SEEDS: Newsletter > Volume 4, Issue 9 - November 2006

SEEDS Highlight: Marla Striped Face-Collins, 2006-07 Undergraduate Research Fellow

Marla Striped Face-Collins is a full-time sophomore/junior tribal college student pursuing dual degrees in Business Administration and Interdisciplinary Environmental Science. Marla graduated with her AAS degree in Tribal Environmental Science on May 5, 2006. She is presently attending Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, North Dakota, 60 miles south of Bismarck, North Dakota, where she lives. She is pursuing her bachelors in both majors.

Mrs. Collins was introduced to SEEDS when she found the website through the American Indian Science and Engineering Society scholarships and opportunities website. She was very instrumental in developing the SEEDS Chapter at United Tribes Technical College and has been the Student Representative since the Chapter started in the Spring of 2005, and is a campus Green Committee participant. Marla recently received a SEEDS Undergraduate Research Fellowship for 2006/2007.

Marla believes the Lakota people are part of the complex interrelationships that exist among plants, animals, ecological systems, soil, water, and climate, and that historically there were large numbers of bison, elk, antelope, and beaver, certain types of plants, and water. She also believes the devastating decline in these indigenous animals and an increase in invasive species has had an adverse effect on the water and climate of the prairie. Marla wants to study the environmental issues, air quality, and climate change of the prairie in hopes of merging modern western science with traditional indigenous ecological knowledge while learning how to manage water and to do ecological forecasting. Marla knows this seems like a lot to study and research, but as a Lakota person, she believes that everything is in some way or another related, and that what affects one thing also affects something else or many things down the line.

Mrs. Collins receives support from her husband while pursuing her science and business courses. She received inspiration for her research project from Alice Outwater’s book The History of Water.

Marla is an enrolled Standing Rock tribal member and upon graduating with a doctorate in Environmental Science will return to her tribe with the skills and knowledge she has attained to give back to the Standing Rock community. Her advice for students of all ages, races, and ethnicities who like being outdoors is to have enthusiasm for discovering nature; to help people become more aware of their environment; and to pursue their education in environmental science with passion. From this they will gain the experience to know that they can do anything they want to do and go anywhere they want to go.

For more information on the SEEDS Undergraduate Research Fellowship, visit http://www.esa.org/seeds/activities/FellowshipsInfo.php