Learning with Lakota scientists.

Abstract

In her bestselling book <i>Braiding Sweetgrass</i>, Robin Wall Kimmerer describes the reciprocity between humans and nature while also contemplating another potentially beneficial relationship-between Indigenous knowledge and Western science. Not surprisingly, this integration is easier said than done. Recently, for example, the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) terminated a $2 million study on how to best combine Indigenous and Western approaches to understanding the natural world. The problem? As Kimmerer herself said on this page, effective collaboration with Indigenous communities requires Western science to respect cultural practices and scientific ideas that diverge from the reductionist approach. Unless the scientific community leans into this discomfort, we will never unlock the possibility that this relationship could help address some of society's most distressing problems.