SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP COHORT RETURNS FROM FLOOD AND FIRE ECOLOGY TRIP TO COLORADO

2014 SLC Cohort

A group of high school students, college interns, and Sustainable Development Institute staff traveled to Colorado to learn about water and fire issues, climate change’s impacts on the ecology of the region, and what sustainability means in different places as part of the USDA POSOH project. While camping out in the mountains for 5 days, the group received an eye-opening overview of the landscape through tours and hiking, while also working on service-learning projects in areas recently impacted by major floods and fires.

Before going out to rough it in the mountains, the program began at The Alliance Center in Denver, CO, the hub for sustainability in Colorado, to hear from local sustainability experts and learn more about increased fire load and intensity as well as drought and flood issues facing Colorado.

Kristin Maharg, Program Manager, for the Colorado Foundation for Water Education called Colorado the land of extremes and described some of the challenges and opportunities with the scarce resource in the west–water. “Colorado, being at the headwaters of many major watersheds in the west, is a water steward for many states out here, as well as Mexico.  We are trying to move from a capitalistic view of water to a more collaborative perspective.” Many were shocked to learn that water was treated like private property in Colorado, which became later fuel for many a campfire discussion.

SLC Crew hike to their camping spot

The view from the SLC Campsite

The SLC then packed up and headed to the mountains just west of Denver to camp out for the next 4 nights and 5 days (where they didn’t have cellphone service…ahhhh!!!). They got used to the higher elevation and also learned camping skills, fire ecology, and wildfire management. They traveled around the landscape to learn first hand about fire and water issues in the area which are exacerbated by climate change, particularly the devastating floods that impacted Colorado in September 2013. As the group drove around, they could see the connection between the charred landscape and bigger floods, as there wasn’t vegetation to slow down more intense rainfalls.

 SLC Students and Mentors work together to set up camp

The camp battles it out in a game of "Ninja!"

Students and Mentors enjoy their time around the campfire

They were also able to connect to community-based learning as they helped complete much-needed flood restoration projects. For example, at Calwood Education Center, the group worked as a team to rebuild some stairs, which were destroyed by the flood. The trail had been closed since the flood but thanks to the work of the SLC, could now be reopened. Calwood Education Center was grateful since the trail ran down to a former mica mine that many 5th graders use to learn about geology.

SLC Students work to install stairs on Colorado Mountainside

The SLC Crew sit on their completed stairwell

(Foreground from Left: Standing - Justin "Jud" Gauthier,

Lorenzo Warrington, and Mylia Olson. Sitting - Susan Webster, Manih Boyd,

Santana Caldwell, Chelsey Haberl, Cherie Thunder, Angie Wilber)

(Background from Left: Standing - Rebecca Edler. Sitting - McKaylee Duquain, Jacob Schwitzer,

Brandon Warrington, Jason Edler, Travis Spice, Nicholas Schwitzer, and Kate Flick.)

The crew wrapped up their time in the mountains and stopped in Boulder, CO to meet SDI Climate Science Center partners from Rising Voices.  They spoke with climate change scientist Dr. Jeffery Morisette about including indigenous perspectives in climate change science as well as career opportunities in these fields.

Many thanks to the Cottonwood Institute for helping to organize such a great learning experience!

The Cohort enjoying some downtime in Boulder, CO.

SDI Intern McKaylee Duquian gets caught up investigating

the ash from part of the burnt environment

SLC Students looking at the bark of a pine

The Cohort explores the area around their campgrounds

The sight our explorers found

SLC Members pose like Rosie the Riveter after doing 

hard work volunteering to help clean up in the Lyons Community post-flood.

SLC Crew striking a pose at a river during the beginning of their Colorado Trip

SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP COHORT HOSTS YOUTH SPEAK EVENT

The USDA P.O.S.O.H. Project recently sponsored the Oskēh-Mamāceqtāwak Kēketōwak: Youth Speak Event hosted by the College of Menominee Nation’s High School Sustainability Leadership Cohort (SLC) to showcase different opportunities for area youth and provide a platform for young people to have their voices heard. On Friday, Dec 6, 2013, about 100 people gathered to celebrate these youth voices, which took various shapes and forms.

Menominee High School Singers

Menominee Prayer by Forrest Madosh Jr.

Dr. Patty Loew, a UW-Madison professor who hails from Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and focuses outreach efforts on Native youth and digital story-telling, introduced the video/action research panel. She emphasized the importance of youth being at the heart of the storytelling process and the power they had in speaking to many sustainability issues we face. She facilitated a group of Bad River youth in creating the appropriately named film, "Protect Our Future". It spoke to the environmental and cultural threats from the proposed taconite mine in the Penokee Hills near Bad River’s Reservation in Northern Wisconsin.

A packed house in CMN's Cultural Learning Center

watches the student's video presentations

“Your parents and grandparents may remember fighting mining issues with the Crandon Mine…Now we are facing another threat.” Dr. Loew said, noting the intergenerational commonality of the mining issue for tribes in Wisconsin. After viewing the student video, Mr. John Teller, Assistant Dean of Continuing Education and Menominee Language Liaison at the College of Menominee Nation commented, “That [Protect Our Future] video should be shown everywhere.It should get out far and wide. They showed some clips of other taconite mines in Minnesota, and it’s just ugly.”

Head of the Sustainability Leadership Cohort, Kate Flick,

introduces the 2013 Cohort for a Q&A Session

SLC Student Jacob Schwitzer fields a question from the audience.

The SLC high school students from Menominee Indian and Shawano High schools also introduced and showed their action research projects. Dylan Enno, Jaime Oshkeshquoam, Chelsey Haberl, and Susan Webster filmed, produced, and edited a film about obstacles to Menominee athletes reaching their full athletic potential called "Work Hard Play Hard". Brandon Reiter, Mylia Olson, and Jade Oneil constructed some garden beds over the summer and showed pictures of their project (as well as serving tea from the dried plant leaves). Jacob Schwitzer, Nicholas Schwitzer, and Ania Smith created a film "Nama’o: The Ancient Story Teller" on the sturgeons’ relationship to the Menominee people in the past, present, and future.

SLC Student Dylan Enno humorously answers a question

The SLC fielded a variety of questions from the audience on their projects: what’s next, what were your greatest challenges and accomplishments, will you create more films, where are you sharing the films, etc? Though the group had bumps along the way, it was clear they had formed a unique bond and appreciated the rewards of project-based learning. Dylan Enno summed it up when he said, “We had our share of challenges…but in the end, we are like family.”

Members of the 2013 Sustainability Leadership Cohort and their Mentors

(From Left: SLC Students Dylan Enno, Jacob Schwitzer, Nicholas Schwitzer,

Jaime Oshkeshequoam, Mylia Olson, Chelsey Haberl, Brandon Reiter, Susan Webster,

SLC Leader Kate Flick, SLC Mentors Cherie Thunder, Connie Rasmussen, and Lloyd "Boobie" Frieson)

POSOH Field Test Retreat: A Collaborative Place-Based Curriculum Process

Team members test curriculum lessons and provide feedback

Teachers, community members, cultural experts, undergrad and graduate students and other school practitioners from the Northeastern WI area gathered in Madison, WI last week to test curriculum lessons for POSOH, a Menominee place-based education project.  Kate Flick, SDI Education Coordinator, participated in testing lessons on the 8^th grade unit which focuses on the two following questions: “How does our place provide us with food?” and “In what ways do our food practices affect our place?” The process integrates scientific and tribal cultural practices into relevant learning material for local middle school students.

Students discover food from a place-based scientific viewpoint

Students begin to understand scientific concepts about how matter moves through earth systems, where it is neither created nor destroyed, but changed into different forms.  Linda Orie, former Menominee Indian Tribal School middle school teacher and current UW-Madison education and psychology graduate student, noted that the unit is very cylindrical. “[It is] reiterating cycles,” she noted, “Students learn about the carbon cycle, indigenous view of cycles, and the food cycle.”

Food serves as the centerpiece of the students’ intellectual journey. Students trace the basic transformation of food from digestion, to the plant life cycle, to different agricultural systems. First, students discover how the digestive process prepares food to serve as the building blocks of their bodies. In order to tell the story of a particular food, students learn the plant life cycle and how plants grow in different environments. They compare a continuum of agriculture practices commonly used in their area from traditional wild-rice harvesting, 3-sisters gardening practices, hunting, and berry gathering, to other corporate Food Inc. style production and high-tech family-owned dairy methane energy production farms.

Through curriculum pieces, students transform their idea of food from something purchased at the store to a much more in-depth understanding of sustainability values and land-use decisions. In the end, students will be able to assess and measure various sustainability indicators and understand the trade-offs of each system. Students also learn how the values and practices of agriculture systems impact their diet and sense of place. In the end, students should be able to “locate” and define their own value system and apply land-use decisions to a hypothetical land tract by using an integrated socio-cultural and scientific lens.

Food is all about science and biology 

Paula Fernandez, cultural resource specialist at Menominee Indian School District, touched on the integration between an indigenous world view and a scientific world view. “In all indigenous cultures, everything is a circle and we go through this life in a circle…connecting with other cycles, said Fernandez, "Even the fact that we come from the earth is central.” In this case, the food we eat, which comes from the earth, becomes a way for students to track this cycling in a scientific viewpoint.

Participants integrate Native words into lessons

The feedback process was demanding but rewarding.  After a particularly challenging exchange about what sustainability indicators to use and how to assess them, Hedi Baxter Lauffer, UW-Madison project head of POSOH, brought everyone together. “Having this process, where we actually get to step back and talk to each other about what we want students to learn is a gift,” said Lauffer, “Sometimes having a discussion about the hard stuff is painful, but then it really is a collaborative process when you stick with it.”

UW-Madison project head of POSOH Hedi Baxter Lauffer

Last summer, the group participated in a rigorous design process where they were asked ”What should area 8^th graders take away from a place-based unit focused on food, sustainability, values, and land use practices?” Since then, the UW-Madison curriculum development team transformed the content into practical ideas, lessons, and activities which follow the new State and National Common Core educational standards. The 8^th grade unit will continue to undergo development and will be field tested later this year. If you have any questions, please contact field test participant and College of Menominee Nation Sustainable Development Institute Education Coordinator Kate Flick.

A birds eye view of the field test retreat