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Haskell Indian Nation University (HINU) students are amplifying Indigenous knowledge while interning at the Prairie Park Nature Center in Lawrence, Kansas.
Monica Chesarek, Crow, is studying environmental science at HINU, and she's leading conservation efforts at Mary's Park on the grounds of the Prairie Park Nature Center.
"It's important to know the quality of water you have around you," Chesarek said.
Chesarek said Indigenous people have personal, cultural and religious ties to "any and all living things," which is why it's important for their voices to be heard when it comes to the environment.
Chesarek's family lives on the Crow Reservation in the northern Plains.
“My family lives there, my whole life is there, that’s where my heart is and I want to take care of them," she said.
Chesarek graduates in May with her bachelor's in environmental science, and she plans to get her master's degree.
"The end goal is to help my tribe and my people figure out the water and the health quality over there because sometimes it’s overlooked in Indigenous communities," she said.
For now, she's interning part-time at the Prairie Park Nature Center.
She's been testing the water at Mary's Lake to ensure its ecosystem is healthy, which she says it is.
“I wanted to be on the research because I wanted to know how to do it, I want to be the head for my people, and I want to know how to go home and show this to everybody and say, ‘This is how you know your water is healthy,'" she said.
But, Chesarek is not the only HINU student interning at the Prairie Park Nature Center.
"A funny thing we say is like, 'AI,' so ancestral intelligence, instead of regular AI," said Mia Majeo, Pauma Band.
Majeo says the interns want to bring Indigenous knowledge back into everyday life. Keziah Pinewalker, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said it's long overdue.
"Because they have science, right? They have science, but we also have something that a lot of scholars call Indigenous science," Pinewalker said.
Jasmine Newton is a member of the Lakota tribe.
"I had relatives that had some of the last bison herds," she said.
She advocated for an American bison exhibit at the nature center as the animal is a crucial part of many Indigenous cultures.
"I tried to bring what traditional, ecological knowledge I could to this exhibit as a tribal member," she said.
Newton also educates the public on how the westward expansion of European settlers greatly contributed to the decline of bison in North America and how that phenomenon negatively impacted the Indigenous way of life.
From American bison to the smallest aquatic invertebrates, these Indigenous students feel a connection to the environment around them and they want to change it for the better. Especially on their reservations, where Chesarek said health concerns are sometimes overlooked.
"I know we have a lot of trash in our own water and a lot of pollution that goes on over there," she said about the Crow Reservation.
The students want to use their education for good.
"I do want to eventually work with tribes and do my best to amplify their voices," Pinewalker said.
