2024 Summer Institutes

As part of our ongoing collaboration with the Sacramento Area Science Project, this summer our Youth Education Program Manager, Peggy Harte, helped co-facilitate two week-long summer institutes in collaboration with the California History Social Science Project. Both institutes focused on intertwining the stories of people and the land, deepening our understanding of the history of place. To better understand the experiences of our tribal communities, the team used the Seven Essential Understandings from the California Indian Museum as a framework and important touch point throughout both institutes. Through their lived experiences on the land during each institute, teachers were able to explore ways to reground conversations around what history, stewardship and climate resilience looks like in their classrooms now, and into the future.

Yosemite Sources of Justice

In collaboration with the National Park Service (ranger-educators joined the history-science team), Peggy and Chris Griesemer (Executive Director of the Sacramento Area Science Project), alongside a team from the History Social-Studies Project, helped facilitate a week-long institute in Yosemite National Park to explore narratives and counternarratives in history, science, environmental justice and ethnic studies with a group of approximately 35 3rd and 4th grade teachers from around the state (priority given to regional teachers). During the institute, where the group had the opportunity to camp within Yosemite Valley, teachers learned about some of the restoration work and biodiversity monitoring taking place in Yosemite. Teachers also explored counter-narratives to the centrality of John Muir’s role in setting the Valley aside as an untouched wilderness, learning more about the traditional stewardship of the 7 local tribes over thousands of years as well as the NPS contemporary efforts towards co-management strategies.

Stewardship of the Wintun/Patwin Homelands

Along with members of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, the Native Dad’s Network, Cache Creek Conservancy, the UC Davis Student Farm, and the UC Davis Gorman Museum of Native American Art, the history-science collaborative team co-created a four-day institute designed to reflect on Indigenous voices/peoples of the Wintun Homeland and their centrality to the history and understanding of our broader Yolo and Solano County region. Participants were recruited from regional elementary schools (again, 3rd and 4th grade teachers). During the week-long institute, teachers traveled to various locations throughout Yolo County to hear about the traditional stewardship and histories from our local tribal community. Follow-up work with members of the Wintun community and the teachers will focus on how to bring Homeland into our regional classrooms, benefitting both students with Indigenous ancestry and those without.