Native Lands - Ben Kiler

This week's discussion and readings were particularly eye opening for me. I feel like most people are robbed at the chance to learn how nuanced and substantial many aspects of critically underrepresented Native cultures are. Being able to shed the false perception that Natives were simple land dwellers with no understanding of the land they inhabited for thousands of years is something that everyone should experience at some point. The benefits of how Natives understood their land is an overlooked resource that could potentially save hundreds of lives and billions of dollars, not to mention preserve the environment, from catastrophic fires.

The highlight of this week's reading was Trafzer's Tribal EPA reading. I found the history behind Chemehuevis and Serrano's interactions with their environment, as well as their various relocations, to be particularly fascinating. How the Chemehuevi worked with different levels of government to contribute to the study of cultural science was interesting, and what surprised me the most was how extensive this relationship was between the Chemehuevi and National EPA.

Having the author of our readings take part in our discussion was a new experience for me, and I think it definitely helped me understand the motivation behind his work. Hearing his passion for his projects and work with Native peoples kept me engaged the entire time, and ultimately helped me understand how vital the integration of Native cultural sciences into traditional climate science is in order to create sustainable environmental programs.

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