The cultural heritage of most Native American tribal groups incorporates considerable knowledge of and experience with the natural world. Some of this traditional knowledge includes detailed understanding of habits, habitats, ecological communities and cycles, seasonal variation, microdistributions, plant ecology, animal behavior, and the recent history of plant and animal species. Despite these powerful cultural traditions, Native Americans are the most underrepresented minority in the sciences in general, and in environmentally oriented sciences in particular. Our goal is to introduce Native American college students early in their careers to environmental research under the close supervision of top scientists in the field, giving them the opportunity to work on research projects during their undergraduate careers. Native students completing this program should be competitive with the best college graduates in the country from any institution in terms of hands on research experience. Students will begin their training in basic research methods at Haskell Indian College, transferring in their third year to University of Kansas to complete the B.S. degree. Mentorship activities will be provided throughout their experience at both Haskell and Kansas. A long term goal of the program is to train and develop Native American professionals who will not only carry on research in Environmental Biology, but will also teach courses and supervise research in the environmental sciences at Native American institutions of higher learning such as Haskell
