The MESAS Indigenous Knowledge Symposium invites scholars to share their research, insights, and experiences working across various scientific disciplines. It is our hope that this annual symposium provides USU students, staff, faculty, and our larger community with an understanding of the critical role that Indigenous perspectives hold in the future of research and education.
2024 Symposium Food Sovereignty
Join us to learn from scholars about Indigenous Science, food & sovereignty
March 22, 2024
11:00am Mountain Time
Presenters
Rose Bear Don't Walk
Doctoral Student in Indigenous & Rural Health
Montana State University
Rose Bear Don't Walk seeks to bridge science, culture and health through her work with traditional indigenous foods and native plants of northwest Montana. A longtime resident of the Flathead Indian Reservation, Rose is a descendant of the Bitterroot Salish and Crow tribes of the state. She has a BA in Political Science from Yale University and a Masters of Science in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana. Her published thesis on the ethnobotany of her tribe and their health has over 4,000 downloads worldwide. Currently Rose is a doctoral student at Montana State University in their first-ever Indigenous and Rural Health PhD program.
Dr. Valarie Blue Bird Jernigan
Director of the Center for Indigenous Health and PolicyOklahoma State University
Dr. Jernigan is the Director of the Center for Indigenous Health Research and Policy and a Professor of Medicine at the Center for Health Sciences at Oklahoma State University. She has been the principal investigator for more than a dozen research studies focused on improving Indigenous food environments through policy and systems interventions. She also directs the Center for Indigenous Innovation and Health Equity, an academic-community partnership with Indigenous peoples to restore traditional foods and food practices to promote healthy diets and reduce chronic disease. She is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.