Altai elders brought a gift of traditional sour milk for the Haskell Indian Nations University delegation. Photo by G. L. Godfrey

Cheers of approval from 3,000-4,000 Altains cascaded down the mountainside on a misty night near Gorno Altai in southwestern Siberia. The Altains had been standing for three hours celebrating the 10^th anniversary of the Altai Republic before our appearance. All the students and faculty members in our delegation from Haskell Indian Nations University introduced herself or himself, and then we demonstrated Native American dances. The Russian police had to keep the surging crowd back as we exited. While we moved through outstretched arms, hugs, and kisses, many of the Altains asked us in broken English, “Are you original?” The Haskell students seemed to feel, “Yes, I am original, and perhaps, in this beautiful land far from home, never more proud of it!” The hands and the hearts of the Altai had touched them.

Our experiences at this anniversary celebration in July of last year capped an important part of a science and cultural exchange between Haskell and Gorno Altaisk State University. The cultural, physiological, and environmental importance of water are well understood by the indigenous peoples of North America as they are by many of our indigenous relatives, world-wide. In their indigenous culture, the ethnic Altai share this belief. But the quality of water in many areas of the world and in parts of the Altai Republic unfortunately has taken many environmental “hits.”

This exchange program focused partly on drinking water quality, including a brief analysis of the effects of traditional grazing (sheep, goats, horses, yaks, and cattle) on water quality. Our goal was to establish a “train the trainers” program. Ultimately, the work will result in a manual on how to sample drinking water. The manual will be published in Altai, Russian, and English. It will be for indigenous peoples, whether they live in the Federation of Russia or in North America, and is expected to be released in late 2002.

The program also focused on the international educational experiences for students from each of the two universities. In preparation for the trip, our Haskell student participants were required to take courses on Russian history and language, as well as surviving in Siberia. To be selected, the students submitted formal applications and went through a rigorous interview process. They also made a presentation to the Haskell Board of Regents about their planned trip and its educational values.

Haskell Indian Nations University and Gorno Altaisk State University students compare water quality reading from Lake Teletskoye. Photo by G. L. Godfrey

Student participants from Haskell included Dustina Edmo (Shoshone-Bannock), Glenford Gary (Rosebud Sioux), Krystal Head (Cherokee), Stephanie Reyna (Taos Pueblo), Tina Scott (Muscogee), Sheldon Selwyn (Yankton Sioux), and Marei Spaola (Oglala Lakota). We represented the Citizen Potawatomi (George Godfrey) and Euchee (Daniel Wildcat). Wendy Griswold of the Haskell Environmental Research Studies Center, who was largely responsible for making this trip happen, was the other member of our group. Drs. Victor Lukyanenko and Nikolai Malkov were our hosts, and they coordinated the project’s activities through Gorno Altaisk State University.

Our work as faculty members was “easy.” We were there to observe the students. The students, on the other hand, were responsible for establishing ties with our hosts and with the ethnic Altai. To reach our destination in Siberia, we had flown from Lawrence, KS, to Barnaul, Altayskiy kray, three time zones east of Moscow, followed by a five-hour bus ride southeast to Gorno Altai. Exhausted, some of the students slept on piles of duffle bags and luggage in the bouncing and dusty bus.

Twelve time zones from home, our bus rolled through an area that reminded us of the Northern Plains and Minnesota woodlands. Our latitude was about the same as that of Duluth. During the Haskell faculty’s planning trip three months earlier, the same roadside and flanking fields were covered with deep snow drifts. When we returned with the students in summer, we saw wheat and potato fields among the green forests, meadows, and steppes.

Despite all our planning, our exchange got off to a rough start. Initially, many of the students’ thoughts focused on pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, coliform bacteria and the relative “comforts of home,” i.e., fast foods and television. Some of the students wanted to start testing water as soon as we arrived. Other students questioned why we were living in such basic apartments, without amenities. We began wondering where we had gone wrong in preparing them and what the students had failed to bring from their individual cultural values.

As the instructors, we know friendship and trust building are central to our American Indian cultural traditions and are often overlooked by engineers and scientists working in Native communities. Being from an American Indian-controlled institution, we were determined not to make this mistake.

Haskell Indian Nations University and Gorno Altaisk State University students demonstrate water quality assessment procedures at Altai National Park. Photo by G. L. Godfrey

However, our concerns soon abated as we watched the students (1) learn what they needed to build relationships with their Altai partners before they could start the scientific process of assessing drinking water quality and (2) re-learn that quality of life is not measured in material wealth. The key was getting to know the local people within their culture and how they had survived within their socio-political and physical environments for generations — often in creative and sustainable ways similar to those of some North American peoples.

The students began to acquire a deeper understanding of the Russian people and culture from their morning classes on conversational Russian; shopping daily for food from the street vendors; and meetings with the minister of economy, the rector of Gorno Altaisk State University, and Altai teachers from the rural districts.

The first assessment of water quality was conducted in the Altai National Park, which is managed by indigenous Altai people. Haskell students collaborated with students from Gorno Altaisk State University to sample water from some of the park’s streams and springs. They were watched by 50 Altai teenagers who were at the park for a summer camp on geology, ecology, and archeology.

We also sampled and assessed water from other beautiful streams and lakes in the area as well as from selected wells and municipal sources in the Altai Republic. While recognizing that the samples were from very few sources, we were nevertheless encouraged by the excellent quality of water that we observed. At the same time, we heard disturbing reports that areas of the republic have serious water problems. A more complete survey of the water quality is needed, and our project is intended to develop a procedure for conducting that survey.

Other tribal colleges have started or are starting their own international programs. In our case, the international partnership developed by Gorno Altaisk State University, University of Kansas, Kansas State University, and Haskell was made possible by financial support from the Academic Liaison Office, a private funding organization, and the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Dr. Cynthia Annett of Haskell helped initiate the project because she had been studying the ecology of Siberian fish and knew of water quality issues in the Altai Republic. She accompanied us during our March 2001 planning trip.

Our exchange with the Altai continued in May 2002 when a seven-member delegation from Gorno Altaisk State University arrived in Kansas to visit Haskell and water quality labs at our collaborating institutions. While they were here, participants from each institution devoted time to complete the “Train the Trainer” manual.

International programs for students and faculties from the tribal colleges offer them unheralded opportunities to advance global understanding while advancing indigenous values and rights. The trip to the Altai Republic was a “first” for the Haskell students. Hopefully, the experience will open the door for some of them to participate in future international partnerships.

George L. Godfrey (Citizen Potawatomi), Ph.D., was the vice president of academic affairs at Haskell Indian Nations University during Haskell’s trip to the Altai Republic in June-July 2001. Presently, he is a national program leader with Multicultural Alliances, Cooperative States Research, Education, and Extension Service, USDA, Washington DC. He works with the tribal colleges and universities in their Tribal College Equity, Research, and Endowment grants as well as with the Alaska Native-serving institutions in their new USDA grant program.

 Daniel Wildcat (Euchee) is a professor of sociology in the Department of American Indian Studies at Haskell Indian Nations University.

A Cultural Glimpse of the Ethnic Altai

This Altai elder greeted the delegation with Tuvinian throat song. Photo by G. L. Godfrey

by Glen Gary

The word “Altai” has several meanings. It means “golden,” but can also mean “knowledge.” Like the way “Indian” is used here in the West, Altai also is a word that generalizes a group of people that are different in many respects. The Altai people are made up of two distinct groups, the Northern and Southern Altai. This grouping is made generally along the lines of lifestyle.

The Northern Altai traditionally were hunter/gatherers who lived in the northern wooded valleys of the present-day Altai Republic. The Southern Altai were nomadic herders who lived on the steppes in the south of the republic. Many Altai still believe that everything in nature is alive and has a spirit. Dwellings are traditionally oriented to the east, with the right side of the house belonging to the man and the left to woman. Altai traditional dwellings consisted of birch-covered conical shelters in the north and the “yurt” in the more nomadic south.

The Altai put much relevance on numbers, and like Native American culture, each direction is accorded a color. The number three is considered sacred because it corresponds to the lower, middle, and upper worlds in Altai lore. The Altai believe that there is a tree that grows through each of these worlds and connects them.

When we arrived back on campus early in the morning, I knew that this journey would change me in some way. During the three weeks we were immersed in a different culture, I came to appreciate what it means to be an “American.” There is much that we as Natives and Americans take for granted. I have a deeper appreciation for our way of life and the freedoms we enjoy. I feel a connection with those people who are so much like us, even though we are half a world and 12 time zones away.

Glen Gary (Rosebud Sioux) was one of the student participants from Haskell Indian Nations University.