Progressive professors are carrying out a “$30 million federally funded effort to braid” indigenous knowledge into science. But they won’t describe what that will look like in practice, or point to any examples of how that would help address climate change or related problems, reports The College Fix:
The University of Massachusetts, Amherst last year was awarded a five year, $30 million grant — the largest grant in the school’s history — from the National Science Foundation to establish a new international science and technology center at which researchers would work to address issues related to climate change, biodiversity, and changing food systems. The Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science will [be] working with 57 indigenous communities at eight international hubs across much of the English-speaking world…
There are growing concerns among some scholars over the validity and efficacy of weaving so-called indigenous knowledge into modern science. Jerry Coyne, professor emeritus of evolutionary biology at the University of Chicago…described “the attempt to put indigenous knowledge on par with modern science” as “distressing.”
Elizabeth Weiss, a retired emeritus professor of anthropology and author of the new book “On the Warpath: My Battles with Indians, Pretendians, and Woke Warriors,” agrees with Coyne. “The integration of ‘indigenous knowledge’ looks like scientists kowtowing to animistic beliefs and engaging in absurd rituals in order to continue to have access to skeletal and artifact collections,” she said…“This includes engaging in discriminatory practices, like preventing females from handling warrior remains or telling menstruating and pregnant females that some materials are too dangerous for them to handle in their weakened condition,” Weiss said via email. “It also means engaging in sage burning, hanging devil’s claw in shelving areas, and covering up ‘spiritually dangerous’ artifacts, for fear that ‘dark forces’ will be summoned.” Additionally, Weiss said braiding looks like “fitting data to the mythology, rather than using data to come to objective conclusions.”
The Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science is expected to host more than 50 scientists….Atalay and the center [also] aim to “Indigenize university science curriculum” and develop programming for K-12 students.
Federal health agencies are already wasting millions of dollars on “indigenous knowledge.”
The Biden administration has hosted “indigenous knowledge” seminars that warned scientists against “disrespecting” spirits.
In December 2022, the Biden administration released guidance designed to promote the use of indigenous knowledge and beliefs in federal agencies’ decisions, but also to give tribes more control over the public release of their indigenous knowledge. After the administration illegally withheld records about its policies on “indigenous knowledge,” it was sued in court. The lawsuit triggered the release of records that reveal a desire by some insiders to restrict the free flow of information.
