It Takes a Community to Raise a Scientist: A Case for Community-Inspired Research and Science Education in an Alaska Native Community

The Center for Coastal Margin Observation and Prediction (CMOP) is a multi-institutional, National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Center that takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying the region where the Columbia River empties into the Pacific Ocean. Two of CMOP's focus areas are biogeochemical changes affecting the health of the coastal margin ecosystem, and socio-economic changes that might affect the lives of people who harvest and consume fish and shellfish. Native peoples from California through Alaska depend on resources from their local rivers, and, currently, many tribes are developing a workforce trained with scientific skills to manage their own natural resources in a way that is consistent with their traditional way of life. The relationship between Traditional Knowledge (TK) and practices, which are informed by centuries of observation, experimentation and carefully preserved oral records, and Western Science, which is deeply rooted in the philosophies and institutions of Europe, is often an uneasy one. National progress is being made to open pathways for individuals from Native communities to Western Science higher education programs and back to the communities, where tribal members are empowered to evaluate and monitor the health of their environment. CMOP is part of this national movement. CMOP supports American Indian/Alaska Native students in pursuing academic and career pathways focusing on coastal margins sciences. One of CMOP's initiatives is the CMOP- School Collaboratories program. We present our experiences working with one Alaska Native Community, give some suggestions for building a similar program through community-inspired research, and share some results of the collaboration.