It is well known that many tribal communities are not provided resources for, or access to, high-quality STEM education. Too often, the educational pipeline does not ensure Native American students are academically prepared to undertake STEM studies when they enter college.

At the same time, STEM education has historically marginalized Indigenous knowledge, including knowledge embedded in Indigenous medicine. This history of limiting access to education and invalidating traditional scholarship perpetuates inequities regarding who can access science (by virtue of where they are from) and what constitutes scientific knowledge.

To help address the gap in STEM education for Native American students, tribal colleges and universities are leading the way in integrating STEM education and Indigenous knowledge. This summer, faculty from Diné College initiated Convoy, a five-year education and professional development program with youth from junior and high schools across the Navajo Nation.

Funded through the National Institutes of Health, and National Institute of General Medical Science’s Science Education Partnership Award program, Convoy aims to engage students from local communities across the Navajo Nation to prepare them for college and careers in biomedical sciences while staying connected to their culture and its knowledge. The project is headed by Dr. Shazia Tabassum Hakim, a professor of biomedical sciences and microbiology at Diné College’s Tuba City, Arizona, center. Other team members include Dr. Babatunde Ojo, a professor of medicinal chemistry; Francetta Begaye, director of the dual credit program at Diné College; and Benita Litson, director of the Land Grant office, at Diné College.

Beginning the first week of June through the end of July, a cohort of 22 junior and high school students joined four student mentors from Diné College in a 10-week summer internship program where they gained practical STEM and health-related experience and knowledge through participation in a diverse range of hands-on laboratory and community activities. Employing a culturally responsive science pedagogy, students were introduced to science content and methods that incorporated both Western science and Indigenous practices.

“Emphasizing the importance of traditional Indigenous practices is the main concept from the training point of view, Hakim said. “If students are from these communities and are trying to move forward in the biomedical sciences or want to be a medical doctor or nurse, or join some other science-related career, they should have both Indigenous and Western backgrounds. Whatever the knowledge their ancestors and elders have provided them, they still can incorporate that knowledge into their Western knowledge.”

Courses were led by Diné College faculty, local tribal members, and partners from other academic institutions located in the American Southwest. “These collaborators are mainly part of Arizona and New Mexico, and as such, have exposure to these cultures here,” Hakim said. “They also have students from these Native communities working in their labs and attending their classes. They understand the importance of emphasizing and integrating Indigenous methods as part of the training. More importantly, while they are not always directly focusing on these Indigenous components, they are aware of their input throughout all of these workshop activities.”

Courses during the first two weeks of training were focused on offering a comprehensive introduction to Indigenous cultural and healing methods. Courses included Foundation of Navajo Culture and Traditions, Traditional Healing Songs and Musical Therapy, as well as courses on the history of basket weaving and its association with Navajo traditional medicines and Navajo traditional plants and their use in medicine. These courses were led by Lorenzo Max, a Navajo hataałii (medicine man) who is an expert on Diné philosophy; Teddy Begaye, a Navajo basket weaver; and Arnold Clifford, a Navajo botanist.

Junior and high school students learned about local medicinal plants with Navajo botanist Arnold Clifford.

“Normally these are class-based courses,” explained Hakim. “But specifically for the Convoy program, we have requested our instructors to prioritize the importance of cultural elements and their role in traditional medicine—like singing, which is an important part of healing ceremonies, the blessing ceremonies, and many other ceremonies.”

These Indigenous-focused courses were followed by more lab-based activities, including introductions to 3D printing and its use in bioengineering, human anatomy and physiology, solar radiation and its impact on human health, microscopy, molecular biology, genetics, and point-of-care testing. All students participated in food handler’s training followed by handwashing experiments to demonstrate the importance of washing one’s hands. Students also received CPR and first aid training certificates during the program’s initial week.

These and other courses were co-led by faculty and scientists from Sandia National Labs, Cold Spring Harbor Lab, the Neural Diversity Lab at the University of New Mexico, Varman Lab at Arizona State University, the Tuba City Regional Health Care Hospital’s Clinical Lab, and the University of Utah.

Exposing young Native students to both Indigenous and Western scientific methods enables them to help identify and address the barriers to healthcare that are often the result of a disconnect between what medical providers and community members think is important. According to Hakim, this disconnect is a contributing factor to a mistrust of the medical system among many Native peoples.

“What is unique and so important for our students is how we can correlate the Indigenous way of healing with Western medical sciences,” Hakim explained. “They should know that their prayers, ceremonies, and traditional medicines can go side by side with Western medicine to boost the healing process. We want to train our youth and our future scientists to understand how they can take advantage of both of traditional and Western methods to better serve their communities.”

In the lab, Convoy students examined different bones of the human skeleton.

 During the midpoint of the summer semester, Convoy student participants were also engaged in organizing a local “health cafe,” an event where they shadowed providers from regional healthcare facilities who offered a variety of health screening and education activities free of cost to community members. 

“We are also providing the students opportunities to work with the broader community in a practical and potentially more impactful way through the summer health fair,” Hakim added.  “We are inviting all the different other organizations including the Tuba City Regional Healthcare Corporation. Our Convoy students will be helping them as volunteers. This will be open to the community, so the community members can come and take advantage of the facilities that we will be providing that day such as eye screenings, mammography, dental checkups, hemoglobin, and HBA1C testing.”

All Convoy high school participants registered for a three credit-hour, dual credit course—Foundation of Navajo Culture and Tradition—earning college credits in the process. At the end of the summer session, students developed a research project to complete during the subsequent 10-week fall semester. They also prepared research abstracts for submission to either the 2024 Advancing Indigenous People in STEM national conference in San Antonio, Texas, or the 2024 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for possible presentation upon acceptance. 

Scott Burg is a senior research principal with Rockman et al Cooperative, a national research and evaluation firm.