Tribal Voices

The Inter-Tribal Council, the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center, and several Tribes in Arizona are funded by the EPA to conduct Environmental Education among Tribal members in 2020 and 2021.

Overview 

Tribal Voices is a collaborative project overseen by the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona. It includes multiple Tribal offices and the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center  

Goals 

• Promote community and student environmental stewardship through culturally relevant activities that lead to Environmental Stewards Community Projects. 

• Develop environmental literacy among youth in 5 tribal communities that encourage youth to pursue environmental education and careers.​

Project Description 

• Partnership meetings at the beginning for training about EE Continuum, Indigenous EE and Project Based Learning, at the midpoint to assess reaching benchmarks, and at the end for summative evaluation and planning next steps. 

• In-school presentations about local environmental issues, traditional ways of interacting with the environment, by elders and professionals, and environmental and environmental health careers. 

• Interviews of elders in the community to further explore traditional ecological knowledge. 

• Field trips to see environmental issues first-hand and to learn more about the careers. 

• School-Based Intergenerational discussions about solutions to develop and implement Environmental Stewards Community Projects to address one issue the community faces in a culturally appropriate way. 

• Demonstrations of environmental stewardship through articles, photos, and drawings submitted to the SWEHSC Indigenous Stewards Magazines and presentations at the Tribal Forum. 

Who will be involved?