Native American Studies

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The Department of Native American Studies was established to provide and advance quality education for and about American Indians of Montana, the region, and the nation. In fulfilling this mission, the Department is committed to meet the changing needs of Montana's Indian tribes and all Montana citizens through excellence in teaching, research, and service. In its academic program, the department provides concentrated study through an undergraduate minor, the first online graduate certificate in Native American Studies offered, and a Master of Arts degree in Native American Studies. Students in any major can also gain a multicultural perspective through NAS offerings in the University's core curriculum. The Department, through its research and other creative efforts, actively pursues interdisciplinary scholarship in the field of Native American Studies.

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    Traditional knowledge systems and tribal water governance on Fort Peck Indian Reservation, MT
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2017) Zoanni, Dionne Kae; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Jamie McEvoy; Jamie McEvoy, Julia Haggerty and Elizabeth Rink were co-authors of the article, 'All the answers are in our culture': integrating traditional knowledge systems into tribal water governance on Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana' submitted to the journal 'Geoforum' which is contained within this thesis.
    The Fort Peck Indian Reservation is located in northeast Montana and is home to the Assiniboine (Nakona) and Sioux (Dakota) Tribes. Conventional oil and gas development and the disposal of produced water has led to the contamination of 15-37 billion gallons of groundwater within the aquifer that had historically been the only source of drinking water for reservation community members. Although the tribes are aware of the contamination plume, exploiting newly accessible shale resources has become a viable option as the tribes continue to try to alleviate the high unemployment and poverty rates of tribal members. Even so, tribal members and authorities also understand the importance of ecological health in fostering a healthy community. A strong movement of cultural resurgence has been in motion, with tribal members looking to traditional stories and lessons in order to guide the future of the community and create community cohesion. Traditional knowledge systems (TKS) have been heralded throughout contemporary Indigenous governance literature as an important dynamic resource for indigenous communities that deal with difficult decisions involving resource management. Using a TKS framework and interviews with tribal members, this research seeks to answer the following questions: 1) What are the TKS that surrounds water and its use for the Nakona and Dakota tribes? 2) What are some of the opportunities and barriers that exist for the successful incorporation of TKS into tribal water governance structures at Fort Peck? Challenges to validity, process, and relevance due to political histories and power imbalances, as well as diverse intertribal knowledge systems, may impede the successful integration of Indigenous knowledge in collaborative water governance initiatives with outside interests. The internal knowledge sharing process has the potential to enhance cultural revitalization efforts on the reservation -- which represent an organic solution that takes place from within the community itself. In addition, TKS-based tribal policies may uphold the expression of tribal self-determination, i.e. the 'governance-value' of traditional knowledge systems.
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