I am a mother, a wife, and a daughter of Diné (Nihoobáanii nishłį). As a master’s student and as a Ph.D. student I have sought scientific solutions to climate change, conservation efforts, and water quality issues. I know these issues necessitate understanding of the cultural context in which they occur. I am aspiring to teach communities about the use of genetics for natural resource management. As a teacher at a tribal college I had a student ask me how the laboratory work changed the lives of her family and I aspire to answer her question with my research.
Kuskokwim River field-based laboratory for eDNA
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Communities are interested in the use of genetics for natural resource management. However, few local communities have laboratory capacity and personnel trained in this technical and rapidly evolving field, and most genetic samples collected in rural Alaska are currently sent to out-of-state contract labs for analysis. There is a need for place-based genetics education and research with a focus on high school students and community members. Through our emerging project, “Sovereign Autonomy for Long-term Monitoring Of Non-human genes (SALMONg),” we aim to provide educational materials and technical support to communities interested in genetic assessments of non-human components of the environment. SALMONg workshops include field-based training for participants to become familiar with laboratory methods commonly used in DNA analyses. The objectives are to promote equitable access to genetic approaches for communities where laboratory facilities are limited and to deliver free outreach events to youth in these communities to engage the next generation of scientists in genetics research. As a proof of concept, in July 2024, we attended two science camps in the Kuskokwim River Basin, Alaska. The first SALMONg eDNA workshop was hosted during the 2024 Science and Culture Camp in Bethel, AK hosted by the University of Alaska and the Orutsararmiut Native Council. 14 students learned how to use pipettes and visually inspected gel electrophoresis results from PCR reactions. The second workshop was held at the George River Internship (GRI) on-site along the Kuskokwim River. At the GRI, our team joined the instructors and 17 students who participated in the SALMONg workshop which was hosted on a gravel bar for one evening. Each group of students successfully performed their first Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) reaction in the field. We had visitors in our stream-side lab, including family members and a puppy; giving the students the feeling that they were doing “Science in the Wild.” Additionally, promoting the SALMONg philosophy to “Teach like an ancestor.”.