January 3, 2007
Greetings Tribal Educators,
My name is Scott Frazier. I am Santee/ Crow and the executive director for Project WET’s Native Waters program. I wanted to write to you and explain the program’s current work.
Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) has been a premier water education program for more than twenty years. With the development of Native Waters program, Project WET has become involved with making water education a priority for the Native community.
The beginning of the Native Waters program was limited to the Missouri River Basin, helping teachers work with young people learning to respect their Tribal water resources. During this first phase of the Native Waters project, a traveling exhibit was created that toured the schools, libraries, and museums of the Missouri River Basin. The exhibit is still available. Visit the Traveling Exhibit page or go to the Project WET catalog for more details. Though the display is designed for the Missouri River Basin, the teachings within the display can be used anywhere. For example, in January 2007, the display is being exhibited at the Huhugam Heritage Center in Chandler Arizona.
A few years ago, Native Waters partnered with the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center, located in Bozeman, Montana, to bring Native American students to Yellowstone National Park to learn GPS and GIS techniques using NASA tools. The program is generating a great response, and, as a result, students can return home with techniques that will, upon implementation, benefit their tribes.
Native Waters is also involved in an EETAP (Environmental Education and Training Partnership) program funded by the U.S. E.P.A. Office of Environmental Education. The project’s purpose is to work with Native communities to measure the effectiveness of the Project WET educator workshop within a tribal setting. We hope Native communities will benefit from this program by participating in a Project WET workshop; at the same time, Native communities provide assistance to Native Waters as it works to develop a more culturally sensitive program for Native communities. In 2006, Native Waters held workshops in Texas, Connecticut, Maine, and Montana and is pursuing opportunities in New York, Nevada, and Iowa.
If any part of the Native Waters program is of interest to you, please contact me. I am happy to send more information to you about either Project WET or Native Waters.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Scott Frazier, Executive Director, Native Waters
406-585-4149
Scott.Frazier@projectwet.org
