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<h1 id="reader-title">Stop believing this myth: No, Native
Americans are not “anti-science”</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
and Dina Gilio-Whitaker - October 9, 2016<br>
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<p><strong><em>Excerpted from “’All the Real Indians Died
Off': And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans” by
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Beacon
Press, 2016). Reprinted with Permission from Beacon
Press</em>.</strong></p>
<p>Few people in the world have more reason to be
anti-science than American Indians, given the history of
the way science was used in service of U.S. political
agendas to dispossess them of their lands and subjugate
them. It was a point alluded to in 2012 by Jason
Antrosio, a professor of anthropology at Hartwick
College, in a blog on an anthropology website.
Specifically, Antrosio expressed his understanding about
why many Native Americans refuse to participate in
genetic studies. He was responding to a post on another
anthropology blog in which the author, writing under the
pseudonym Dienekes Pontikos, claimed that the “big hole”
in genetic sampling of Native groups in the United
States is due to “petty identity politics contra
science.” Echoing this, a commentator at the Discover
magazine blog wrote that “Native Americans are not
special snowflakes” (because they are not the only ones
who have been subject to historic injustices) and that
“holding a grudge is no excuse for anti-science.” The
arrogant condescension of these and other science
writers reflects a belief that Indigenous Americans
somehow owe their DNA to genetics studies and that when
they disagree, they are automatically deemed to be
against science.</p>
<p>While experience has taught Native Americans that there
are very good reasons to be leery of genetic testing,
flippant statements about being anti-science are at best
unfair and at worst not just incorrect, but also
inflammatory and provocative. These statements are
irresponsible and only build obstacles between Native
peoples and Western-based science communities, and
genetic science is only the most recent realm to exhibit
such anti-Indian antagonism. There is an abundance of
evidence embedded in Native cultures — and scholarship
to back it up — that is the opposite of these vitriolic
claims, highlighting the fact that Native people have
always had their own forms of science and modes of
knowledge production, even if they aren’t recognized as
such by positivist, Cartesian-based Western systems.</p>
<p>One of the biggest challenges for Indigenous people in
North America (and elsewhere) is being seen by dominant
populations as peoples with legitimate systems of
knowledge, a problem thanks to centuries of white
supremacy that constructed Indigenous peoples as
inferior in every way. As one of the preeminent scholars
on Native science, Gregory Cajete, points out, elders,
activists, scholars, and intellectuals have told a
different story. The word “science” as it is commonly
used refers narrowly to complex, specialized, and
mechanistic systems of measurement to understand what we
call reality. Literally translated, however, science
refers simply to systematized knowledge. In this sense,
all Native peoples have their own structures of
empirically based knowledge. From their observations
they developed technologies that made their lives
easier, in characteristically sustainable ways. The
following are five of the most ancient, well known, and
influential of those Indigenous technologies.</p>
<p><strong>Astronomy</strong><strong> </strong></p>
<p>Astronomy is one of the oldest forms of science.
Consistent with Native worldviews that recognized the
interdependence of all life, even the stars and other
celestial bodies were seen as relatives who guided the
lives of the people in tangible ways. The movement of
celestial bodies could determine ceremonial cycles and
festivals, or war and other events of political or
religious significance. They also figure prominently in
the creation stories of many peoples. Like peoples all
over the world, Indigenous peoples read the heavens to
keep track of time.</p>
<p>Calendar systems like Plains peoples’ winter count and
other forms of pictographs, drawings, and rock art (such
as those found throughout the American Southwest and the
painted caves of the Chumash) were records that allowed
people to maintain important traditions year after year.
Some, like the Nazca geoglyphs in Peru, are thought to
possibly be manifestations of geometry and mathematics.
One of the most pragmatic applications of astronomical
knowledge was its ability to guide cycles of planting
and harvesting.</p>
<p><strong>Hydraulic engineering </strong></p>
<p>Many Indigenous cultures in pre-contact North and South
America were known to have complex irrigation systems
that could sustain communities of thousands of people.
Archaeological evidence from the Hohokam culture
(ancestors of the Tohono O’odham people in today’s
Arizona) and Peruvians in pre-Incan and Incan times
suggests irrigation technology that includes canals,
pipelines, aqueducts, dams, reservoirs, and check valves
dating back to 300 B.C., far earlier than European
technological advances.</p>
<p><strong>Agriculture</strong></p>
<p>Contrary to the popular colonial myth of Indians as
nomadic wanderers, many (if not most) Native nations
were agriculturalists of the highest degree. What we
today call “permaculture” is, as Cajete wrote, “in
reality applied Indigenous science.” Indigenous
knowledge of bioregional sustainability sometimes even
included game management. Great Lakes peoples cultivated
rice, cattails, and pond lilies. All over North and
South America, Indigenous peoples experimented with
farming techniques, resulting in many of the world’s
most widely consumed food crops today. For example,
Iroquois and other Native North Americans planted the
Three Sisters — corn, beans, and squash — together to
ensure long-term soil fertility and maximum output.
Growing these crops in small mounds prevented soil
erosion compared to linear plowing, and the technique
was adopted by some European immigrant farmers.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Native peoples practiced hybridization
techniques long before researchers like Gregor Mendel
and Luther Burbank popularized them, resulting in many
varieties of corn, chilies, beans, and squash. And the
so-called Mississippian Mound Builders in the U.S.
South, the predecessors to today’s Cherokee, Choctaw,
and other Southeast peoples, have long been the subject
of archaeological and anthropological study in complex
pre-Columbian civilizations. Cahokia, located in today’s
Illinois, is exemplary. A city at the time larger than
London, it is thought to have supported a population of
between twenty thousand and fifty thousand people at its
height in around 1250 to 1300 because of the ability to
produce surplus food.</p>
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<p><strong>Transportation and road building </strong></p>
<p>In North America after the last ice age, Native
peoples had no use for the wheel because species that
might have been draft animals had gone extinct. But
Native Americans were highly mobile and constructed a
network of trails that are still evident today. What
became pioneer wagon trails such as the Santa Fe and
Oregon Trails, the Central and Southern Overland
Trails, the Wilderness Road (through the Cumberland
Gap), and the Natchez Trace are still visible on maps
as highways.</p>
<p>In Mexico, the Mayans built a network of roads
centered in the Yucatán city of Cobá around AD 623.
These roads were remarkable for their rubble-filled
raised construction that ranged from two to eight feet
above ground and were lined with limestone concrete.
Roads were as long as sixty-two miles, and
archaeologists have found a five-ton cylindrical
roller for packing the ground, similar to steamroller
equipment used today.</p>
<p>In South America, the Incas constructed a 24,000-mile
complex of roads centered around the city of Cuzco,
roads that extended as far away as the Amazon and
Argentina. These included suspension bridges, solid
bridges with stone piers and wooden decking, and even
tunnels cut through solid granite. Bridges crossed
gorges, marshes, and other seasonally wet areas and
incorporated culverts to prevent water from flooding
them.</p>
<p><strong>Water navigation and vessels</strong></p>
<p>Wherever there was water, Indigenous peoples
developed watercraft. In North America, canoes were
common among coastal, lake, and river populations.
Great Lakes peoples built bark-covered canoes, and
Arctic peoples constructed sealskin kayaks. Pacific
Northwest peoples constructed elaborate dugout canoes
big enough to hold as many as 20 people and thousands
of pounds of cargo, and their maritime history is
among the oldest in the world. The Chumash and Tongva
peoples of coastal Southern California were known for
their <em>tomol</em>, a sewn plank canoe that is
considered one of the oldest forms of seafaring craft
in North America. It is believed by some scholars to
be influenced by ancient Polynesians. Recent
discoveries on Santa Rosa Island off the coast of
Southern California confirm the ancient
ocean-navigating abilities of the Chumash people
dating back at least eleven thousand years, far
predating the seafaring cultures of ancient Egypt,
Europe, and Asia.</p>
<p>As is true for peoples globally, the technological
innovations of ancient Indigenous peoples were
grounded in particular worldviews. They were formed by
their experiences within specific places over
millennia. Scholarship from Indigenous peoples
everywhere emphasizes that there are different ways of
knowing the world, beyond the dominant educational
paradigms that privilege Eurocentric philosophical
foundations. These foundations can be traced to (among
other things) Judeo-Christian traditions that
construct and continually reinforce social hierarchies
and views through a lens of domination and alienation
from the natural world. Indigenous knowledge
construction broadly speaking, on the other hand,
rests in a view of the world grounded in relational
thinking, respect, and reciprocity, which translates
as a sense of responsibility to life in all its many
and diverse forms. Scholars actively assert these
differences within contemporary academic discourses —
even within the hard sciences — through associations,
curriculums, and educational approaches that reflect
these values.</p>
<p>Take as an example the American Indian Science and
Engineering Society (AISES). Founded in 1977, the
group sees no inherent conflict between American
Indian values and those embodied in the sciences.
Quite the opposite, in fact, says Cherokee engineer
and educator George Thomas:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I feel [science] is actually a natural thing for
Native Americans because of our relationship to the
Earth, our spiritual beliefs, and respect for The
Creator’s great laws. Science is really just a way
of understanding what The Creator has put here. It’s
not just an academic pursuit for us; science and
theology are one and the same. It is also a mistake
to assume that technology is exclusive to one
culture or another. Take for example the teepee.
It’s a very aerodynamic shape that can withstand
high winds and snow loading, with strong convection
heating and cooling properties.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>According to the AISES mission statement, the group
sustains 186 chartered college and university
chapters, 14 professional chapters, and 170 affiliated
K–12 schools supporting American Indian students in
the disciplines of science, technology, engineering,
and math (STEM). Similarly, the Society for
Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans
in Science (SACNAS) is a collaboration dedicated to
supporting the educational success of Hispanic and
Native American people in science.</p>
<p>Native American perspectives have woven themselves
into college-level education throughout the United
States as evidenced by the Native American Science
Curriculum. The curriculum engages Indigenous research
methods that are applicable in tribal contexts such as
resource management, while also working to break down
derogatory stereotypes and biases. And innovative
projects at the K–12 level are infusing Indigenous
traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) into
conventional Western-based environmental education.
With a multi-million-dollar grant from the National
Science Foundation in 2010, for instance, the
Indigenous Education Institute partnered with the
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry to create a
traveling exhibit called “Generations of Knowledge”
that blends TEK with Western science, showcasing
“culturally relevant contexts as valuable,
complementary ways of knowing, understanding and
caring for the world.”</p>
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