By Rebecca Andrews

     Date: MArch 16, 1992

     As American Indians continue to join the ranks of U.S. scientists, many seek to remind their peers that native cultures have been contributing to Western
     science for half a millennium.

     "Indians were first-rate geneticists and agronomists," says Hopi tribal member Frank Dukepoo, an associate professor of genetics at Northern Arizona
     University. "If we'd been able to evolve [without European contact], we'd have had Indian scientists," he argues. "But as they evolved into being scientists,
     they would have had different values: Mother Earth, respect for living things, the importance of balance in nature"--values that Dukepoo says are finally
     beginning to take root in Western science.

     In the book Indian Givers (New York, Fawcett Columbine, 1988), anthropologist Jack Weatherford looks at contributions native American cultures have
     made to numerous aspects of Western life, including science. For example, Indians throughout the Americas developed sophisticated corn breeding
     techniques, selecting seed according to various traits, and taught them to European newcomers to the continent, says Weatherford. Another example from
     Weatherford's book is quinine, the first known treatment for malaria. Quinine came from a bark used by the Incas for treating a variety of fever-related
     diseases. It was introduced to Europeans in the early 17th century.

     Shawn Sigstedt, an ethnobotanist working on his doctoral dissertation for Harvard University, has spent the last two decades studying the relationship
     between American Indian cultures and the plants and animals native to their traditional lands. The American Indian cultures have been closely observing
     the natural world for millennia, he says, and the knowledge they have collected pays tribute to their scientific skills.

     Sigstedt has been studying a particular medicinal plant, Ligusticum porteri, or bear root, or osh . He says that the root of this plant is a fundamental
     medicine for every American Indian population that lives close to the plant's natural habitat. It is used as a headache remedy, as a fungicide, as an
     insecticide, and for numerous other complaints. Sigstedt says scientists have identified more than a dozen compounds of known pharmacological activity
     in bear root.

     Sigstedt first became interested in bear root in the 1970s, when he spent several years living with a Navajo family. "I learned from them the legend that the
     bear, a generous divine being in their tradition, gave them osha as a gift--a medicinal plant of great importance," recalls Sigstedt. As he began hearing
     similar accounts from people of other Southwestern Indian tribes, he says, "I decided to see if there was any biological basis to these legends."

     Much to his astonishment, Sigstedt found that when he gave the bear root to bears in the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, they immediately
     began to chew up the root and rub it over their bodies--precisely what many Indian legends say that the bear taught humans to do. "The Native Americans
     were such excellent scientific observers that they were aware that the bear was using the plant, and they were probably scientifically accurate when they
     included these observations in their stories," he argues. Sigstedt presented results from his work with bear root at a session devoted to
     zoopharmacognosy--the use of medicinal plants by animals--at the recent Chicago meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

     At the Institute for American Indian Arts, a two-year college in Santa Fe, a program is being developed that will focus on science as an aspect of traditional
     Indian cultures. According to Kathryn Harris Tijerina, president of the institute, the college was founded in 1962 as a fine-arts school, but has recently
     broadened its mandate. "We will keep that focus [on fine arts]," explains Tijerina, "but we will expand to include culture, and we define culture in a holistic
     sense--as do the Indians--to include sciences." She says that the program will look at science as practiced in traditional Native American cultures--their
     use of medicinal plants, for example--"and connect this with the world of Western science the way it's taught in colleges and universities." Initially the
     program will consist of science classes for the fine-arts students, but Tijerina hopes to have a full four-year science degree program in place within the
     next few years.

     Sigstedt says that it is no coincidence American Indians' knowlege is being found scientifically valid by the Western world. "The Native American religious
     perspective and the [Western] science perspective are more similar than any two perspectives that I know of, because of this common element: They both
     believe that whatever happens is significant. The consequence of that belief is that everything matters--observations of nature are made with great interest
     by both groups." --R.A.
 
 
 
 

     The Scientist