Native American Science in a Living Universe: A Paiute Perspective

Native Americans study their environment for many reasons but importantly because it is alive and speaking with them. A living university is where they have always lived so there has never been a time when they were not seeking information from the environment, testing their interpretations of what they observe, and formulating conservation behaviors that positively reflect what they and their environment want from each other. Whether this process is termed Native science or culturally sensitive natural interactions, it is a pattern that is typical of the Native American people who have participated in more than 136 ethnographic studies conducted by the authors. Paiute science is illustrated using ethnographic findings from forty-four field studies and the lived experiences of one of the authors.