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It is a familiar phrase, frequently spoken today. Even so, little thought goes into what this simple phrase means. We exist in water throughout our lives, dependent on it from conception, surrounded in water in our mother’s womb, until our last water vapor breath. Water is so common, we are so accustomed to our submergence in it that we fail to notice how vital it is and fail to recognize our dependence on it, taking for granted the water vapor-laden environment we exist in every moment of every day. Taking our fragile dependence on water into consideration, one would think we would have policies and practices to protect water and respect the beinghood of water that humans feel entitled to. However, mainstream society considers water to be a commodity, disregarded and taken for granted; the importance of water does not afford it protections to maintain healthy environments or to ensure healthy food and water resources. Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is a combination of qualitative, quantitative, and spiritual knowledge that uses the same rigor as western science and represents knowledge of place, history, and spiritual/cultural philosophies about terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems (Smythe et al. 2020). TEK is a collection of historical knowledge of place, providing in-depth knowledge about the intricate ecological relationships between the environment and all things through a spectrum of beliefs, values, and perceptions, developed using local natural phenomena (Smythe and Peele 2021; Smythe et al. 2020) We will consider the relationship three Indigenous women have with water and the cultural responsibility they bear as caretakers of water. We will examine the historical connections and worldviews each author (Todd and Towne as Alaska Native Haida, and Northbird as Fond du Lac Ojibwe) and their tribal community have with this sacred being. Here we discuss the importance of water to the Haida and Ojibwe peoples, demonstrate the importance of cross-cultural knowledge sharing, and present three educational activities to preserve and pass on TEK to the next generation.
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This content will become publicly available on May 4, 2026
Supporting the Next Generation of Indigenous STEM Scholars Demands Indigenous Leadership
- Award ID(s):
- 2316455
- PAR ID:
- 10625229
- Publisher / Repository:
- Taylor & Francis Group
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geography
- Volume:
- 124
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 0022-1341
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 62 to 72
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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