WK 15 - Deeper Dive into Guidelines for Federal Departments and Agencies on Indigenous Knowledge, for Indigenous Science and Scholarship

Session Description: Haley Case-Scott, Policy Assistant for Climate and Environment at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and James Rattling Leaf, Tribal Liaison, ESIIL, CIRES, CU-Boulder, North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center will lead a workshop on the new White House Guidance for Elevating Indigenous Knowledge in Federal decision-making. Haley and James will discuss the implementation of this policy and how indigenous research, data management, science policy, and scholarship are anticipated to guide land use decision making and how ecological science may support and complement these decisions.

The White House Guidance for Elevating Indigenous Knowledge in Federal decision-making was released in December 2022. This is the first of its kind Federal guidance that was developed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Council on Environmental Quality. The guidance was developed in response to a 2021 OSTP-CEQ memorandum that called for development of the guidance with Tribal consultation and Indigenous community engagement, as well as agency, expert, and public input. The Guidance provides best practices for Federal Agencies. Indigenous Knowledge is a body of observations, oral and written knowledge, innovations, practices, and beliefs developed by Tribes and Indigenous Peoples through interaction and experience with the environment. The Biden-Harris Administration has formally recognized Indigenous Knowledge as one of the many important bodies of knowledge that contribute to the scientific, technical, social, and economic advancements of the United States and our collective understanding of the natural world. The guidance is intended to ensure that their voices are included across the Federal Government for the collective benefit of our communities and the planet. This guidance also identifies promising practices, based on agency experience and Tribal and Indigenous input, for collaborating with Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples, as well as for considering and applying Indigenous Knowledge in implementing statutory and regulatory requirements.

The goal of this workshop is to provide specific learnings that will help indigenous and non-indigenous scholars in ecology and others support the implementation of this policy through their work in academia, government, non-governmental and other organizations. The work of applying indigenous knowledge in decision-making falls to all of us and we will learn about examples of implementation and discuss how this could occur through the work of ecologists. Pilots, best practices, and case studies will be shared and discussion amongst participants on how to apply learnings will occur.