I am an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes otherwise known as the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. I am also a paternal child of the Hunkpapa Band of Lakota Sioux and long time descendant of McLaughlin’s from Ireland.
I am currently a junior at Sitting Bull College (Fort Yates, ND) in the Environmental Science program through Oglala Lakota College. I first became interested in science at an early age, but it wasn’t until I attended Fort Berthold Community College (FBCC) that the interest was solidified. I graduated from FBCC with an AS degree in Environmental Science. It was there where I was first introduced to SEEDS, and it was FBCC and SEEDS that helped me find the motivation to continue my education in the world of science. Some of my specific interests have been the plants and animals that have traditionally sustained the people of the Great Plains; such as the juneberry, Amelanchier alnifolia, and the American bison, Bison bison.
I am sure that SEEDS has been a positive experience not only for myself, but for other students as well. SEEDS has done this by providing insight to the realm of ecology to those who may not ordinarily have the opportunity to check out such things. This has been accomplished by student awards to field trips, meetings, and the Fellowship. These awards make it possible to see and experience first hand the possibilities in ecology, and formulate ones own thoughts for the direction of their personal future. SEEDS provides an unexplainable, yet definite passion and drive in those who experience it.
My Fellowship research has done this job well, by allowing me to work with the bison that were once, and still are sacred to the Plains Indians. My fellowship research project was conducted at the Konza Prairie long term ecological research site with the help of my mentor Tony Joern of Kansas State University. My fellowship research made it possible for me to actually see how important the bison (and fire) is to the prairie ecosystem in the past, present, and future. This research has made it possible to see the many interactions that happen in an ecosystem, from the insects to the large animal life and what critical roles they play in the environment.
My only advice to those in looking at a career in ecology would be: “If you like it, do what you gotta do to get there.”