Subject: A Listserv to Coordinate the Collaboration between UVA and the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Nation (SWO)

Description: We, a group of UVA undergraduates, graduates, and professors, are asking to create a listserv to coordinate our collaboration on the UVA-SWO Research Project, which is described below. Thank you for considering our request!

The UVA-SWO Partnership for Rangeland Ecology Research and Education is an interdisciplinary investigation into the impacts of bison and cattle grazing on the tallgrass prairies of the Lake Traverse Reservation in South Dakota in conjunction with youth empowerment and experimental education learning programs. Since 2017, this collaboration between UVA students and members of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribe has focused on environmental science research, educational exchange, and community health within the context of rangeland ecology in order to support biocultural conservation efforts based in Indigenous knowledge. Though this project was founded within environmental sciences, I will focus on expanding, reforming, and facilitating curriculum development for Indigenous youth in South Dakota, with the goal of empowering Lake Traverse students to engage with the interconnected ecology, culture, history, and Indigenous knowledge embedded in these spaces.

Our UVA student team has developed a strong working relationship with Nis’to, Inc., a Native non-profit led by Dustina Gill, a member of the SWO tribe with extensive connections to native youth. In our work, we have taken a two-pronged approach to achieve socio-cultural and conservation goals: 1) conducting an empirical analysis of prairie soil and vegetative health and its relation to rangeland management practices and 2) leading a hands-on education course that educates tribal youth on local and global environmental issues, and UVA students on Indigenous conceptions of human and other-than-human relations.