Community Engaged Research Panel Discussion

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: Hi everyone. Thanks for joining us this afternoon for the Community Engage Research panel discussion. I am Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello. I’m a research development specialist in the Office of Research Advancement and Partnerships or ORAP.

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: So the agenda for today. We’ve scheduled an hour and a half for the discussion. I’ll introduce the panel members, and then they can or I’ll show you the who the panel members are, and I’ll let them introduce themselves and talk a little bit about their research.

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: And then we’ll have some discussion questions for them, and you can. Then we’ll have an opportunity after that to ask your own questions. So welcome, Doctors Luo, Ellenwood, Van Alst, and Wilson, and I will turn it over to you now to introduce yourselves, and to talk a little bit about your research please.

Ming Luo: Okay. Hi, everyone. And my name’s Ming Luo, I’m an assistant professor at mechanical engineering. And this is my post doc Kyle, our community engagement research is based on the need to engage in Hawaii native Hawaiian community, which is, you know, my post doc Kyle is actually native Hawaiian. So we basically try to do some agriculture, robotic automation research, to see any potential benefit to them. For them to improve their agriculture.

Ming Luo: The performance. So that’s the goal of our research.

Cheryl Ellenwood: Hello! I’ll go ahead and go next, since my photo is next. So that means Emily’s on deck. My name is Cheryl Ellenwood. I’m an assistant professor in the school of politics, philosophy, and public affairs, and I’m also a citizen of the Nimiipuu Nation and also Navajo. I am working with the Nez Perce Tribe in a number of different ways.

Cheryl Ellenwood: Currently working on a fisheries project. And so the Nez Perce tribal fisheries have really great fishing practices and caring for their salmon and other life sources. And right now we were looking to tell that story because it’s a fascinating story about how they’ve relied on their Indigenous knowledge as well as their expertise and their relationship to that land, to really be leaders in that area here in the region of the Pacific Northwest, but also nationally in the country.

Cheryl Ellenwood: And so a lot of tribes often go to them because they have recently taken over 2 fisheries in Idaho, meaning they have full management authority, and they were able to do that for a number of reasons. But other tribes look to them and often ask them like, how you know. Tell us your story, or do you have policy memos?

Cheryl Ellenwood: Policy briefs. Also, students across the country reach out to them scholars and then also teachers. And so they’re looking to create case studies that can be targeted towards 8th graders or certain levels of education. And really using that also as a recruitment method. So getting Nez Perce students interested in fisheries at a younger age, so that they can kind of start thinking about what that pathway might look for them.

Cheryl Ellenwood: And so the project that I’m working on with them really looks at a number of things telling their story, telling their story about who they are, their relationship to the land, and their life sources. And why that’s important. All that they have achieved, including full management authority, but also sharing that education to their people and also others.

Cheryl Ellenwood: And so really, my work is in service to them. And so we’ve created some checkpoints on things that we want to achieve in our partnership. And so I’m kind of in that process right now. Emily.

Emily Van Alst: Hi, everyone! My name is Emily Van Alst. I’m an assistant professor in the Anthropology department here at WSU. I’m also a member of the Mackinac bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians, and the community I work with is sort of a mixed tribal community, mostly Oglalas, who live on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and we’re currently in the process of working on revitalizing a ceremony known as the Elk Dance ceremony.

Emily Van Alst: And so my sort of position as an archaeologist, but also as a community member, is connecting that contemporary ceremony to rock art that depicts elk, and then also looking at the sort of ethnohistorical ethnography that exists about the Elk Dance and other Lakota practices. So a lot of this research is really driven by the community

Emily Van Alst: I’m trying to answer research questions that they’re particularly interested in. And then also just trying to see the longevity of this cultural practice. And through the rock art we know that’s probably at least 500 years, if not if not older. So seeing that sort of longevity of our cultural practices is really important. And so I’ve been working with them for at least since 2014.

Emily Van Alst: So it’s been a long time. I’m currently in the process of my of this grant. A lot of it will be interviews with tribal members, but then also going and finally visiting a lot of those rock art sites that community members have not had access to because of particular colonial policies around trying to preserve rock art, which means normally pushing native and tribal communities out and away from those sacred sites.

Emily Van Alst: So a lot of this work is hopefully to reconnect us to those sacred sites and those images of elk.

Emily Van Alst: I guess I’ll go.

Jacqueline Wilson: Hi. My name is Jacqui Wilson.

Jacqueline Wilson: I’m an assistant professor in the School of Music. I’m from the Yakama Nation, and my work is on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation at Lakeside Elementary in Plummer, because I’m a performing musician. What I do is more accurately described as creative activity than traditional research. And so, more broadly, my work at Lakeside has been primarily about bringing resources to the school in terms of music education.

Jacqueline Wilson: And we’ve been doing that together for about 3 years now, but in the last year, funded by an inspire grant, we have been able to take the music curriculum which all music, education, curriculums for music educators are very based in Western music. Very classically, music centered and really focused on one definition of a cultural approach to music.

Jacqueline Wilson: And so in collaboration with Lakeside’s music teacher, Rebecca Hendricks, we’ve been collaborating on how to create a culturally relevant, tribally engaged, tribally determined music education for this elementary school curriculum, specifically the 5th graders, and that has included bringing in tribal consultants to teach specifically a unit about Mildred Bailey, who’s a famous jazz singer who came from the Coeur d’Alene reservation and was a Coeur d’Alene tribal member singing in Interior Salish.

Jacqueline Wilson: And this group of 5th graders sang, Angels We Have Heard on High in Interior Salish at their winter program. And that’s native and non-native. It’s a very mixed school, actually. So it’s really impressive. And then for the second part of the year, Rose Creek singers came in and we did a drum making unit. And also we’re going to do a powwow song unit. And that’s going to culminate in the 5th graders coming for a field trip to campus, to the recording studios in the school of music and recording a CD.

Jacqueline Wilson: And then we’re going to distribute that throughout the tribe to relevant members. So that’s all been in collaboration with the Coeur d’Alene Department of Education. And yeah. That’s what I do.

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: Thank you. Very interesting research going on. So let’s get started with the discussion questions. And I would ask that each of you respond, how did you get started working with the communities with whom you’re partnering. Dr. Luo? I’ll let you start.

Ming Luo: Yeah, I’ll probably just go to pass to my postdoc because he’s a key contact person for community.

Kyle Yoshida: So I guess I grew up in Hawaii with the communities that we were working with. One of the biggest ones that we kind of tried working partnering with is the fish pond, and the organization is.

Kyle Yoshida: But I kind of started doing like microbial work there, and actually like, there’s different sites in Hawaii where they’re at different stages of restoration. And Haiya is one of the places where they’ve gotten to a point in restoration where now they’re trying to bring it back and have it actually produce fish.

Kyle Yoshida: So it’s a fish pond, and kind of like in doing so like now that me and Ming are working on a lot of robotics. We thought that it would be a good place to reach out. And we kind of cold emailed again. But we have. I had some friends who kind of work there and stuff so that kind of helped get us into the community. That we were working with and start some getting to meet up with them and discuss project plans.

Kyle Yoshida: So yeah, some, some of it being like some connections formerly, and it kind of grew in and kind of like the skill sets just made sense.

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: Thank you. Dr. Ellenwood. Sure as

Cheryl Ellenwood: an insider member of the community. But also somebody who’s returning home after being away for a long time. Here at WSU I work with our native students in a tribal nation building and leadership program, and there I’m able to teach a very small scholarship recipient students of tribal nations, and many of them are Nez Perce.

Cheryl Ellenwood: And so in doing that work, I had also been asked by our tribal election, like our Native get out the vote peeps, and they asked me to moderate some of the tribal election forums. And so I’ve been doing that for a few years, and also sort of just answering the call. So when they reach out and say, we would love for you to come and speak to us about Indigenous data sovereignty, or we would love for you. To talk to us about Indigenous led nonprofits.

Cheryl Ellenwood: at a conference at the Casino. Then I go, and I share some knowledge and sort of just try and be a good relative, and you know I like what Jacqui said about bringing resources, and so just bringing sort of like what gifts and knowledge that I have to the community in a number of different ways.

Cheryl Ellenwood: And so now I’m on the board of the native nonprofit there with and so all of that work like kind of fed into me becoming sort of like embedded into the community a little bit, more especially after being away for so long, and that that really started in like 2021. I did that for about 2 years, and then I ended up going to a funeral in 22, at which point I listened to somebody talk about their grandfather and the work that he did at the at Dworshak Dam.

Cheryl Ellenwood: And this is a gentleman that I know there. And so, after about a month later, I reached out and followed up on some of the words that he shared about his grandfather and working at Dworshak. And now that they’ve taken over Dworshak, basically. And that happened in December 22, and then I followed up in January 23, we emailed back and forth, and we didn’t actually meet in person until August 23rd or August of 2023, at which point he came to campus, and we chatted. and I shared like I would love to tell the story about Nez Perce fisheries and all that they’ve achieved, and how they did that

Cheryl Ellenwood: using Indigenous knowledge and expertise, and the reasons why they did that, and all of that leading to why they’re so successful in that. And so at that point we chatted for a bit and really wanted to talk about. Well, let’s get a memo going right like, let’s document like what we want to achieve. And that’s where we had these ideas, for I want to tell the story of Nez Perce tribe.

Cheryl Ellenwood: I want to. And then, he said, we need case studies. We need policy briefs. And so we sort of like tried to narrow in like, what are the outputs that we wanted to do together and put that in a in a 2 page memo, just so that we could share it with people to get feedback on that.

Cheryl Ellenwood: and then I followed up with it, and then the memo moved up the chain. But I mean, it’s interesting because I have an Excel sheet looking at all of my interactions on this. And it’s taken years and it feels like it. We’ve gone a long way. But it’s

Cheryl Ellenwood: still kind of slow and careful like. You don’t ever really want to rush into this. And so I feel like I’ve been engaging and starting to work with my own community in the past 4 years.

Emily Van Alst: Yeah. So I have been doing ceremony with my family. It’s a sort of like, I said, sort of mixed tribal folks. Since I was in high school. So it’s been a very long time. But the actual sort of research probably didn’t take place until basically right before I started graduate school, which was in 2017. We visited one of the rock art sites that became part of my dissertation.

Emily Van Alst: and it was after that that my uncle and I had a very long conversation about again that sort of longevity of the ceremony, and he knew that I was a trained sort of anthropologist and archaeologist, and he was like, I need you to go and figure this out. Is there any other sort of data or information about this elk dance? And so that sort of started me on this journey of also trying to find other rock art sites that were potentially part of our sort of story around the elk and elk knowledge in that ceremony.

Emily Van Alst: And so it’s really within my dissertation. And the research I’m doing under this community engaged grant is a continuation of that research is what the community still has questions about, particularly around questions of gender. How do we figure out who created the rock art itself? And so that sort of started me again on this this journey and continues to yeah, I think that’s sort of an overview of where that started.

Emily Van Alst: But it’s very much in this same sense of Cheryl of like when you’re embedded in the community, or an insider it’s hard to kind of pick a date in which you would start doing that research. But again, it’s like what Jacqui said, where you need. You know that you have a particular position in which you can provide resources and knowledge and those things for the community.

Emily Van Alst: And so when the community asks you to do a particular type of project, or they have a question. You end up going down that route. I initially wanted to go to graduate school, for, like Zoarchaeology, and went in a completely different path, because that’s what the community asked me to do. So, listening and figuring what the benefit could be for the community can be really key.

Jacqueline Wilson: Yeah, I got started, actually, a bit by accident, or at least it was serendipitous like I said, I’m a performing musician. And so one day I got a Facebook message from my friend Shayna, who’s actually knows Nez Perce. But she worked at the time on the Coeur d’Alene rez, and they were doing a fundraiser, an arts fest because the elementary school wanted a kiln.

Jacqueline Wilson: and so she said, you know, I know you play. Would you come, play your bassoon at this fundraiser. And I was like, Yeah, of course I’ll come out. And so I just drove out to Plummer one day in 2022, and was hanging out and looking at the art and being part of the event after playing.

Jacqueline Wilson: and I saw they had a music classroom, and it was my understanding, because, like Cheryl, I went away to school, and I was away from Eastern Washington for a long time, and I knew when I came back, and actually I was… I came back in fall 2020. So we were virtual that year, but I knew that once things got quote unquote back to normal that I would be engaging with tribes and with mine being 3 and a half hours away. I knew it would likely not be Yakama Nation regularly, and actually assumed it would be in Lapway, where they have high school and middle school band.

Jacqueline Wilson: But I knew that in Plummer they did not so. I was surprised actually to see they had elementary school music, and was like, Oh, do they ever need any help? And she said, Yeah, I’ll ask. And so the following fall, she told me, oh, they actually have this thing called Community Hour, which is different from music class.

Jacqueline Wilson: And it’s basically an elective. If a kid’s like, “Oh, I’m really into cooking,” or whatever they can get more time with that. And so music community hour would be specifically for the students who are like, Oh, music class is not enough. I want more. And she said, Yeah, actually, the music teacher could really use help, because it’s not curricular.

Jacqueline Wilson: It’s coming up with extra things to do, and so she’d love to kind of have an assistant, can you come out? And thankfully for the commute, it was about once a month, and so the first year of quote unquote working with Lakeside, I thought it was a hobby. I did not associate it with this term community engaged, and the 1st time I did was actually when I was invited to be on a panel for Research Week, and someone said, oh, we know you work at Lakeside. Will you be on this community engaged scholarship panel?

Jacqueline Wilson: And I was like, well, that’s my hobby. That’s something that I culturally feel inclined to do and engage with. But that’s none of WSU’s business, I mean, if it wants to be, it can be. But that’s personal, you know to me it was how I chose to spend my time and build relationships. And so it was very interesting to me when these two things kind of came together in quote, unquote scholarship.

Jacqueline Wilson: But yeah, I just kind of fell into it through the organic relationships that I already had. And then and yeah, offering to be a help or a resource in those deepening organically over time.

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: Thank you. And I think most of you have kind of touched on the second question about details of how the relationships were formed, and how you what you’ve done to maintain it. Do you have anything else to add to that?

Ming Luo: I don’t think we have. Yeah, yeah.

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: Yes, please.

Ming Luo: I don’t think we have to add that it’s probably much, but we do have something on question 4 later. We’ll talk about that kind of thing. Yeah.

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: All right. All right. How has working with the communities enriched your research?

Ming Luo: So we went to the Hawaii on last summer right? And then we have to. I mean to visit Fish Pond, Kyle just mentioned, and we also visit some plant like terra farms being stored. And we also bring our robot technology. We actually bring a robot to show to them and to have the brainstorming to see what we can help them.

Ming Luo: So that’s the things. Because they know what’s going on the robot, and then we can have more discussion about that. And after that we keep an email to each other. And honestly, we don’t rush because I mean, I can say that the things the challenge is that the most challenge, I mean for us, is we are working At

Ming Luo: Washington state is the probably the biggest, most advanced agriculture state here. But when we went to Hawaii I think they’ll land their fishing pond or thing at very, very early stage. so very initial stage. So that’s how the bigger gap that’s honestly, currently, they don’t need the this kind of technology to do that

Ming Luo: So I mean, they definitely showed interesting for a long time. I mean, couple months ago, someone the farmer sent us email to ask more collaboration. I would say, we just probably just wait and have internal discussion to figure out what exactly they wanted in the future. Anything you want to add. Okay.

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: And does anyone else want to jump in and respond to that question?

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: Okay.

Emily Van Alst: Oh, I was going to say, really quick. Just that, I think, for archaeology, anyway, a big movement has been Indigenous archaeology, so incorporating Indigenous perspectives, particularly in the sort of methodologies and interpretation aspect. For my own research, a lot of those rock art sites were recorded in the 1950s and 60s. mostly by men.

Emily Van Alst: And so a lot of the sort of nuances in terms of gender, and particularly women and non-binary community members. That sort of narrative was lost within that interpretation. And so, being able to go to these sites and having community knowledge, traditional knowledge about some of these rock art sites have really sort of enhanced our interpretation.

Emily Van Alst: And so it’s making sure to have that community perspective, I think, can be really key, particularly in anthropology and archeology, because its disciplines have been so focused on ignoring particular perspectives and not including Indigenous voices. So the community engaged sort of work that archaeologists are attempting to do really enriches our sort of interpretations. Then, of the archaeological record, I always say it makes so much sense to ask descendants what their ancestors left behind.

Emily Van Alst: They’re going to have a really good understanding of particular material culture and cultural heritage. So I think it can definitely enrich our interpretations

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: Thank you, Emily. What about any other challenges that you can speak to. Dr. Ellenwood? I know that you and I have been going back and forth with a few things to get your awards started. Can you speak to that matter a little bit for the people that are listening.

Cheryl Ellenwood: So this is also, I don’t know. It’s kind of weird. So this is my community. And I have. I feel like a lot of privilege, and insider knowledge on the way that the organization or tribe runs and even for me it has been very slow going. and it’s not for lack of trying. But it’s also like I in starting this project. Once we actually like, I found my contact. And I have a personal relationship with my contact. But it’s also about respecting like busy times with with fisheries.

Cheryl Ellenwood: Summer is extremely busy. It’s also like the best time to probably be around, and then other times. There’s so much policy and advocacy that people are always on travel. And so my follow ups. I tried to be really respectful with following up, so that I wasn’t perceived, as I don’t know somebody who just was really annoying, obviously.

Cheryl Ellenwood: so but I tracked everything, too. So I tracked like, when’s the last time I followed up. Okay, it’s been a few weeks right? Like I can follow up now. And then I would just kind of keep nudging away. And then also somebody asked about like the memo. The memo was an internal kind of like way to organize our documents, but it really evolved into an attachment that came along with the research permit, and then also for Nez Perce Tribe.

Cheryl Ellenwood: And this is really interesting, but I also organized a big, Indigenous data sovereignty and governance summit in Tucson, and I took some tribal leaders there, one of my own council members. And so I took him, and educated and shared all of like, you know everything that we have about Indigenous data sovereignty, trying to push forth this this national policy agenda in the Us. Because we don’t have. We don’t have policy on that here.

Cheryl Ellenwood: And I think he came home and he stopped everything like he literally pulled the research permit away, and I think it was my fault, and I can’t guarantee that. But the research permit stalled for a few months, meaning no research permits were getting were getting passed. and so I had to wait for that. I tried to go around it and try and get like, you know, if I can just get the letter from the chairman, you know, who like, of course, like these are all people that I have personal relationships with.

Cheryl Ellenwood: And as a Tribal member, somebody who runs a research program there actually said. you know, you should ask for a courtesy because you’re a Tribal member. I even tried to do that. And they were like, no, you just need to wait until this research permit gets updated. And so it’s updated. And it’s currently I’m about. I’m probably about one check, one or 2 checks away from research permit being approved, which means which is like final, final tribal approval.

Cheryl Ellenwood: At which point, then I can now then, like work with Cheryl and ORAP and WSU on what I need to do there. But I’m I… It’s very hard to, and slow and there are going to be things outside of your control and just keep pushing, and you can also try. I tried different things.

Cheryl Ellenwood: I was like, I’ll try this, you know, when people suggested things, and then it didn’t really work. They’re like, you just need to wait like everyone else. And so I am. But things are moving along. And now more people are involved and aware of it. So now that the research permit was lifted and everything can go through, everybody had already seen the memo.

Cheryl Ellenwood: They were like, Oh, yeah, this thing already. So it’s moved very quickly through 3 checks already through their process. And so that’s also been helpful but challenging. So it’s

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: important to have patience and be respectful in communicating. But realize that these things can happen when you’re dealing with a community? So what about resources? What resources do you find most helpful when you’re conducting research with communities? This anybody can jump in.

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: None?

Emily Van Alst: Oh, go ahead, go ahead. Sorry. we all waited Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I would say, I don’t know if this is like a tangible resource, but the relationships themselves are like I have found to be the most important resource in every aspect. My project emerged like I said, I wasn’t really approaching it as research, or scholarship, but came from the natural deepening of the relationship between me and Rebecca, the music teacher, and her saying, I want to provide an education that reflects who my students are and where I am teaching.

Emily Van Alst: But I know enough to know I’m not the person to one determine what that looks like, and 2, even if I was, I should not be teaching it. So she knows basically enough to know what she doesn’t know. And she said. I don’t know how to go about even asking like she was just aware of all the potholes that she could fit in.

Emily Van Alst: And needed me to basically be a liaison between her and these requests that she was making me understanding more culturally what that would most appropriately look like, and how we would go about it. Of course. EP41 is actually a really great resource as well when you’re kind of going about how to do this.

Emily Van Alst: But I think that. Yeah, the relationships are extremely important. And, as Cheryl said, like they take a long time to formulate. And I also think, realizing that these relationships are so important when especially you’re dealing with. Not everyone is so connected to email or even the telephone. The way that we are in Academia.

Emily Van Alst: And, for some of the people who I wanted to collaborate with it was a matter of oh, you always see her walking between the church and the Department of Ed at 3 o’clock on weekdays. So you can probably catch her there, right? And email is not going to work with this person. And actually, we didn’t need to collaborate with this person, or we didn’t think that would be a great fit. But it was understood that we kind of needed her blessing and for her to point us to other people.

Emily Van Alst: And it would not have been appropriate to just go to these other people without talking to this individual intentionally leaving out names. And so I think those relationships are extremely imperative. When you’re wanting to do the work in a right way, because you can build, you can break relationships that never even existed just as quick as you know, it can take to build them.

Emily Van Alst: So I think that’s a really important part.

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: Next.

Kyle Yoshida: I think similarly, I think the relationships are like the most important resource, and also reaching out to kind of elders in the community. So like, I think most people on the panel are like kind of affiliated with either the tribe. I’m like native Hawaiian, but also, like. I think, for Ming, one of the big things was like him meeting some of people who are my elders, and like allowing kind of that interaction, because, like, we still get kind of like emails about new way, new ideas on collaborations.

Kyle Yoshida: And I think that the most meaningful thing like it was cool to bring the robot over, to show them how things work, to see new ideas on ways that we can take new projects and directions. But it’s really the relationship that I think will last. And I think that’s the important. the most useful and like meaningful thing.

Kyle Yoshida: And it’s like latching on and making sure the elders know us like. If we do something wrong, they’ll be like, Hey, like you should not do this, or maybe you should go in this direction, and I think that actually guided some of the next steps. So, like we usually like set up meetings intended to meet with certain people like had ideas for these projects.

Kyle Yoshida: And as we met with them, they’re like, Oh, actually, there’s like this other person who, I think. would be a really strong match, and I think people will only introduce you to those newer opportunities if you can form a good relationship, and you build that trust. So I think that was kind of a big takeaway, and especially like being someone in the community and like someone new to the native client community like that was kind of the feedback that I got from my own elders.

Kyle Yoshida: Like, It was nice to see someone come out. We even had a day where we went into the loi. So the loi kalo it’s like it’s where we grow, taro, but it’s pretty much in mud, and we spent a whole day kind of going around stomping around in mud, weeding, helping harvest, helping build walls. And where Ming was,

Kyle Yoshida: Sometimes he was like, “Kyle. We’re just moving mud around what’s going on?” But it’s kind of like experiencing kind of that whole process. It’s that experiential resource that is also a part of it. And I think that also extends. Some of our other work is in fruit, picking and agriculture, and like on the agriculture side, we currently work on in lab. It’s also like going and speaking to actual farmers and fruit pickers, and really putting yourself in their shoes.

Kyle Yoshida: And it’s like crazy like the people themselves are like a really strong resource in our work in engineering, which is kind of cool, like some people know engineering concepts more than us because they interact with fruit every day. And we’re like sitting in lab. So yeah.

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: And Luo, because you were an outsider. Did you experience any challenges yourself with coming into the community or and doing research?

Ming Luo: I mean just one sentence without Kyle. I have no chance. Just this is the 1st thing I want to say second things. I mean again. As Kyle said, I’m just engineering. I will do the research. But when I talk to Kyle, when actually I went to the community. I see a lot of things I never see before the culture, people, relationship stuff.

Ming Luo: But I’m not mentioned all the details. But I know in human being is. I mean, I was diverse. It’s different. But I can’t. I don’t understand something talk to me. There’s something that when I talked to people, I suddenly realized, oh, this is it is that I know it’s really even. I attend the workshop last year.

Ming Luo: Right? I mean, you guys show a lot of details. I cannot kind of. Didn’t figure out that when I went there. Go to that, that community, talk to different people and to actually with Kyle. I honestly I don’t. First I saw why I go to move the mud. I have no idea what’s going on.

Ming Luo: He just say, Oh, you just bring you just well, you need to bring the towel. You need to make sure the sunscreen, everything you need to wear the glasses. I don’t know. And I went out. I said, Oh, yeah. So then Kyle told me that you must get dirty first then they will talk to you.

Ming Luo: Yeah. So, yeah, I learned a lot. So this is, yeah.

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: So again it boils down to relationship. The relationship between you and Kyle. Yeah. For doing this this research. Well, thank you for sharing that. Dr. Ellenwood.

Cheryl Ellenwood: Yeah, echoing relationships being a super important resource, but also nourishment in many forms. So having financial resources to offer food when you’re visiting also, in that same nourishment, like being able to accept that you just need to eat a big slice of humble pie, so that when you make mistakes. You acknowledge those mistakes, and you try and repair that

Cheryl Ellenwood: so, having money to bring food to in-person meetings. Me! My site is close, and so I will just drive there and offer to bring food, or like, you know, if I’ll offer like it’s let’s meet during lunch, and I’ll just bring food, and you know so paying for lunch, and then parking, honorariums. Being a good host when somebody comes here to WSU, and not just the people that I work with, but like people I bring in from the community for my classes. Students that I work with.

Cheryl Ellenwood: Because you need to do that all the time. And so, being a good host, and also being a good guest, I also found that in order to do the work that I wanted to do, and to gain the full understanding that I wanted. I needed to learn more on our language, and so enrolling in language courses has been super helpful for me, not just making connections with our language teachers which I have, but also like. There are some things that won’t translate.

Cheryl Ellenwood: And so it just helps build my understanding in that foundational source of like, how I might see, like the worldview, differently on certain life sources and other things.

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: Great. Thank you very much. So for each of you. Now, what are your next steps with your community engaged research or community gauge, scholarly work?

Ming Luo: Yeah. Okay. So 1st thing, I want to just say, Kyle will get a new position. You want to talk about the thing actually is related community engagement. Yeah. So I got a kind of like through some work through this project. Also, you know other things. But the past year. I was like applying for jobs. So

Kyle Yoshida: I’m starting out as an assistant professor at UCLA. This coming year and kind of one of the big things is like after forming a lot of these community connections. kind of bringing the prototypes of the robots out like, we have a few ideas of like new collaborative robot projects, some in the realm of like fundamental robotic systems research.

Kyle Yoshida: But another path that we’re also looking at so kind of like those relationships and the original path might not be the thing you had thought of. Some of the other areas that, like people we talked to are interested in are things like helping people with robotics kits. So like one new thing that happened this year was like American Indian Science and Engineering Society.

Kyle Yoshida: They have a new program that will give robotics kits to teachers with like some motors, some sensors and stuff. So one of the things that we’ve been working on the side are like, trying to get teachers to get these kits. And then seeing like, okay, after students build these kits, can we work with the students, and also the other people that we’ve met in Hawaii and

Kyle Yoshida: create new robotics… Kind of citizen science. Crowdsourced student led projects in throughout agriculture or like the community. So that’s kind of what we’re excited about. Yeah, yeah. And another thing, because we are the faculty. One job is basically to get enough funding to support the research. I just want to point out that if you go to the NSF. They have new program called a Smart Connect Community which is just have announcements, and you can take a look.

Kyle Yoshida: and that’s probably fit some of us a project right? Just unless that Smart Connect Community. It can be go to $1.5M. So it’s yeah..

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: Great. Thank you for that. And congratulations, Kyle.

Kyle Yoshida: Thank you.

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: Does anybody else want to talk about their next steps?

Jacqueline Wilson: I can share a little bit, because it’s kind of funny. Cheryl’s on this call, because she really inspired the next step. So the work that I do like. I said I kind of fell into it. Really, who quote unquote should be doing this would be someone who specializes in music education, looking at curriculum working with elementary school age students.

Jacqueline Wilson: My expertise is in performing and more specifically, bassoon performance. And I started doing this because, I was put onto the bassoon as a way of creating, you know, scholarship and educational opportunities, because bassoon is a very high need instrument, and I came from a not privileged socioeconomic background, and, you know, kind of had a rough going up, and the bassoon kind of took me out of that.

Emily Van Alst: And a couple of years ago I was at dinner with Cheryl kind of talking about this, and she looked at me and she said, Okay, so how are we going to get the bassoon on the rez. And so my community partner, Rebecca, will be retiring next year is her last year at Lakeside, and so that will kind of bring a very organic close to my work in Coeur d’Alene.

Emily Van Alst: and I have started discussions with the band directors at Toppinish high and Toppinish middle school, who are Coug alumni from the School of Music on how to get our hands on some refurbished bassoons, and how to bring bassoons to the Yakama rez and to do some double reed days, specifically focusing on starting students on double reed instruments.

Emily Van Alst: not only because they should have the opportunity to play anyone who wants to should. But it is a high need instrument that can make someone stick out in terms of college and scholarship opportunities. So that’s my next step in the next 3 to 5 years.

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: Cheryl Emily, would you like to talk about your next steps?

Emily Van Alst: So I’m in the middle of my grant, and which means that I don’t have a like a solid way to forward in terms of a project. it’s really going to be based on the community and sort of the results. But I do know, just from sort of conversations, more recently that there’s been really more of a shift in trying to understand sort of traditional knowledge around plants.

Emily Van Alst: plants as medicine and sort of food ways as well. So when we have these big Elk Dance ceremonies, a big part of it is doing a big feast at the end, feeding each other. Cheryl was talking about that that’s really important. And we typically use foods that are not healthy. So trying to think through what would have been sort of the traditional foods that we would have eaten after ceremony sort of in the past. and that I’ve sort of found this connection.

Emily Van Alst: There’s a lot of really important plants that are at these rock art sites. So I was trying to find that connection between the sort of plants that would have been cultivated and the food and medicine at some of these rock art sites, so I can see a little bit of a path in terms of thinking through food and plants.

Emily Van Alst: that the women in my community are particularly interested in this, as they’re the sort of traditional knowledge holders for plants and medicine. So thinking about that as well as a lot of our knowledge. Keepers are starting to get a little bit older in age, and so a lot of them have asked me to start recording their stories for my nieces and nephews for their kids.

Emily Van Alst: So they have that in the future. So it’ll be. It’s a lot of sort of preservation, and I think that that’s a really important part of the sort of cultural heritage within the community. So I don’t have like, I said, a clear path. But I have a few ideas where things might go based on what the community is thinking about.

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: Thank you for sharing.

Cheryl Ellenwood: I love that because mine is even less of a clear path, we’re just getting murky and I am really excited to get this this project like physically underway. So I’ve done a lot of like document review. I’ll be on site this summer. With like I feel like a little ethnographer like with the camera .

Cheryl Ellenwood: and interviewing folks. And I’m telling you like, even though the struggle with the memo and the research permit has. It’s been a struggle. It’s also, I think, been a blessing, because I’m telling you, like people have seen this thing so many times that they were like, it’s just flown through the process through so many areas. And I was like, Wow, it’s our

Cheryl Ellenwood: like, people are just responding to the emails like, Oh, I signed it. I signed it. It’s now over here. And so I’m excited to get that underway.

Cheryl Dykstra-Aiello: Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and ideas and your research. I really appreciate it.