Tribal Advisor Reshapes Western-Indigenous Research

This month, the CU Boulder community celebrates Indigenous Peoples Day with events on October 14 and 16. The events include a luncheon and keynote speakers on Monday, and a panel discussion titled "Land Back, Language Back" on Wednesday.

In 2023, James Rattling Leaf was named the first-ever tribal advisor for CU Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). He started working with the institute six years ago as a Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) application specialist for the North Central Climate Adaptation Center (NC CASC). Soon after he went on to work with the Environmental Data Science & Innovation Lab (ESIIL) where he focused on data as a tribal liaison.

"I wanted to see myself as an advisor, but also as a mentor and as a coach," said Rattling Leaf. "And to begin to define boundary spanning for CU Boulder and CIRES as an Indigenous person sitting in a science organization, working to advance the goals when it comes to working with Indigenous peoples."

Sitting down with CU Boulder Today, Rattling Leaf is excited about the university's steps toward working with Indigenous peoples. His role alongside others, like Associate Vice Chancellor for Native American Affairs Benny Shendo Jr., are helping create a more inclusive space for tribal students.

The topic 'ethical space' is a common theme in your seminars and talks - what is ethical space and why is it important in your work here at CU Boulder?

Ethical space is a framework of engagement between Western science and traditional knowledge. Led by Elder Reg Crowshoe, it came from Canada's truth and reconciliation in 2017. When you have two worldviews coming together to understand each other, we need another place to hold those conversations and dialogue so we can create a better understanding of each other. Ethical space is an important concept, and I want to bring it here to the United States and help CU Boulder incorporate it into its work with Indigenous people.

How could ethical space be applied to scientists and their research?

I think it's one way to begin to craft and build a research question, especially as it relates to Indigenous people or Indigenous knowledge. It's a pretty cool framework to bring important knowledge holders from Western and Indigenous worldviews to a space where they can have dialog and discussion about bringing forward what's most important in terms of that research question.

I also think it's another way to build future scientists. The future scientist should practice ethical space because that person most likely will work with many cultures around the world. So if you have an ethical space framework understanding and background, it's more likely you could be successful and more effective in terms of equity, inclusion, diversity - all those good things that we do at CU Boulder.

What are some specific issues that CU Boulder could collaborate on with regional tribes?

Tribes care about solutions to problems they have on reservations. So let's talk about energy. We have tremendous energy technical expertise at CU Boulder. What happens if we bring those people together with tribal leadership, and then have a forum to talk about these issues tribes face like energy shortage/sustainable development, and then come up with a strategy or solution to specific energy issues? What an opportunity to bring the best science and technology in the world, and people and tribes and their needs, but also their cultures and the recognition that they have lands and they have stewardship responsibilities, bringing them together into an ethical space.

How can researchers take steps to build positive relationships with Indigenous communities in their work?

The researcher then has to take responsibility for his own learning in some ways. So in the beginning, I think researchers need a tribal engagement readiness model. So what is that? Well, if you identify an area you want to work with, you begin reading up on it: Read papers, read books. I think it's okay to even visit, even if you don't have a scheduled meeting with the tribe or community, visit that community. You see things with your own eyes, and then you reach out to people like me as a tribal advisor, whose job is to connect researchers with potential areas, and then begin to work with me and others like me to craft a strategy and to help them with a proposal.

We have to develop our culture intelligence, our culture awareness and sensitivity. I think researchers should be required, to take training to work with Indigenous people. Because why does it matter? Well, it matters because they're representing the university, they're representing science, and so it's important that show up in a good way and in a correct way.