Everything is Connected

EXPLAIN
The most fundamental difference between traditional Native knowledge and Western science is the difference in their worldviews. Traditional Native people easily embrace spirituality as part of being whole. Nothing can be whole without acknowledging physical and spiritual importance. Western science emphasizes the segmented to build a physical whole and does not acknowledge a spiritual realm as having any bearing upon final products or outcomes.
Another big difference is how the information is passed along and given credibility. For Native people the emphasis is on oral stories and personal experience. For Western science it is what is written and recorded – what can be proved empirically.
A third difference is in the utility of the information. Native people don’t need to “know” everything about something to believe or use it. Westerns tend to need proof, to know how and why things are what they are. They pull apart, dissect to discover while Native people don’t feel the drive to know something to that level to appreciate its function and place.
Some of the common beliefs and practices between Traditional Native people and Western science are cycles. Both see the value and interdependence of cycles in a closed system. Both parties value honesty, open-mindedness, and observation. They both look for a repeated event or pattern for verification of an idea or hypothesis.

EXTEND
    One of the major benefits of applying both Traditional knowledge and Western science is respect. Native students learn to value the stories they’ve heard, and both parties spend more time looking at information with a shift in perspective.
    Science experiments can be designed based upon commonly held beliefs to see if there is truth in them or are they just nice stories or superstitions. One story I use with my astronomy unit is the Old Woman who Held Back the Tides. It’s from the Tlingit Moon and Tides unit. The class always thinks it’s just a nice story until we get the tide books out and plot the tides over a month. Things like this are so powerful and give learning a purpose.
Certainly the use of elders and scientists are resources to tap into as added sources of infromation. The Internet has great sites and interactive lessons, which should not be overlooked as well.

EVALUATE
Knowing both ways creates a more solid, integrated mindset. The stories aren’t just “pooh- pooh”, but are heard with a new ear. If a Native student was told that wormwood is good to keep mosquitoes away and they just believe it, then there’s no integration or value in Western science. But, if they use that information as a springboard to investigate the chemical properties of wormwood and find out that it has one or more ingredients (chemicals, compounds) that repel mosquitoes, then they have used both “eyes”. Knowing and proving are powerful propellants!
Another benefit is lending credence to oral traditions and survival techniques. The power of observation, making notes of surroundings whether mental or written, and then extrapolating those observations to arrive at a conclusion also gives credibility to the observer.