落学院和大学计划(TCUP)的一个目标是提高为国家土著学生服务的特定高等教育机构的科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)教学和研究能力。扩大这些机构的STEM课程设置增加了学生在STEM领域追求具有挑战性和回报的职业的机会，提供了在可能具有文化意义的领域进行研究性学习的机会，并鼓励社区和世代对科学和数学教育的欣赏。这一题为“与水的联系：水治理如何影响雅卡马民族邦联部落和部落与亚基马河之间的联系”的项目直接符合这一目标。该项目由西北印度学院(NWIC)的一名教员领导，旨在了解亚基马河在亚卡马民族的文化、历史和地方感中所扮演的角色。利用存档信息以及Yakama人的祖先和现在的观点，这项研究旨在产生关于Yakama人与河流之间过去和现在的关系和互动的重要信息，以及河流的治理和利用如何随着时间的推移影响这些活动。该项目提供了一个将Yakama视角纳入河流历史的平台。通过让教员参与尖端研究，该项目增强了学院的研究能力，并为她未来参与NWIC学生的研究工作做好准备。利用扎根的理论和混合方法，研究研究首先检查与河流有关的存档的城市、州和部落记录，包括视听和数字材料，如报纸文章、艺术、立法和录像带。与部落和州政府官员就这条河的历史进行的采访，将与存档数据相结合，以制定一个初步框架，以考察这条河及其与雅卡马人的关系是如何随着时间的推移而发展的。这项研究采用了定性的反思性设计，然后将使用连锁转介策略让Yakama部落成员参与采访，并使用PhotoVoice来代表他们与河流的关系，目的是建立这种关系的演变如何与河流的历史使用和治理相关联。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A goal of the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) is to increase the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instructional and research capacities of specific institutions of higher education that serve the Nation's Indigenous students. Expanding the STEM curricular offerings at these institutions increases the opportunities for their students to pursue challenging, rewarding careers in STEM fields, provides for research studies in areas that may be culturally significant, and encourages a community and generational appreciation for science and mathematics education. This project, titled “Connections to water: How water governance has affected the connections between the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation Peoples and the Yakima River” directly aligns with that goal. Conducted by a faculty member at Northwest Indian College (NWIC), the project aims to understand the Yakima River’s role within the Yakama Nation’s culture, history, and sense of place. Using archived information and the ancestral and present perspectives of the Yakama people, this study aims to generate important information about the past and current relationship and interactions between the Yakama people and the river and how governance and use of the river has influenced these activities over time. The project provides a platform for including the Yakama perspective in the history of the river. By engaging the faculty member in cutting-edge research, the project enhances the college’s research capacity and prepares her for future research work that engages NWIC students.Utilizing grounded theory and a mixed methods approach, the research study begins with an examination of archived city, state, and Tribal records related to the river, including audiovisual and digital material such as newspaper articles, art, legislation, and videotapes. Interviews with Tribal and state officials about the history of the river will be combined with archived data to develop a preliminary framework for examining how the river and its relationship to the Yakama people has progressed over time. Employing a qualitative reflective design, the study will then use chain referral strategies to engage Yakama Tribal members in interviews and the use of PhotoVoice to represent their relationship to the river with the intention of establishing how the evolution of that relationship correlates with the historical use and governance of the river.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.