American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Scientific and technological expertise are needed to address many of the problems and possibilities faced by American Indian communities and individuals. Indian cultures, traditional knowledge, and Indian individuals’ alternative perspectives and unique ideas could aid the advancement of science. Indian access to scientific skills and expertise is insufficient, however, and the potential for Indians to contribute to science is going largely unrealized. This is the case in large part because technological and scientific skill attainment by American Indians has been limited. This article reports results of a study of how Indian students’ subjective cultural identities and internalized specific cultural values affect their views of scientific and technological products and professions. The results indicate that strength of subjective identity as an Indian shapes values in such a way as to negatively impact views of science and technology as they are currently practiced. I argue that the basic methods, knowledge, and techniques of science can be taught and applied in many ways, and that alternative approaches to science education and practice can be devised that would increase Indians’ scientific achievements and make it more likely that indigenous perspectives would influence scientific research and scientific application.