A Native American teacher talks about biotechnology

By Laura Miller
Newsletter editor

Aldo Leopold’s notion of a “land ethic” and being part of the “entire biotic community” may have seemed strange to U.S. scientists when he introduced them more than 50 years ago. But to Native Americans like Michael Price, Leopold’s ideas represent a centuries-old way of life.

“We are not just invisible, objective observers but actual and accountable participants in the complex web of life,” Price says. “The ideas of sacredness and spirituality directly affect our relationship to and interaction with nature and one another.”

A college professor and member of Wikweimikong First Nations, Price was at Iowa State University in March to share how he uses his culture’s spiritual approach to the natural world in his science classes. The result is an integrated science program at Leech Lake Tribal College near Cass Lake, Minnesota.

Role of traditions, ceremonies
Price incorporates several ceremonies and traditions that he learned from his elders into his classes for Anishinaabe students (otherwise known as Ojibwe or Chippewa). When collecting specimens for class, students honor the organism --insect or plant -- in a special ceremony. After the experiment, they return items to the place where they were found. Strict cultural taboos prohibit students from handling dead organisms, so instead they use plastic dissection models for anatomical study.

Price said students learn as much from participating in the ceremonies as they do in gaining the technical knowledge.

“Ceremonies and traditions help us keep respect for life and remind us that what we do affects everything else,” he said. “Our ancestors knew we had the power to manipulate and destroy the world around us, so they developed these traditions to keep our activities in check and monitor our behavior.”

Generational knowledge
Price also said cultural practices passed from one generation to another also have helped Native American communities remain sustainable. Indigenous knowledge is steeped in information about local ecologies. For example, the Shoshone people knew the best time to plant corn on the riverbanks before moving to the high country to hunt. When a certain yellow flower blossomed, it was time to return for corn harvest.

“Scientists call it comparative growth rate analysis, but the Shoshone people understood because it was essential to their survival,” he said. “Native American communities are some of the most sustainable on earth because they live in balance with their environment. They follow the seven-generation rule: How will what we do today impact seven generations from now?”

Such questions are important as scientists enter new fields of biotechnology and genetic engineering, he added.

“I’m not quick to say that all genetic engineering is unnecessary, but we need to ask two questions: Why are we doing this? And what are we giving back to the plant?” he said. “If we’re altering plants to help produce more food, is that food actually getting to the people who are hungry?”

Price is the institutional representative for his college on a $3.7 million grant awarded by the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) to Leech Lake Tribal College, ISU and seven other institutions in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The four-year project supports research and education activities to address the social, economic and ethical aspects of biotechnology.

Iowa State University units participating in the grant include the Bioethics Program, ISU Extension, the Department of Economics, the Department of Sociology, and the Office of Biotechnology. The Leopold Center has been invited to join in planning activities and was one of several groups to sponsor Price’s visit to campus.

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