Jay Shenai

As we edge ever clos­er to our big day, we intro­duce one more per­former and pre­sen­ter for our event: native sto­ry­teller and sci­en­tist Saman­tha Chisholm Hat­field, whose inter­ac­tive sto­ry­telling tech­niques com­bine the oral tra­di­tion­al knowl­edge of Native Amer­i­cans with stan­dard sci­en­tif­ic inquiry to con­vey a fuller pic­ture of the envi­ron­ment.

Dr. Chisholm Hat­field earned her doc­tor­ate from Ore­gon State Uni­ver­si­ty in Envi­ron­men­tal Sci­ences, with a focus on the tra­di­tion­al eco­log­i­cal knowl­edge (TEK) of Siletz Trib­al Mem­bers. She is an enrolled mem­ber of the Con­fed­er­at­ed Tribes of Siletz Indi­ans, from the Tutut­ni and Chi­nook bands, and is also Chero­kee.

Dr. Chisholm Hat­field has worked with the Ore­gon Cli­mate Change Research Insti­tute, and has worked to coor­di­nate trib­al par­tic­i­pa­tion in North­west Cli­mate Sci­ence Cen­ter and USGS Cli­mate Boot Camp work­shops. Her dis­ser­ta­tion has been her­ald­ed nation­al­ly by schol­ars as a pio­neer­ing tem­plate for TEK research. She is a Native Amer­i­can Long­house Advi­so­ry Board mem­ber at Ore­gon State, and a fea­tured blog­ger for the Union of Con­cerned Sci­en­tists. She was select­ed as an H.J. Andrews For­est Vis­it­ing Schol­ar, and cho­sen as a Kore­an Foun­da­tion Fel­low­ship Field Research Schol­ar to study TEK in South Korea.

Dr. Chisholm Hat­field talked with us about her per­for­mance, and the val­ue of bring­ing Native per­spec­tives into the study of ecol­o­gy.

TEDxSalem: Talk a lit­tle about your appear­ance at this year’s event.

Saman­tha Chisholm Hat­field: I’m very excit­ed to bring a strong Native voice to offer a per­spec­tive not many have heard, or are even aware is there!

Look­ing through a Native look­ing glass out at the world pro­vides a rich depth and tra­di­tion­al views that are long­stand­ing. I offer a look at what grow­ing up Native “looks” like, what it takes to become an aca­d­e­m­ic pro­fes­sion­al, and why I do the work I do.

Many peo­ple are unaware of the rich­ness that Native Amer­i­can cul­ture brings, as well as the long­stand­ing and cur­rent con­tri­bu­tions that Native cul­ture holds.

TxS: How do you believe it ties in to the theme of the event, “Through the Look­ing Glass?”

SCH: Many times it is assumed that per­spec­tives are all the same, or that a clas­sic stereo­type is cor­rect. Per­spec­tives vary from per­son to per­son when look­ing at the world, and the depth and breadth of cul­ture brings about a beau­ty that many miss when they assume or accept a stereo­type.

A look­ing glass can hold mul­ti­ple facets, depend­ing on the angle, so to [see] the light that shines through a Native “angle” is some­thing most have not had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence. The dom­i­nant world­view most are accus­tomed to see­ing, hear­ing, and believ­ing is not always the only view.

TxS: You’ve men­tioned that there are very few Ph. Ds doing what you do in the Native com­mu­ni­ty. Do you see your­self as a role mod­el for oth­ers Native Amer­i­cans to fol­low?

It’s not up to me to say. I hope to be show­ing a dif­fer­ent way to look at sci­ence and look at native cul­ture. So all peo­ple through TEK can gain anoth­er per­spec­tive, anoth­er way to see how the world works, and what diver­si­ty real­ly means.

TxS: What would you want the audi­ence to come away with, hav­ing learned about indige­nous TEK? What is your hope for the event?

SCH: I’d like for par­tic­i­pants to be more aware about the depth of indige­nous knowl­edge and TEK; how sto­ries are the back­bone of our tra­di­tions and the term “sto­ry” often entails mul­ti­ple lev­els. Enter­tain­ment has a pur­pose and is often a very effec­tive tool used for teach­ing.

I also look for­ward to [shar­ing] what it takes to live in two worlds, and the chal­lenges Natives face as they live and work in main­stream soci­ety. Native Amer­i­cans have often been termed the invis­i­ble minor­i­ty because of the lack of acknowl­edge­ment, and I rou­tine­ly hear indi­vid­u­als say they have nev­er met a Native per­son, when in real­i­ty chances are that they know some­one who is Native but don’t rec­og­nize it due to stereo­types and assump­tions.

Get your tick­ets for TEDxSalem V

TEDxSalem V is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag that takes place Sat­ur­day, Jan. 6, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Pur­chase tick­ets here. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.com.