Tribe's Eye: Photographing Change on the Navajo Reservation

Anne Gold (1), David Oonk (2), Karen Cozzetto (3), Kristen Averyt (4), Jenny Nakai (5), John Berggren (6)

Abstract
The Tribe’s Eye Project engaged Navajo nation youth in documenting regional climate, environmental, and land-use change issues on the reservation using photography. The project goals were two-fold: first, to engage Native American students and young adults in science through technical skills and artistic expression, and second, to bring awareness of environmental issues facing the Navajo Nation to the CU and Boulder community. We worked with four student groups (27 students total) at Diné College in Arizona and the Southwest Conservation Corps in New Mexico. Student teams identified local and regional environmental issues and documented them using photography. The participants were given hands-on training in photography and communication skills. They selected their own topics and explored the issues while conducting background research. These young voices in and around the Navajo Nation were able to bring to light and draw attention to issues facing the Nation.. The groups were guided by CIRES Education and Outreach staff and CIRES graduate student mentors. The mentors helped the students in their research, caption writing, and execution of the project. The final photographic compositions were printed and presented at a gallery event at CIRES on April 24, 2015. Students also prepared information about their topic in the form of infographics. We present the outreach project design, student pre- and post-test, and project evaluation data.