Supporting Native Women in the Sciences
In 2024, Trees, Water, and People (TWP) provided scholarships to four CSU students, all Indigenous women, working towards careers in natural sciences and conservation. Scholarships sustained three students’ work with the Laramie Foothills Bison Conservation Herd, and supported one, Lizzy Osterhoudt, in leading research that honors her experience as a Pueblo woman.
“Especially in biology, there's not much Native science going on. The way it's applied sometimes is using Indigenous knowledge to verify Western science, but how I've developed my methodology is using them as equally important. The Medicine Wheel Theory breaks down the scientific method and rebuilds it, centering Indigenous people and our ways...And that really kick-started me into staying in research.”
Lizzy’s research, which placed third nationally in the 2024 AISES conference, documents riparian species diversity in Livermore, CO, ultimately exploring climate responses of small mammals. Originally from Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico, Lizzy has always followed her love of animals but struggled to see herself in research until she found support integrating Native theories and methodologies.
“It feels like this is the only way I should be doing research. I didn't see myself doing it without Native Science….Using a mixed method affirms me, and it makes me happy. I feel like I’m honoring all my ancestors and my family. ”
Lizzy’s research was a crucial stepping stone to her current PhD work at Montana State University, which brings her back to New Mexico to study American pika populations. Her first article on pika genomics will be published in the Journal of Molecular Ecology, and her dissertation will include experiential learning activities for youth in her home community of Jemez Pueblo.
“I've come into my studies as a brown Native girl with a different way of science that some of my students or my peers have never even heard of, and it’s difficult...Young native students aren't encouraged by academia to be in the fields they want to be in, or to belong in science, so I'm just hoping to create an activity that will start that passion.”
After finishing her PhD, Lizzy hopes to return to CSU as a professor of biology, mentoring other Native students in engagement of Native sciences. From her small mammal research in Colorado, to her ongoing studies with pika, Lizzy sees her work as a way to listen to the animals she loves, and learn, not only about them, but from them.
“I really take to heart that animals were our first teachers. So if we can interpret how they're reacting, maybe we can translate that to how we should, as a population, react to climate change. Understanding how they're reacting to climate change tells a story. They are lessons for us, too.”
