Introducing Andrea Salazar, Bilingual Environmental Education Specialist

Andrea Salazar (she/her) is an Indigenous ecologist with ancestral roots in central-western Mexico on the traditional lands of the Huichol, Coca, and Caxcan peoples. Salazar’s experience spans an array of knowledges, including ecology, natural resource management, community-oriented agroecology, wildlife ecology, fire ecology, Indigenous science(s) and knowledge(s), community engagement and activism, climate change, and holistic healing. 

In Salazar’s role at Audubon Canyon Ranch, she works closely with the team to create and expand inclusive, diverse, and accessible educational programming, building relationships between people and the land. 

A fundamental shift 

In the summer of 2023, I participated in the Rising Voices, Changing Coasts (RVCC) Hub summer internship at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. This internship was centered on researching, visiting, and working with Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars at program sites in Hawaii, Alaska, Louisiana, and Puerto Rico. Each site faces unique coastal climate change concerns and are united by climate change action and adaptability efforts specific to their local community needs.  

I was part of the first-year cohort and first of its kind internship funded by the National Science Foundation’s Coastlines and People Hubs for Research and Broadening Participation program. Our cohort was made up of eight Indigenous students from across the U.S. including Hawaii and Puerto Rico.  

This internship impacted me well beyond my direct participation. The internship fundamentally reshaped how I interact with the world and participate in research and environmental work in personal and professional dimensions. We received mentorship from Native scholars and scientists to explore climate change through multiple lenses of research, including researching, writing, studying site culture, etiquette and protocols, science communication, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Indigenous science(s), and Western science(s). We spent a month at the Haskell campus gathering for lectures, seminar readings, discussion circles, field trip visits with local researchers, and fortifying our inter-cohort relationships.

Our cohort was invited to visit the site in Hawai’i to research and learn about the traditional territories of the Kanaka ‘Ōiwi/Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian). We dove deep into the local issues and needs of the Kanaka Maoli peoples, getting first-hand exposure to the coastal and land challenges they are facing today, including deforestation, erosion, biodiversity and native-species loss, drought, water diversion, pollution, and fire risks.

I learned I was not alone 

The internship was transformational for me, academically and personally. Not only was it amazing being at a university solely for Native students, but I learned there are multiple ways of approaching scholarship, which was liberating.  

Because I was primarily educated through Western Eurocentric institutions, I learned a single-minded approach to science, in particular, forestry. I developed a growing resistance to the approach of talking about trees transactionally — as data in a spreadsheet, thinking about how to optimize them, and what they can do for us.  

The teachers in the internship spoke to the unease I felt, reaffirming my sense that trees are not transactional objects but relatives. The teachers helped me to recognize that there are alternatives to Eurocentric scholarship, and that multiple perspectives are valuable and needed in service of a purpose or goal.  

Being in a cohort of Native scholars was also life changing. During the internship we formed a tight bond. Together, we rewrote what it meant to be educated. We deeply felt what we were learning, as we worked cooperatively. We took our time with the material and were vulnerable with one another, sharing personal experiences in Eurocentric institutions. We remain in close contact, exchanging life milestones and mundane occurrences over group chats and phone calls.  

A nostalgic reunion 

When I was invited to attend the Health and Medicine Career Fair and Climate Change and Children’s Health Symposium at Haskell Indian Nations University in November 2024, I jumped on this opportunity. Not only was I looking forward to learning and exchanging knowledge with Indigenous scholars in my field, but I also had a nostalgic reunion with a few of my cohort peers.  

Representative health care for Indigenous communities 

Like my experiences in the internship, attending the symposium was full of formative moments. While attending the Health and Medicine Career Fair, I stopped by the University of North Dakota table who were representing the Indigenous Health Department. They proudly shared a doctoral degree in Indigenous Health, which is the first of its kind in the United States and Canada: 

“Students in this program will develop skillsets and competencies in research and evaluation methods, policy, and leadership, as well as gain a deeper understanding of the unique health issues facing Indigenous populations. After completion of this doctoral degree, students will join the elite group of culturally aware experts who are setting new standards in the fight against Indigenous health disparities worldwide.” (https://med.und.edu/education-training/indigenous-health/phd.html)  

This innovative program sparked gratitude and hope in my heart for the future of healthcare in Indigenous communities, representing not only the urgent need for Indigenous healthcare but also the relentless fight to advocate and address these pertinent issues for ourselves.  

Indigenous health and the connection to land 

Another moment that left a lasting impression on me was on the second day of the symposium. Dr. Kyle X. Hill, Ojibwe (Turtle Mountain Band; Enrolled Citizen), Dakota (Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe), Lakota (Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe), opened the symposium with an invigorating talk Wotakuye: A 7^th Generation Approach to Kinship and Reciprocity in the Context of the Anthropocene.  

He discussed how Indigenous health is intricately tied to land, explaining that each community has a historical and distinctive kinship with ancestral place and space. Settler colonialism targets this connection to land, through methods of genocide, ecocide, and ethnocides causing lasting impacts and traumatic experiences for Indigenous communities and territories. The results are witnessed as health inequities, endangered languages, water and food insecurity, and systemic and structural oppression (e.g., state revoking of Native rights). This interdependence on ancestral land makes Indigenous communities extremely vulnerable to climate change and leads to alarming health consequences. 

One important highlight from Dr. Hill’s presentation that illustrated these points was in reference to studies about ecological grief by researcher Dr. Ashlee Cunsolo about the mental health impacts to Inuit people over the loss of sea ice in their Arctic homelands. “Inuit are people of the sea ice. If there is no more sea ice, how can we be people of the sea ice?” This quote glared at me from the large bright screen in the auditorium, affecting me profoundly. 

Embodying Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge for healing 

A recurring theme of hope and healing at the symposium was the call to embody Indigenous Ecological Knowledge (ITEKs) to guide and address Indigenous health disparities, climate justice, and resilience. ITEKs are inclined to look at issues holistically. ITEKS consider culture, language, foodways, spirituality, autonomy, and many other facets of Indigenous communities that are crucial for their recovery and perpetuation.  

The symposium was a beautiful opportunity to be in a room of Native scholars using ITEKs to think about and problem-solve in holistic ways. Every day, Indigenous peoples across the globe pursue generational healing and recovery while fighting the active battle against colonialism. Climate change action and adaptability are not just about survival on this planet for Native peoples. Climate action and justice are also about the direct threats to our bodies, identities, relatives, and our spiritual connection.  

Bringing it home 

The internship and the symposium continue to guide not only my everyday thinking and interactions but also my work at Audubon Canyon Ranch. My understanding of education has been fundamentally rewritten. When I’m designing a program and thinking about how to engage the community, I want to be the voice that says, “Let’s consider what we’re learning in multiple ways.” I’m considering how to supplement the curriculum with other perspectives. If I could ask two things of my students, it would be to question and to be critical. The internship influenced me to ask questions more deeply. I want to offer those I teach the opportunity to expand their worlds and imagine alternatives.