Media Advisory: UW-Madison collaborates with Wisconsin tribes on obesity, climate change, science education and language preservation

In 1914, more than 50 prominent Native Americans from across the country gathered at the University of Wisconsin–Madison for a legal conference, which launched a collaborative relationship between the university and Wisconsin tribes that has lasted for more than a century.

Today, UW–Madison researchers from a variety of disciplines are working on projects related to challenges faced by tribal communities across the state. Though the issues range from health to education to environmental preservation, these projects all share one thing in common: a focus on finding culturally relevant solutions, many of which could benefit Wisconsin communities far beyond reservation borders, too.

Faculty and staff are available to discuss these projects for news or feature stories.

• Underserved and overweight: community support can improve health equity

In preventing childhood obesity, the odds are stacked against Native American communities, but for the past 15 years, Alexandra Adams (alex.adams@fammed.wisc.edu, 608-263-6982) has worked with the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council to level the playing field. She’s partnered with several Wisconsin tribal nations to battle high rates of obesity and early heart disease risk factors through improved nutrition and increased activity. Some of their outcomes include building culturally inspired playgrounds and developing information toolkits for families.

www.nelson.wisc.edu/news/in-common/story.php?s=1480

• Framing climate change with culture

Wild ricing, fishing, maple syrup production and birch bark harvesting are central to Ojibwe culture, but rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns are affecting the sustainability of these activities. It’s a message Cathy Techtmann, UW-Extension’s environmental outreach state specialist, (catherine.techtmann@ces.uwex.edu) is trying to spread through a new climate change literacy initiative aimed at the communities and cultures that rely on Lake Superior’s ecosystems. Research from the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts, a statewide project of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies in partnership with other institutions and agencies, provides the scientific core of the project.

www.nelson.wisc.edu/news/in-common/story.php?s=1481

• Connecting our ways of knowing: partnership engages Native American students in science

Native Americans score lower in reading and math than their white counterparts in elementary and high school and are vastly underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math fields as teachers and professionals, too. A program directed by College of Agricultural and Life Sciences biochemistry professor Rick Amasino (amasino@biochem.wisc.edu, 608-265-2170) and researcher Hedi Baxter Lauffer (hfbaxter@wisc.edu, 608-263-2634) are trying to change that. With partners from Oneida and Menominee schools and colleges, Amasino and Lauffer are developing new curricula that incorporate indigenous principles and emphasize environmental sustainability.

grow.cals.wisc.edu/communities/connecting-our-ways-of-knowing

• Keeping their word: scholars help preserve Native languages

Linguistics professor Rand Valentine (jrvalent@wisc.edu, 608-263-5501) is working to help preserve the languages of the Ojibwe and Potawatomi tribes. “A lot of young Ojibwe kids have real identity problems because they don’t know who they are,” says Valentine. “Language can help them realize the beauty of their own heritage and history. It’s just an incredible jewel in life to have that.”

www.nelson.wisc.edu/news/in-common/story.php?s=1479

The projects listed above were recently highlighted in a publication produced by the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
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