Gallery | AIHEC tribal vista project

AIHEC TRIBAL VISTA PROJECT

American Indian Higher Education Consortium

Herring Camp with Sitka High School Students.

The VITSA at United Tribes Technical College, teaches 1st and 2nd graders about a variety of fruits as part of an after school program.

A handful of our produce collected from the College of Menominee Nation community garden in September.

Farming 101 workshop and seed-saving event organized in part by the CMN VISTA and held in February at the Cultural Learning Center. The workshop celebrated the idea that seeds are life, and that saving seeds is important to sustain future generations.

Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.

Howard Zinn

13 Moons Gichi Manidoo Giizis Pow Wow, Jan 12th, 2019. From left to right: Nick Hanson (Ojibwe Language Translator), Ricky Defoe (Spiritual Advisor), Les Gibbs (Emcee). The annual Pow Wow brings people together who take care of the land and community.
Photo credit: Ivy Vainio

Sitka High School tudents participate in a Clam Camp curriculum, which the Sitka Tribe of Alaska VISTA designed and implemented with the 23 students.

Chugach Regional Resource Commission holds a water quality training where participants from partner villaged learn how to use proper equipment and learn proper sampling techniques.

Sitka High School students participate in phytoplankton sampling field trip led by the Sitka VISTA at Crescent Harbor, Sitka. During this field trip, students learned the procedure for using a plankton net to collect a phytoplankton sample, as well as collecting water temperature and salinity data. The students then returned to their classroom to examine their samples under microscopes. In a future session, students will conduct the same procedure, noting the differences in diversity and abundance of phytoplankton following the spring diatom bloom.

Sitka Tribe of Alaska's Cultural Resource Coordinator shares her wisdom and intimate knowledge of the local environment in Sitka as she teaches a group of Pacific High School students to harvest for Hudson Bay (Labrador) tea leaves, which grows plentifully in the muskeg habitats of Southeast Alaska. She explained the traditional medicinal uses of Hudson Bay tea by the Tlingit people to relieve a variety of ailments. The students later dried the tea leaves they harvested and presented them to tribal elders as gifts.

Paul Williams Sr. offers wisdom to the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and other guests at the Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting in January 2019.

The UTTC VISTA leads a cooking class and gardening workshop for families at the Land Grant office at United Tribes Technical College. This class is part of the Family and Children Education (FACE) program.

Littleneck clams are introduced to spawn. Part of the CRRC VISTA's responsibilities include supporting littleneck clam spawning at the hatchery.

“Plants are medicine” workshop at CMN organized in part by the CMN VISTA. The workshop leader explains the benefits of the Calendula flower and how to create one’s own salve and lip balm from it.

The Fond du Lac College VISTA visits the College of Menominee Nation to learn about acquaponcis, meeting up with the CMN VISTAs.

At UTTC, a VISTA teaches an indigenous cooking class at the Land Grant office for members of the North Dakota Nutrition Council. The menu includes wojapi made from locally harvested juneberries, corn bannock made from corn grown at the college, bison jerky made from local bison, a dandelion salad made from foraged greens, and native beans which were grown on campus and cooked with foraged cedar and juniper berries.

The Fond Du Lac Behavioral Health VISTA records Minwaadodang, a tribal wellness radio show starting at FDL through Thirteen Moons. FDL Language House Student of Ojibwemowin, Ricky Defoe, describes the meaning of the show and the relationship between good messages and health.

At CMN's open house, the AIHEC VISTA displays Bear Island Flint corn and a sunflower from the community garden. In the cups are samples of a mix of wild rice with berries, maple syrup, and walnuts - a homemade treat from a community member.

Two VISTAs at the College of Menominee Nation both participate in a Rawhide Rattle Making workshop, let by a UW extension agent.

The CRRC VISTA outplants clams in Seldovia, Alaska.

The Hoonah Indian Association VISTA prepares a sea cucumber.

The VISTA at Hoonah Indian Association forages for fiddlehead ferns.

STA VISTA at the Wild Foods Potluck Table, conducting outreach for our phytoplankton and shellfish biotoxin monitoring program.

The Sitka Tribe of Alaska VISTA helped coordinate a Herring Camp for Sitka High School Students.

The Chugach Regional Resources Commission VISTA served as Science Judge for the Tsunami Bowl.