Making a Difference: Culture, Science and Community

Banquet -- October 18, 1997
New Orleans, LA
Joe Coulter

Thank you for the very kind introduction. I am indeed honored to be here at the National Minority Research Symposium and to address such an impressive group. I am especially encouraged to see your high spirits and enthusiasm for your research work and to see the progress you have achieved. You are making a difference now, even as you continue your education and training. You are the faces of the future.

I am also pleased to see a number of Native American students here at the symposium, but I understand that you have had very few American Indian scientists address you. I am not surprised; generally, there are only a handful of American Indians involved in research. In my own area of research, the neurosciences, I don't know of a single other Potawatomi Indian!

Tonight, I am will not present research, rather I will talk about the importance of cultural differences and science from a Native American perspective.

Let me begin with a story. This is a very old, traditional tale, from the Chippewa (or Ojibway) people, who are united with the Potawatomi and the Ottawa (Odawa) in the confederation of the Three Fires, when we were together in our original homeland around the Great Lakes. This kind of story is told in the wintertime by an elder of the family to instruct the children.

The Three Cranberries
' Three cranberries were living in a lodge together. One was green, one white, one red. They were sisters. There was snow on the ground, and as the men were absent they were afraid and began to say to each other, What shall we do if the wolf comes?' I' said the green one will climb up a shingoub (spruce) tree.' I' said the white one,' will hide myself in the kettle of boiled hominy.' And I', said the red one, will conceal myself under the snow. Presently the wolves came and each one did as she had said. The wolves immediately ran to the kettle and ate up the corn and, with it the white cranberry. The red one was trampled to pieces by their feet, and her blood spotted the snow. But she who had climbed the thick spruce tree escaped notice, except by squirrel who took her away to live with his family. (modified from Schoolcraft, Algic Researches)

What is the meaning of this story? It seems that each cranberry has a different, and seemingly effective, way to deal with the threat of the wolves. However, the outcomes of each are unexpected. I will let you think about this.

Now, I want to say a few words about the connections between "culture, research and community", and what I mean about "making a difference," making a real difference. Of course, my perspective reflects my own experiences: growing up in Oklahoma, my educational background, my life among different people, including tribal people, both urban and traditional, and my career as a university scientist, faculty member and, now, administrator. My perspectives are unique, different, just as each of you are unique, different. Nevertheless, I think you will recognize some of the issues I raise here, some of the same patterns in our different experiences. Perhaps we may even find some common ground.

Understanding Differences and Valuing Diversity: American Indians
The differences among us, our different ethnic identities, our different cultures, our different values, our different ways and traditions, our different languages, our ways of thinking and communicating -- who we really are -- need to play a much greater role in shaping our educational and professional lives as basic biomedical researchers.

Who we are as unique individuals and members of communities should not be left at home when we go to school, to work, to the lab. Our diverse cultural views, ideas and aspirations belong in the classroom, the laboratory, and, perhaps most importantly, in the social and political life of the scientific community.

Unfortunately, we seem a long way from realizing this vision. Science, and the conduct of research, seems to be a culture unto itself: formal, highly technical, difficult to perform, even hostile to new ideas or unorthodox approaches. Worse, the results and applications of research often fail to address the needs of our society, much less the needs of our own local communities.

It seems to me this situation is unlikely to change until we recognize the importance of maintaining and enhancing our own unique cultural knowledge, perspectives and values, and bring these to the laboratory.

Secondly, we as scientists, must take greater responsibility for directing the immense power of the research enterprise towards exploration of those questions that are relevant and important to our own communities. Finally, the knowledge gained from our research must be brought full circle to support and improve the lives of our respective communities and the rich diversity of cultures they represent. In short, those things that make each of us unique, different, are our most precious assets: they can and should make a difference.

American Indian Culture : Images and Realities
Presently there are more than 300 tribes and nations recognized by the Federal Government in the Continental United States. If we add Native Alaskans and other tribes recognized by states, the number of groups rises well above 500. Further, over 200 different languages are spoken by these tribes and groups. These numbers do not include the more than 200 tribes and their languages that have become extinct. As to population, in the 1990 census approximately 1.9 million people self-identified as Indians, with 1.2 million being tribally enrolled. This represents less than + of 1% of the U.S. population, although it is estimated that between 10 to 15 million people have discernable Indian blood, but have lost their tribal connection. Some of you in this room may have an Indian ancestor somewhere in your family tree.

As we can see, the terms American Indian/Native Alaskan or Native American refer to a small but very diverse group of people. There are important differences in origins, histories, languages, religious practices, material culture, as well as artistic and creative work among these hundreds of tribes. Unfortunately, like other ethnic groups American Indians must endure a social environment that tends to minimize differences, to assimilate and stereotype, or worse, ignore isolate, and, out of fear, sometimes destroy.

Obviously, broad generalizations about Indian culture are difficult to make. What I will do here is show you some common stereotypical images of American Indians and talk about their real meanings.

(DiversityWeb note: due to copyright restriction we are unable to reproduce the slides on the Web at this time; we are including Dr. Coulter's notes which generally capture some of the content of the slides)

SLIDES:

1. Wild Indian -- beads, feathers and fringe fierce, savage-primitive live as part of environment ecology -- accounts for tribal differences
2. Noble Savage -- Warrior -- Pontiac Indian Wars
3. Veterans since WWI
4. Navajo code talkers
5. Vanishing Indians/Indians under glass -- population declines to 1900, rapid growth since self-determination era (1960s). Assimilation pressures, Indians as museum specimens, NAGPRA. Cultural re-vitalization, cultural integrity. Strong tribal governments
6. Rich Indians/Drunken Indians
7. 75% earn less than $7,000
8. 45% below poverty level
9. Average unemployment is 45%
10. Responsibility/resources to support tribal infrastructure, housing, health services, police, court system, and education (Tribal Colleges).
11. Indian Educational Attainment
12. Only 65% finish high school
13. Only 9% complete a baccalaureate degree
14. Only 3% complete Graduate/Professor degree
15. Only 27 total Ph.D.'s in Life Sciences in 1995 (peak)
16. Health Problems
17. Alcohol Mortality: 10 times rate of general population
18. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: 33 times higher than general population
19. Tuberculosis: 7 times greater than general population
20. Diabetes: nearly 7 times greater than general population
21. 1 in 6 adolescents attempt suicide -- 4 times that of other teens.

Clearly many of these health problems are complex ones involving strong sociocultural, economic and environmental components. They will not yield readily to discoveries at the lab bench alone, but must include approaches sensitive to the complex cultural features and social/environmental contexts that contribute to them.

Pre-College Summer Programs -- A Beginning
Culturally sensitive learning in the health, environmental and life sciences. Holistic approaches and learning. Field studies, microbiology, etc.

SLIDES

1. University of Iowa/American Indian Science and Engineering Society/ National Institute of Mental Health
2. Life Sciences Summer Program -- since 1989.
3. Intensive, 30-40, 9-10 graders, prepare for college.
4. National American Indian Science and Engineering Fair Annual, grades 5-12, 400-600 individual projects, 12-15 winners go to International Science and Engineering Fair, winners there.

The Future Holds Many Challenges
Our educational pipeline has many leaks. Only very small proportions of minority students are coming through our educational systems with the necessary skills and preparation for college and graduate school work. My impression is that the most serious rupture, where we are loosing the most prospective students, is early in the educational process, perhaps are early as the primary grades, but certainly as they enter secondary school. Many of our public primary and secondary schools are failing to provide even a minimal educational experience, much less preparation for college. And, too many students, parents and teachers do not seem to realize what is at stake when they decide to avoid taking the advanced mathematics and science courses or even the foreign languages, when they are offered. Sure!, they may acquire a high school diploma or perhaps a GED, but without a college bound curriculum, we will never see them in our research universities.

Our pipeline may be experiencing some serious blockages.
The recent court decisions in the Hopwood case affecting the 5th Judicial District, including Texas and Louisiana, as well as Proposition 209 in California represent serious threats to our affirmative efforts to recruit and admit minority students at our Universities. "Colorblind" admissions processes that rely on narrow, culturally biased test scores and similar criteria, are already having serious impacts on minority enrollments. This is really a challenge to the Universities to invest in minority student development programs and to employ admissions criteria and processes that give value to diversity and are both legal and effective in providing access and opportunity for minority students.

Other challenges, many familiar, include the relative isolation and lack of career support in our University departments, absence of appropriate mentors and career counseling for minority students and young faculty, and finally, the enormous difficulties involved in gaining support for, and in conducting research on complex minority health problems, which invariably involve intertwining socioeconomic, environmental, and ethnological/cultural issues.

In confronting these challenges how are we to fare? Like the three cranberries when the wolves come? Are we to be eaten up, to be trampled, to be adopted and assimilated into an alien world? I think not.

I see increasing evidence, especially here at this conference, that cultural awareness and appreciation for diversity are important components of both the educational and the investigative process of research.

I am heartened, too, that research, is beginning to be aimed at, and coming to terms with, the common, as well as rare, diseases and health problems that disproportionately affect our minority communities.

Many of you have clearly recognized the importance of maintaining your individuality and cultural connections. You are progressing well and beginning to make your homes in the scientific world.

We all appreciate how often this is a lonely journey. And, how many obstacles have to be overcome.

You are exploring new pathways to knowledge. You are attempting to answer questions that are important to the communities from which you come.

I want to compliment and congratulate each of you, and your mentors, for your efforts and achievements.

My best wishes for continued success.

Bama mena gwabmanum, megwetch.
(Until I see you again, thank you.)

Joe Dan Coulter

Introduction/Biographical Sketch 1997
Dr. Coulter received his Ph.D. in Biological Psychology at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center in 1971. He then joined the Marine Biomedical Institute at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) as a NIH postdoctoral fellow to pursue neurophysiological and anatomical studies of somatosensory systems. He continued his research training at the Istituto di Fisiologia, Universita di Pisa, Italy, and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and returned to the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston where he joined the faculty in 1975. He spent 1980 in Washington, D.C., as Associate Director of the Sensory Physiology and Perception Program of the National Science Foundation. In 1983 Dr. Coulter was appointed Assistant to the Associate Dean for Community Affairs at UTMB, Galveston and was involved with the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Initiative. In 1985, he came to The University of Iowa where he served as Head of the Department of Anatomy from 1985 to 1992 and as Director of the Neuroscience Graduate Program from 1987 to 1996. In 1993, he led the establishment of the American Indian and Native Studies Program in the College of Liberal Arts. Currently, Dr. Coulter serves as the Interim Associate Provost for Diversity, and Acting Director of Opportunity at Iowa.

Dr. Coulter, an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Oklahoma, is a past member of the Executive Committee of the Minority Fellowship Program in Neuroscience, American Psychological Association, and is an active member of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, National Indian Education Association, and the National Institute for Native Leadership in Higher Education. He serves as faculty advisor to American Indian and Native Alaskan students on campus and as the Director of the Life Sciences Comprehensive Enrichment Program for pre-college American Indian/Native Alaskan students at The University of Iowa.

Dr. Coulter's research program involves studies on the molecular composition of synaptic membranes in neural development, and the organization of sensory-motor systems. He participates in teaching medical neuroscience and research ethics courses in the College of Medicine and the Graduate College, and the seminar, history and policy courses in the American Indian and Native Studies Program of the College of Liberal Arts.

This speech has been reprinted with the permission of Joe Dan Coulter.