Native American Educational
and Cultural Center

Geology Field Course

June 10 - 22, 2012

Geology and the Environmental Issues Across Indian Country

Rocky Mountain Region

 

 

June 11 - 25, 2011

Geology and the Environmental Issues Across Indian Country

Mississippi Delta

The Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS) is sponsoring a geology field course examining geological and environmental issues impacting Native American communities in the Mississippi Delta. This field expedition will include visits to the traditional homelands of the Atakapas, Tunica-Biloxi, and Houma tribal nations in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. A critical body of traditional ecological knowledge exists in the Indigenous groups that have historically lived in the marshes and made their living directly from the marsh ecosystem. During this trip, participants will discuss cultural and environmental issues as they relate to local Native communities and the entire Gulf Coast population.

 

June 13 - 25, 2010

Geology and Environmental Issues Across Indian Country
Colorado Plateau Region

Land use, water rights, and resource management issues across the Four Corners area are clearly linked to the geologic framework of this rugged, beautiful landscape. During this 12-day field expedition, we focused on both the cultural and geologic components of the traditional homelands of the Navajo, Hopi; Paiute, Havasupai, Hualapai and other Native nations of the Southwest. The first week of the trip the Purdue group consisted of ten Native Americans that visited Native reservations and discussed with elders of the communities and technical staff in these communities issues about groundwater and surface water use; hydrocarbon, coal, and uranium exploration; preservation of ecosystems, and air pollution. The second week of the field trip we joined the rest of the METALS team in southern Utah. Most of the major costs of the trip were covered through the National Science Foundation and a generous donation by Dr. Lee C. Atkinson (EAS alumni).

Day 1: Sunday, June 13th – Indianapolis, IN to Albuquerque, NM

We started the first week of the trip by flying from Purdue University to Albuquerque, NM. After picking up the rental vehicles and camping supplies, we took the team up Sandia Peak and did an overview of the geology of the Rio Grande Rift and discussed water related issues for the communities located along the river system.

Day 2: Monday, June 14th – Albuquerque, NM to Sky City, Acoma, NM

 

 

We visited the Petroglyph National Monument and the Albuquerque volcanic field. These localities provide

great teaching localities for discussing rift processes such as volcanism and

attenuation of continental crust. In addition, the prehistoric Native communities used the lava flows from these volcanic vents for making petroglyphs. Also, we drove to the Acoma Indian reservation in New Mexico. Here we met with elders from Acoma and talked about cultural aspects of this community. We also met with tribal technical staff to discuss environmental issues for the tribe. We camped on the reservation that evening and had a traditional Acoma dinner at the home of one of the tribal elders. Becky Martin, an Acoma tribal member, was our host during our visit to Acoma.

Day 3: Tuesday, June 15th – Acoma, NM to Sand Springs, NM

The group traveled to Gallup, NM to meet with City of Gallup geologists Richard Brose and Lance Allgood. Gallup is surrounded by lands of the Navajo nation so there is a close connection between water use in Native and non-Native communities in this part of New Mexico. Gallup is  essentially mining old groundwater to meet the needs of both communities. The Gallup geologists outlined the long term plan for water use in this arid area. Kim Davis (a Navajo engineer working on reservation water issues) and Mike King (a Navajo scientist working on reservation air quality issues) joined us for this discussion. That evening we traveled to the Navajo nation and camped at the summer sheep camp of the family of Felica Ahasteen-Bryant. Her family discussed with the Purdue group traditional Navajo lifestyles, their perspectives on use of land and the connection of Navajo people to the land. Felica’s family served us a traditional Navajo dinner of mutton and corn that evening.

Day 4: Wednesday, June 16th – Sand Springs, NM to Kayenta, AZ

The Purdue group traveled to Chinle, AZ and toured Canyon DeChelly in the morning. This stop allowed us to discuss the role of stratigraphy on the locations of prehistoric Native communities. We stayed that night in Kayenta and experienced an impressive dust storm.

Day 5: Thursday, June 17th – Kayenta, AZ to Tuba City, AZ

The next morning we toured Monument Valley where we discussed the geological setting of this area with an emphasis on monoclinal fold development. Monoclines around the Colorado Plateau bring the Navajo Sandstone to the surface where this critical aquifer can be locally recharged. That afternoon we visited Black Mesa on the Navajo reservation which is an area of extensive coal mining. The environmental impact and economics of coal mining in this area are critical issues for the adjacent Navajo and Hopi communities. Later in the day, we visited with Hopi elder Vernon Masayesva, Executive Director of Black Mesa, to discuss his perspective on coal mining and water use on the Hopi reservation. That evening we had a tour of the Hopi nation by Jeremy Garcia and Valerie Shirley who are members and educators in the Native community. We enjoyed a traditional Hopi dinner with them as well. We stayed in Tuba City that evening.

 

	Monument Valley		Community spring in Hopi

 

 

Day 6: Friday, June 18th – Tuba City, AZ to Page, AZ

We traveled to Page, AZ. Here we toured the Glen Canyon Dam and took a short boat tour on the Colorado River. Both these stops provided context to discuss the role of dams for both Native and non-Native communities in the southwestern U.S. Leanna Begay (Navajo biologist) joined us for this day’s activities. We camped in Page, AZ that evening.

Day 7: Saturday, June 19th – Page, AZ to Panguitch,UT

We spent most of the day discussing the stratigraphy and formation of the Grand Canyon. We drove that evening to Panguitch, UT where we joined members of the METALS team (Minority Education Through Traveling and Learning in the Sciences) from University of New Orleans, University of San Francisco, and University of Texas at El Paso. Participants from these universities consist of underrepresented high school students, faculty, and staff. One of the goals of the METALS program was to have Native American graduate students from Purdue serve as mentors for high school students from other underrepresented groups. We had a chilly night of camping on the Markagunt Plateau.

 

 

Day 8: Sunday, June 20th – Panguitch, UT, visited Markagunt Plateau

This day was spent studying the hydrologic plumbing of the Markagunt Plateau. The area is the major recharge area for the aquifer in the Navajo Sandstone. This aquifer is the lifeblood of communities on the Colorado Plateau. The plumbing of the Markagunt Plateau consists of a magical karst topography with sinkholes, springs, and disappearing rivers.

 

 

Day 9: Monday, June 21st – Panguitch, UT, visited Kaibab Paiute Indian Reservation

We visited the Kaibab Paiute Indian reservation which is located along a fault system that bring Navajo Sandstone to the surface and forms a series of springs. The water from these springs is sourced from the hydrologic system that we visited on the Markagunt Plateau the previous day. The Pipe Spring Monument is located on the Paiute reservation and is a physical representation of the tension and complexity of water rights in the arid western U.S. We spent a large part of the day mapping the Siever fault and discussing regional groundwater flow across the Colorado Plateau. We were joined by Paiute high school students for this exercise.

Day 10: Tuesday, June 22nd – Panguitch, UT, visited Bryce Canyon National Park

We studied the geology of Bryce National Park. This exposed the students to the Cenozoic stratigraphy of the Colorado Plateau.

 

	Field work in Bryce Canyon		Breaking down final camp

 

Day 11: Wednesday, June 23rd – Panguitch, UT, visited Zion National Park

This day we studied the geology of Zion National Park which included a very wet hike/swim through the Narrows; it was a spectacular day.

Day 12: Thursday, June 24th – Panguitch, UT to Las Vegas, NV

We drove to Las Vegas and caught a flight back to Indianapolis.

 

The Purdue participants on the trip were:

Alex DeWitt (Ojibway)                Hailey Bryant (Navajo)
Nils Landon (Ojibway)              Marie Fialkowski (Native Hawaiian)
Bill Pfeifer (Tlingit)                     Ty Boyd (Eastern Band of the Cherokee)
Darryl Reano (Acoma)              Felica Ahasteen-Bryant (Navajo)
Ken Ridgway (Delaware)         Raul Ochoa (Hispanic)