#science how to get more #natives involved

9.6: news.psy/science/how to get more natives involved:
. on @scifri radio they featured how to
get more natives involved in science.
. First Native Americans are
making up only 0.2% of usa's
STEM[sci tech eng math] workforce
in 2014, despite being
2% of the total population.
. the show featured contributions from
two native American women:
astronomy professor Annette Lee, and
Kim TallBear who is a professor of the
anthropology of science
(the politics and culture of it).
. collectively they said during the live show
that our science culture is centered around
capitalism and colonialism
that is, the europeans exploiting other cultures;
(implying that part of maintaining domination
is to have the new scientists be mainly
european and not native cultures.)
. one way of excluding natives is by
introducing science as a field that is requiring
a working knowledge of high-level math,
and obsessive amounts of
memorization and documentation.
. also the current science culture
is too dogmatic about materialism;
we need to broaden what is considered evidence
(that would help a lot in the field of
psychology and sociology
as it grapples with "parapsychology"
such as telepathy mischaracterized as
"hearing voices").
. we need to pay more attention to
spirit [supernature] and heart,
not just body and mind;
and acknowledge their supernatural source.

. euro scientists guided by native culture
would have respect for native traditions;
for instance, if you find ancient bones
eg, Kennewick Man 1996,
it is desecration to grind them up
even when looking for DNA.

. speaking of DNA...
Kim TallBear 2013`Native American DNA:
Tribal Belonging and the
False Promise of Genetic Science.
--this book shows how DNA testing is a
is useful in determining biological relatives
but not good for determining tribal membership.
. the “markers” that are identified and applied
to specific groups such as Native American tribes
bear the imprints of the cultural,
racial, ethnic, national, and even tribal
misinterpretations of the humans who study them.
. ideas about racial science,
which informed european definitions of tribes
in the nineteenth century,
are unfortunately being revived
in twenty-first-century laboratories.
Because today’s science seems so compelling,
increasing numbers of Native Americans
have begun to believe their own metaphors:
“in our blood” is giving way to “in our DNA.”
This rhetorical drift has significant consequences,
and ultimately the author shows how
Native American claims to land, resources,
and sovereignty that have taken generations to ratify
may be seriously—and permanently—undermined.