2018 MATC Scholars Program: Dr. Aaron Thomas

Mid-America Transportation Center Author

02/27/2019 Added

4 Plays

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Dr. Thomas discusses his past and also "Native Journeys with Indigenous Communities"

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[00:00:07.160]Well, let me introduce myself traditionally.
[00:00:10.610]My name is Dr. Aaron Thomas.
[00:00:12.661](speaking in a foreign language)
[00:00:26.839]So, for those of you who aren't familiar,
[00:00:28.363]Navajos usually introduce themselves, their clans,
[00:00:31.180]so my parents' clans and my grandparents' clans;
[00:00:33.800]or those of you who are familiar are kinda like,
[00:00:35.690]oh, there are those Navajos again,
[00:00:38.180]showing us all this stuff. (laughing)
[00:00:40.997]So, my dad's clan, (speaking foreign language),
[00:00:44.158]is the Blackfeet people,
[00:00:45.360]my mom's clan, (speaking foreign language),
[00:00:46.970]she's Caucasian, so that's our word for a white person;
[00:00:51.540]also, my grandparents on my mom's side, of course,
[00:00:54.269]also Caucasian, but on my dad's side,
[00:00:55.300]my grandparents, (speaking foreign language),
[00:00:57.859]it's a type of people.
[00:00:58.880]So, that's my background.
[00:01:01.340]So, I wanna talk to you a little bit today,
[00:01:03.093]I was asked to tell a little bit of my personal
[00:01:05.020]and educational journey, how I went from a little squirt
[00:01:08.870]to a professor at a university.
[00:01:11.460]I'll also talk to you a little bit about the work I do
[00:01:13.560]with the tribes from Montana, as well,
[00:01:15.880]so I'll kinda go through most of that.
[00:01:18.520]So, I start, usually, with my story about myself.
[00:01:21.260]I start, of course, with family.
[00:01:23.400]I start with my dad.
[00:01:26.160]So, my dad grew up on a Navajo Reservation.
[00:01:28.180]He was born in this little hut, right here,
[00:01:30.720]which my grandparents actually lived in
[00:01:32.810]until about 15 years ago, so they lived in there
[00:01:36.140]all their lives until they got a little bit older.
[00:01:38.910]So, Navajo Reservation, for those of you who are familiar.
[00:01:41.500]So, here is Gallup, New Mexico,
[00:01:43.710]and just north is a town called Tohatchi,
[00:01:47.400]and just off of that, about six or seven miles
[00:01:51.630]off the main road on a dirt road
[00:01:53.150]is where their homestead is.
[00:01:55.240]They're right under where it says the Chuska Reservoir.
[00:01:58.270]So, that's where my dad grew up, that's where he was born.
[00:02:00.830]He always tell a joke for those that are unfamiliar
[00:02:03.090]with Natives that the reason why he's so brown
[00:02:05.690]is because they have a dirt floor in their house
[00:02:08.380]and when he was born, his mom dropped him on the floor.
[00:02:11.973]And so, he's so dark because of all the dirt
[00:02:13.770]that got on him from after he was born.
[00:02:17.310]So, when he grew up, his job--
[00:02:20.130]There he is.
[00:02:21.240]He was the child to herd sheep.
[00:02:22.910]So, you might have heard a lot about Navajos and sheep.
[00:02:25.560]It's mostly true.
[00:02:27.850]Herd a lot of sheep, feed a lot of sheep.
[00:02:31.640]My dad actually hates mutton to this day
[00:02:34.867]and I asked him why, and he says because we had mutton
[00:02:38.460]for breakfast, and for lunch, and for dinner growing up.
[00:02:43.125]That's all that he had.
[00:02:43.958]So, he doesn't care for it nearly as much now
[00:02:46.077]as he did when he was a kid.
[00:02:48.380]So, that was his job, was to go out with the sheep
[00:02:51.030]and to herd the sheep.
[00:02:52.830]He had a gun that he carried at this age
[00:02:56.150]and he used that, essentially, to ward off the coyotes
[00:02:59.260]that came by, trying to get the sheep.
[00:03:02.170]He went to boarding school, so the very first thing
[00:03:06.240]where his parents sent him was boarding school.
[00:03:09.240]All of his older brothers and sisters
[00:03:10.920]went to boarding school.
[00:03:12.050]He came from a large family.
[00:03:13.950]He came from a family of nine kids.
[00:03:16.740]He was the second youngest, and he went to boarding school
[00:03:20.370]for probably about three months as a kindergartener,
[00:03:23.700]and he ran away.
[00:03:25.310]Hated it.
[00:03:26.405]They wouldn't let him speak his own language,
[00:03:28.940]he thought it was tough, so he decided, this is it,
[00:03:31.927]I'm running away.
[00:03:33.130]So, if you can imagine a five year old kid
[00:03:34.590]walking I don't know how many miles,
[00:03:36.774]wherever the boarding school was, to home.
[00:03:38.170]So his mom, my grandmother, kept him home for a year
[00:03:41.510]and then sent him back.
[00:03:42.620]I think by that time he was adjusted
[00:03:44.670]and went back then to boarding school,
[00:03:47.390]but of course, as you can imagine,
[00:03:48.600]he has a lot of stories about going to the boarding school.
[00:03:52.050]One of my favorites that he tells me
[00:03:55.212]is when he was in the lunchroom,
[00:03:57.090]they made sure that you ate everything
[00:03:59.600]that was on your plate.
[00:04:00.940]You couldn't leave anything, throw out any food,
[00:04:03.440]and one of the things that was on there
[00:04:05.590]was a pack of butter, so you had to eat that butter,
[00:04:10.177]but he hated it, so all that he did with that
[00:04:13.167]was either try to hide it in his milk carton
[00:04:15.700]or take that butter and stick in under the table, like that,
[00:04:19.704]and to this day, he doesn't eat butter on anything,
[00:04:23.830]pancakes, bread, nothing.
[00:04:25.640]He just hates butter, mostly because of that.
[00:04:29.510]So, I also have a picture on here.
[00:04:33.370]So, my grandmother.
[00:04:34.203]My grandmother's a weaver, so wove a whole bunch of rugs,
[00:04:38.460]which partly went to use the sheep or two.
[00:04:40.550]So, you carve the wool, you spin it,
[00:04:42.933]you use traditional dyes, and make the rugs.
[00:04:46.311]There's a picture of my grandmother and some of her rugs.
[00:04:49.240]Unfortunately, both of my grandparents passed away.
[00:04:51.350]It's been about 10 years now,
[00:04:54.530]but growing up, that's where we'd go.
[00:04:57.470]We'd go to the hogots where they would stay,
[00:04:59.850]we'd bring them groceries, they only spoke Navajo,
[00:05:02.620]they didn't speak any English at all,
[00:05:04.620]and my Navajo's not good.
[00:05:07.720]It could be better.
[00:05:08.610]So, essentially translated through my dad
[00:05:11.538]or through my aunts and uncles
[00:05:12.953]to talk to my grandparents.
[00:05:16.400]So, when my dad decided to go to college,
[00:05:19.240]he was the first of his family to go to college.
[00:05:21.730]He got on a bus in Gallup, New Mexico
[00:05:24.107]and he went to school in Texas.
[00:05:26.550]So, he got on that bus in Gallup and showed up in Texas
[00:05:29.290]and the Dean of the school came to meet them
[00:05:32.150]and said, it's great to have you here.
[00:05:34.290]Let me help you with your bags.
[00:05:36.110]And my dad said, this is it.
[00:05:38.814]He only had one bag.
[00:05:39.740]He said, this is all I have, one small bag,
[00:05:43.210]and they said, okay, we need to go out
[00:05:45.410]and get you some supplies.
[00:05:46.830]So, they went out and bought him pens and paper
[00:05:49.640]and things like that, and hopefully, he washed his clothes
[00:05:53.530]a lot, 'cause he didn't have a whole lot of clothes
[00:05:55.670]that he brought with him.
[00:05:57.010]So, he majored in welding engineering,
[00:05:59.870]so he actually became an engineer.
[00:06:02.830]He's a welder, he still welds today.
[00:06:05.928]My welding stinks, mostly because whenever I try to weld,
[00:06:10.810]I would mess it up, and if you can imagine,
[00:06:13.140]if you messed up something in front of your father,
[00:06:15.750]you got yelled at, and I got yelled at a lot
[00:06:18.280]because my welding was just not very good,
[00:06:21.230]so I decided to go do something else.
[00:06:23.640]So, my mom actually was born on the east coast.
[00:06:28.040]Caucasian mom.
[00:06:29.230]Her dad was actually a missionary to the Navajos,
[00:06:34.460]came over to the reservation.
[00:06:35.770]That's where my parents met.
[00:06:37.840]It was on the Navajo reservation.
[00:06:40.890]My dad actually won a lottery.
[00:06:45.440]Unfortunately, it was not the type of lottery
[00:06:47.390]you wanna win.
[00:06:48.223]It was the draft lottery.
[00:06:50.138]So, he was drafted during the Vietnam War.
[00:06:53.270]If you're unfamiliar with how the draft worked,
[00:06:55.528]it kinda goes by your birthday,
[00:06:57.270]so whenever your birthday was,
[00:06:59.751]that would essentially determine whether or not
[00:07:01.117]you were drafted.
[00:07:02.400]Apparently, his number was four, so you knew for sure
[00:07:05.690]that he was gonna be drafted and go into the army.
[00:07:08.490]So, that's where I came along.
[00:07:10.100]I was actually born on an army base in Texas.
[00:07:15.930]Right there.
[00:07:18.057]So, between Austin and Waco, Texas,
[00:07:20.360]in a place called Fort Luke, Texas.
[00:07:22.020]That's where I was born.
[00:07:25.040]So, my dad actually wasn't there when I was born.
[00:07:26.693]I think he was either in training
[00:07:29.649]or was deployed at the time,
[00:07:31.557]and they brought me to my mom,
[00:07:33.374]and of course, my mom is pretty white, I was pretty dark,
[00:07:37.160]and so they brought her my dark hair
[00:07:39.020]and they looked at her band and they looked at my band,
[00:07:41.275]then they checked her band again,
[00:07:44.750]and they simply said, he must look like his father.
[00:07:47.830]So, I almost got mixed up, I guess, with another family,
[00:07:51.750]but it's a good thing that all worked out.
[00:07:53.790]So, I actually lived in Texas for a little while.
[00:07:56.500]Went to first grade and second grade in El Paso, Texas,
[00:08:00.130]but really, I would consider my hometown
[00:08:02.470]to be in Albuquerque.
[00:08:05.330]So, Albuquerque, New Mexico is essentially where I grew up,
[00:08:08.110]went through middle school and high school in Albuquerque.
[00:08:12.490]I played sports.
[00:08:13.940]I played basketball, football, and volleyball.
[00:08:17.600]In fact, my goal as a 10 year old
[00:08:21.050]was to play quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys.
[00:08:24.350]That was my main goal.
[00:08:26.826]That's what I was working towards.
[00:08:28.882]And as you can see, that probably wasn't gonna work out.
[00:08:32.902]I was not nearly big enough, I could play football okay,
[00:08:36.551]but there was no way I was gonna do that as a career.
[00:08:40.780]Fortunately, I actually did pretty well
[00:08:43.480]in math and science, and I actually enjoyed those things.
[00:08:46.730]So, when I got into high school,
[00:08:49.210]I knew that I wanted to be an engineer,
[00:08:51.625]and that was also partly due to my father.
[00:08:53.330]My dad was one of those that went in
[00:08:55.110]and if there was something to be fixed,
[00:08:56.760]he would at least try it first and try to fix it.
[00:08:59.800]Now, it didn't always work out.
[00:09:01.610]Sometimes we had to call someone else
[00:09:03.040]to fix whatever he tried to fix,
[00:09:06.240]but at least he made an attempt,
[00:09:07.940]so I was always there to try to help fix things.
[00:09:11.180]So, I knew I wanted to become an engineer,
[00:09:12.970]I just didn't know what type of engineer I wanted to be,
[00:09:15.915]and I thought, well, I kinda like chemistry.
[00:09:17.883]Chemistry was all right in high school, at least for me,
[00:09:19.780]so I'll become a chemical engineer.
[00:09:22.106]I'll put those two together and become a chemical engineer.
[00:09:24.320]I really, at that time, did not know
[00:09:25.950]what a chemical engineer was,
[00:09:27.987]but it seemed to combine two things
[00:09:30.066]that I thought were okay.
[00:09:31.989]So, I went ahead and decided to become a chemical engineer,
[00:09:35.253]and I happened to be accepted into Stanford University,
[00:09:40.950]so that's out in California, it's kind of in the Bay Area,
[00:09:44.695]so San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland
[00:09:47.920]are all kind of in that area, and so I decided to go there.
[00:09:53.810]Now, that was far, far different than New Mexico,
[00:09:58.510]as you can imagine, California.
[00:10:01.010]Things like we'd be driving along and it would say
[00:10:04.410]now entering Redwood City.
[00:10:07.270]I'd be sitting there going,
[00:10:08.810]well where did the other city end?
[00:10:10.550]I didn't even see where it ended.
[00:10:12.060]All the cities kinda ran together.
[00:10:13.889]I also used to--
[00:10:15.744]Okay, here's Albuquerque, up here's Santa Fe,
[00:10:18.760]over here is Gallup.
[00:10:20.080]They're all separate places and in California,
[00:10:24.670]all the cities sorta ran together.
[00:10:27.087]I thought that was a little strange.
[00:10:29.000]Big, crowded.
[00:10:30.840]It took me a little while to get used to what I was doing.
[00:10:33.970]I also had people that would come to me
[00:10:36.038]and say things like, oh, the only reason why you're here
[00:10:37.670]is because you're Native American.
[00:10:39.260]That's the only reason why you got it.
[00:10:41.560]And oh, you don't even have to pay for college
[00:10:43.770]because you're Native American.
[00:10:45.170]You get all this for free, which of course is not true;
[00:10:48.460]however, I took some of that, what they would tell me,
[00:10:52.050]and I essentially said, I don't care.
[00:10:55.020]Maybe one of the main reasons why I got in here
[00:10:58.660]was because I'm Native American, but I'm here,
[00:11:01.050]so I'm gonna take full advantage of being here.
[00:11:03.590]So, I did.
[00:11:04.690]So, I didn't care what they said,
[00:11:06.260]I didn't really listen to them.
[00:11:07.940]I was somewhat unmalleable and being a little arrogant,
[00:11:11.640]thinking I can do this, so I don't care what you tell me
[00:11:15.620]and I can figure this out.
[00:11:17.030]So, I did.
[00:11:18.440]So, that's what I sometimes tell students.
[00:11:20.310]You may feel like you don't belong there
[00:11:22.150]or you only got there for certain reasons,
[00:11:24.010]but you still have an opportunity,
[00:11:25.880]so take advantage of the opportunity
[00:11:27.330]you've got sitting in front of you anyway.
[00:11:31.401]Now, chemical engineering, I still didn't know what it was.
[00:11:35.277]I remember talking to someone and he asked,
[00:11:37.946]what are you studying?
[00:11:39.070]And I said, I'm studying chemical engineering.
[00:11:40.770]He was like, oh, you're gonna work in the oil fields,
[00:11:43.979]and I remember thinking, but I don't wanna work
[00:11:46.790]in the oil fields, I don't wanna do that.
[00:11:49.890]Is that the only thing I can do as a chemical engineer?
[00:11:53.079]Well, it turns out there are many things
[00:11:54.762]you can do as a chemical engineer.
[00:11:55.680]Yes, oil is one of them, but you can also work
[00:11:58.797]for places like Intel or you can work for a national lab
[00:12:03.090]or you can work for a chemical company,
[00:12:06.110]like Dr. Cornelius does.
[00:12:08.090]There's a bunch of different areas that you could work.
[00:12:11.420]Oh, speaking of Dr. Cornelius,
[00:12:13.490]I do also have a name background too.
[00:12:16.860]So, my last name is Thomas.
[00:12:18.600]That doesn't sound like a common Navajo name.
[00:12:21.330]Why isn't it Begay or Tsosie or something like that?
[00:12:24.790]So, I asked my dad.
[00:12:26.650]I says, why is our name Thomas?
[00:12:28.845]Why is it boring?
[00:12:31.301]And so, my aunt went and researched our family
[00:12:34.940]and it took it all the way back to Fort Sumner
[00:12:37.200]in New Mexico.
[00:12:38.560]And so, she says what happens and she kinda put it
[00:12:41.620]in a funny way and says, I'm sorry, nephew,
[00:12:44.320]but we were in the slow Navajos.
[00:12:46.370]I'm like, what?
[00:12:47.703]What are you talking about?
[00:12:48.716]What do you mean we're slow Navajos?
[00:12:49.750]Well, the army came around and rounded up
[00:12:52.700]a whole bunch of Navajos and took them to Fort Sumner
[00:12:54.917]and we were among the slow ones.
[00:12:56.310]We were caught.
[00:12:57.143]It's like, oh great.
[00:12:58.865]And so, when we were taken to Fort Sumner,
[00:13:01.800]of course, back then we didn't have last names.
[00:13:05.839]We had no need for last names.
[00:13:06.730]We were just named whatever our grandparents named us
[00:13:10.470]or whatever after a couple years defined who we were.
[00:13:14.350]So, at Fort Sumner, they assigned last names.
[00:13:17.680]Your last name is now this, your last name is now this,
[00:13:20.415]your last name is now that.
[00:13:21.840]So Thomas, that's where that name came from.
[00:13:23.827]So, our last name was actually assigned.
[00:13:27.410]Okay, so back--
[00:13:29.470]So, I don't have any fancy--
[00:13:31.370]There's tons of Thomases though.
[00:13:32.820]The Cornelius thing was much better to that
[00:13:35.024]what Cornelius was saying. (laughing)
[00:13:39.360]So, back as an undergraduate,
[00:13:40.850]I actually got a couple of internships.
[00:13:43.010]I got an internship at Sandia National Labs,
[00:13:45.380]which also Dr. Cornelius, that's where he worked
[00:13:48.430]for a little while.
[00:13:49.263]Also got an internships at Intel, as well,
[00:13:53.860]and one main thing that those internships taught me
[00:13:57.200]is that's not what I wanted to do.
[00:14:00.750]It was a little strange.
[00:14:01.910]So, I was in a cubicle in one area,
[00:14:04.190]or I was working on a project,
[00:14:05.287]and I wasn't totally interested in what they were doing,
[00:14:09.820]but in some ways, that was valuable information to me
[00:14:13.000]in that it taught me that this is not the area
[00:14:15.440]I wanna be in.
[00:14:17.019]I wanna do something a little bit different.
[00:14:18.220]So, I decided then to go to graduate school after that.
[00:14:22.970]My primary motivation to go to graduate school
[00:14:24.917]was because I didn't wanna work yet.
[00:14:27.060]I still didn't know what it is I wanted to do
[00:14:29.840]or what company I wanted to work for.
[00:14:31.580]The two internships that I had were okay,
[00:14:34.750]but I didn't know what it is I wanted to do.
[00:14:36.663]So, I decided I'll go hang out in graduate school
[00:14:38.117]for a Masters degree.
[00:14:39.380]I'll go for a couple of years.
[00:14:40.650]That's what I'll do.
[00:14:42.600]What's nice about going to graduate school
[00:14:45.450]is if you're accepted into certain programs,
[00:14:47.924]many of them will actually fly you out
[00:14:50.570]and they'll try to convince you this is the best place
[00:14:53.150]for you to be.
[00:14:53.983]You should come here and this is what we have to offer.
[00:14:56.890]So, in some ways, those are kinda fun to go to.
[00:14:58.507]You feel needed, you feel like they're trying
[00:15:02.418]to sell themselves to you.
[00:15:03.300]So, a couple of places I went to,
[00:15:05.780]I went to Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.
[00:15:12.042]Back then, I was a big snow skier.
[00:15:15.720]I skied a lot living in New Mexico
[00:15:18.060]and, of course, as you can imagine,
[00:15:19.890]skiing in Colorado was awesome, but then it worried me.
[00:15:24.149]The reason why it worried me is I thought,
[00:15:26.250]I'm just gonna ski and never do work,
[00:15:29.640]so maybe I should choose some place else to go.
[00:15:32.740]Another place I applied to was Notre Dame.
[00:15:35.460]So, Notre Dame actually had me come out in March
[00:15:39.410]and it was gray and it was rainy and it was cold,
[00:15:44.600]and growing up in New Mexico and living in California,
[00:15:48.110]that didn't appeal to me very much here.
[00:15:51.357]So, these weren't the best reasons
[00:15:52.810]why I didn't choose to go to these schools,
[00:15:54.490]but these are what I was thinking.
[00:15:56.644]And the final place that they had me come out and visit
[00:15:59.990]was the University of Florida in March
[00:16:05.330]and it was sunny, it was warm, and they took me out
[00:16:08.350]to play golf, and I had no idea how to play golf,
[00:16:11.328]and I was like, yeah, I can see myself
[00:16:13.680]living out in Florida.
[00:16:15.200]It's a good thing I visited there in March
[00:16:17.620]and not in August because it was hot
[00:16:22.020]when I moved there in August.
[00:16:23.440]So, I decided, I'll go ahead and attend
[00:16:25.200]the University of Florida.
[00:16:26.897]I was gonna hang out for two years in graduate school,
[00:16:28.230]figure out what it is I wanted to do,
[00:16:30.040]and then go work somewhere.
[00:16:31.970]So, I drove from my place in Albuquerque
[00:16:36.010]where my family lived and still lives,
[00:16:38.880]and drove cross country to Florida.
[00:16:42.592]And like I said, I showed up and it was hot.
[00:16:45.730]It was far different than anything I ever expected,
[00:16:48.920]but the house I was staying in was with
[00:16:51.201]some other chemical engineering graduate students,
[00:16:54.210]and over the door was this huge spider web
[00:16:56.330]with a banana spider right in the middle.
[00:16:58.160]I'm just thinking, oh my goodness, where am I?
[00:17:01.470]And the parking lots where we parked for school,
[00:17:04.733]you had to walk between these two ponds
[00:17:07.387]to get to our apartment, our building,
[00:17:09.200]and one side of the pond was a 10 foot alligator
[00:17:11.960]that was sitting there, sunning itself,
[00:17:13.960]and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna get eaten one of these times.
[00:17:17.090]There's signs saying don't walk through here at night
[00:17:21.610]'cause the alligators go from one pond to another pond.
[00:17:24.732]I'm like, oh my goodness, where am I?
[00:17:26.874]It's far different than anything I ever experienced.
[00:17:29.626]It was hot, it was humid,
[00:17:31.564]but the football was really good at Florida.
[00:17:35.210]So, those football games were tons of fun.
[00:17:38.180]So, I decided, okay, I'm gonna go ahead
[00:17:39.787]and get my Masters degree.
[00:17:41.220]I found an advisor to work for.
[00:17:42.940]In fact, the advisor I decided to work with,
[00:17:45.327]a lot of the other students were scared of him
[00:17:48.267]'cause they thought he was tough
[00:17:49.548]and they thought he was mean.
[00:17:51.230]So, he sort of encouraged me to be a head in his program
[00:17:54.597]and he turned out, actually, to be really good.
[00:17:57.370]I was very pleased to be a part of his research group;
[00:18:00.700]however, that first year in graduate school,
[00:18:03.325]I did not like the project I was on.
[00:18:06.520]I thought it was dull, I thought it was boring.
[00:18:10.270]I just really wasn't all that interested in doing it.
[00:18:12.910]So, I thought, oh man, I'm just gonna get this done
[00:18:16.657]and get out of here.
[00:18:18.230]Then, I started to be a teaching assistant for a class,
[00:18:22.360]a chemical engineering class.
[00:18:24.020]So, what that means is, I would go there,
[00:18:26.360]I would go to the class, and then when students
[00:18:28.930]had questions, they would come to me.
[00:18:31.220]So, some of you may be able to go to your professors
[00:18:33.269]directly to get some help
[00:18:34.900]if you have help on all the assignments,
[00:18:36.660]but the students would actually come to me
[00:18:39.460]before they would go to the professors.
[00:18:40.760]I'd help them with their different work.
[00:18:42.680]I remember there was one student, he was from Haiti,
[00:18:46.600]he was Haitian, and he would always come up to me
[00:18:48.980]and goes, Aaron, I need you to put some knowledge in me.
[00:18:51.954]I need some knowledge.
[00:18:52.787]I'm not understanding.
[00:18:53.962]Give me the knowledge.
[00:18:54.795]I'm like, okay, what do you need help with?
[00:18:56.790]So, we would sit down, we'd work through
[00:18:58.430]these different problems I could just tell he was struggling
[00:19:01.560]and he'd come back day after day.
[00:19:03.340]I need some knowledge.
[00:19:04.360]Give me the knowledge I need.
[00:19:05.986]So, I'm like, okay, let's work on it,
[00:19:08.395]and there was a point in there where I saw him
[00:19:11.610]actually figure out what was going on.
[00:19:14.440]I could see it in his face
[00:19:16.425]and I could see the actual light come on
[00:19:21.120]'cause he looked at it, we're working through this,
[00:19:23.330]I said to him, you do this,
[00:19:24.480]and then this is why you're working on these things,
[00:19:27.680]and it clicked in him, and he started to smile,
[00:19:30.389]and he goes, I did it!
[00:19:33.540]I got the knowledge!
[00:19:34.730]I understand what to do now!
[00:19:37.710]And from there on, I thought, I wanna teach.
[00:19:40.510]I wanna be with students.
[00:19:41.620]This is awesome.
[00:19:42.610]I want to help them understand chemical engineering.
[00:19:45.950]So, I went ahead and decided to go ahead
[00:19:47.928]and forget the Masters.
[00:19:49.830]I wanna get the PhD so I can teach college level.
[00:19:52.980]So, I went straight through.
[00:19:53.960]I actually never did my Masters degree.
[00:19:55.840]I went straight through and got my PhD
[00:19:58.350]in chemical engineering.
[00:19:59.870]Still staying with chemical engineering,
[00:20:01.250]even though I wasn't fully sure what that was gonna be.
[00:20:04.870]I grew into my project.
[00:20:06.163]I actually really enjoyed my project after that first year,
[00:20:09.910]which was kind of hard.
[00:20:11.120]It was just a lot of math and a lot of experiments,
[00:20:15.270]but it turned out to be really good;
[00:20:16.860]and my advisor was my biggest advocate
[00:20:19.430]when I was trying to find a job.
[00:20:21.620]So, I was really appreciative for him
[00:20:23.390]and I tell any student that goes on to graduate school,
[00:20:26.113]which hopefully you guys are heading that direction
[00:20:28.400]maybe some day, that it's actually much better
[00:20:30.707]to choose a good advisor than necessarily a good project,
[00:20:34.690]'cause your advisor will help you navigate
[00:20:38.690]some of the difficulties, and you can sort of grow
[00:20:40.760]into your project in a similar way
[00:20:42.490]that I grew into my project.
[00:20:44.410]So, I went ahead and decided that I am gonna go
[00:20:48.710]teach somewhere at some school.
[00:20:50.840]I had several offers, like from the University of Alabama.
[00:20:54.330]They wanted me to go there.
[00:20:55.900]Mississippi State was one of those.
[00:20:57.484]But I decided to go to the University of Idaho.
[00:21:04.960]All the way up there.
[00:21:06.270]So, I moved.
[00:21:07.560]We drove from Gainesville, Florida to Moscow, Idaho.
[00:21:13.340]Five days.
[00:21:14.790]Five days it took.
[00:21:17.010]At that time, I was married.
[00:21:18.420]I got married in graduate school.
[00:21:19.360]We had to kids in graduate school, as well.
[00:21:22.749]So, what I did when I told my wife that I had an interview
[00:21:28.850]in Idaho, she goes, I don't think anybody lives in Idaho.
[00:21:34.728](laughing)
[00:21:36.320]There's no one in Idaho.
[00:21:38.960]And I said, oh, yeah they are.
[00:21:40.077]And they actually flew both of us out.
[00:21:41.790]They flew her out along with me
[00:21:44.280]and she goes, we're gonna get off the airplane
[00:21:46.830]and go, hello, hello, hello.
[00:21:49.703]You know what.
[00:21:50.650]It was almost exactly that way.
[00:21:53.410]Moscow, Idaho was just a little one--
[00:21:55.870]Smaller than the Lincoln Airport.
[00:21:57.730]Just a little one gate and you got off
[00:21:59.480]and there was nothing.
[00:22:01.350]You had to step down and walk over
[00:22:02.680]to where the airport was, and it was kinda like,
[00:22:05.350]there's no one that lives here.
[00:22:07.187]There's no one here at all.
[00:22:08.098]It was barren?
[00:22:08.931]It was barren, yes.
[00:22:10.360]There was hardly anybody there.
[00:22:12.310]So, that was kinda funny.
[00:22:13.870]But I convinced her that this is where I wanted to be
[00:22:17.056]and so, part of it was so that I could get out
[00:22:20.721]of the south, 'cause it was hot and humid,
[00:22:22.430]and I needed mountains again, growing up in New Mexico.
[00:22:25.712]So, we drove that whole way.
[00:22:29.235]We's a little bit of a strong word.
[00:22:31.500]I actually had her drive to her parent's place.
[00:22:34.560]Her parents lived in Kentucky at the time,
[00:22:37.610]so I had her drive--
[00:22:40.819]Actually, I flew here and our two kids up to Kentucky,
[00:22:44.030]I had my dad come and help me drive all the way back,
[00:22:48.440]and we both had to drive.
[00:22:49.490]We had a moving van and we had our car.
[00:22:54.070]We both drove the entire way, all the way back like that.
[00:22:57.844]After the fourth night, we were in Casper, Wyoming
[00:23:02.020]and I got up that morning and I went, dad,
[00:23:05.300]I can't drive anymore.
[00:23:06.830]This is too far.
[00:23:07.790]And he goes, well, I'm sure there's a place here
[00:23:10.330]you can teach, and I went, okay, let's get in the car.
[00:23:13.814]Let's keep going. (laughing)
[00:23:17.387]'Cause there wasn't much in Casper, Wyoming at that time.
[00:23:20.361]You know that the population of Wyoming
[00:23:23.155]is equivalent to the population of Wilken?
[00:23:26.347]Is that so?
[00:23:27.260]Well, get this--
[00:23:29.700]Yeah, and so it's not much better in Montana.
[00:23:32.210]So, the entire population of Montana
[00:23:34.124]is less than one million.
[00:23:37.180]What's that?
[00:23:38.453](someone speaking off mic)
[00:23:41.776](laughing)
[00:23:42.690]It's not boring, I'll tell you that.
[00:23:44.960]Idaho's a little different.
[00:23:45.800]Idaho's a little bit bigger, except Moscow, Idaho.
[00:23:47.900]It was pretty barren.
[00:23:50.530]I really enjoyed my time there.
[00:23:52.380]We had another kid there, so I have a daughter
[00:23:55.370]who's going to school in Arizona,
[00:23:57.750]I have a son who's going to school in New York,
[00:24:00.200]and my youngest son is still in high school,
[00:24:02.930]so he's with us, but we raised all three
[00:24:05.300]of those kids in Idaho.
[00:24:07.090]There was a point where I decided I needed a change.
[00:24:10.260]I needed to do something a little bit different
[00:24:12.640]and I wanted to work more with tribes, as well.
[00:24:15.700]So, that then brought me--
[00:24:18.698]It was a long journey.
[00:24:20.548]That then brought me to Missoula, Montana,
[00:24:22.640]the University of Montana,
[00:24:24.530]and so it's there where I began my work,
[00:24:27.167]primarily with the reservations
[00:24:30.136]and the tribal colleges in Montana;
[00:24:32.273]and so, moved my entire family there.
[00:24:34.390]They were actually pretty sad to leave Idaho.
[00:24:36.890]They really grew close to their friends and to the area,
[00:24:41.140]but I think they're really enjoying Montana now, as well.
[00:24:44.799]So, a little bit of background on my educational
[00:24:47.332]and personal journey.
[00:24:49.299]Oh.
[00:24:51.100]I'm gonna tell you this real quickly.
[00:24:52.995]Real quickly.
[00:24:54.241]A little bit of science that I do.
[00:24:56.651]This won't take long.
[00:24:58.000]So, some of the science that I do
[00:24:59.460]is I also work with separations,
[00:25:02.060]and so we do separations mechanically.
[00:25:05.290]Our idea is if we used an oscillation,
[00:25:09.430]a flow of oscillation, kinda like an ocean wave
[00:25:12.950]or what happens in your blood, like a pulse,
[00:25:16.087]can we use that as a mechanical separation mechanism?
[00:25:19.500]And the answer is yes.
[00:25:20.864]Yes, you can.
[00:25:22.175]So, the way I explain this is if you can imagine
[00:25:25.930]I have two reservoirs or two tanks,
[00:25:28.720]they're all connected by a long tube.
[00:25:31.345]So, on both tanks I have nitrogen in it,
[00:25:35.120]but in one tank, I have nitrogen
[00:25:36.800]plus a small amount of another gas.
[00:25:39.230]Let's call that carbon dioxide.
[00:25:41.280]I have it in the other tank.
[00:25:43.230]Now, if I left everything alone,
[00:25:45.340]that carbon dioxide would go from this tank
[00:25:47.440]to this tank, through that tube because of diffusion.
[00:25:51.090]Things diffuse out.
[00:25:52.460]You can kinda see that if we had a big bottle
[00:25:54.610]of perfume here and I took the cap off.
[00:25:57.530]Eventually, you would smell it
[00:25:59.012]'cause it's gonna diffuse towards you.
[00:26:00.936]It's in one area from high concentration
[00:26:02.670]to areas of low concentration.
[00:26:06.010]So, that's this top one right there.
[00:26:09.600]So, the yellow sorta represents the CO two
[00:26:11.740]moving from one tank to another.
[00:26:14.390]Now, if I do a flow pulse, if I do a push of the fluid
[00:26:19.640]in one direction, over here, well, that CO two
[00:26:23.240]would move down the tube,
[00:26:25.920]but also diffuse towards the boundary,
[00:26:27.960]across that red pulse right there,
[00:26:31.940]it diffuses down towards the boundary.
[00:26:34.940]Now, what's key about that is if you're at the boundary
[00:26:38.460]towards the edges, that's where the fluid is the slowest.
[00:26:42.454]So, on the reverse pulse,
[00:26:45.180]the fluid's pretty slow there,
[00:26:47.260]but then it'll start to diffuse towards the middle
[00:26:49.370]so that it can take the next pulse,
[00:26:51.300]you convect it down the tube, diffuse towards the boundary,
[00:26:53.967]and start the whole process again.
[00:26:56.050]So, what happens is that you get species
[00:26:58.210]that kind of goes from center to boundary to center,
[00:27:01.060]kind of in a zigzag fashion, all the way down the tube.
[00:27:04.150]So, you can increase the transport, or the throughput
[00:27:08.360]of a species, even though there's no backflow.
[00:27:11.229]So, if it's purely oscillatory,
[00:27:13.025]there's gonna be going that flow from one tank to the other,
[00:27:16.400]but you'll get a lot of throughput of that CO two
[00:27:18.790]from one end to the other.
[00:27:20.460]Now, if I put another mixture in here,
[00:27:22.670]let's say CO two and helium in there,
[00:27:25.900]well, they're both gonna transport at different rates.
[00:27:28.940]Some are gonna be faster than others.
[00:27:30.413]It's also gonna depend on how fast you oscillate.
[00:27:34.780]So, all that combined can give you
[00:27:36.710]a mechanical separation mechanism,
[00:27:39.270]and in fact, one of the ideas of how we can use this
[00:27:44.424]is for manned space missions.
[00:27:47.450]So, let's say you're going up to Mars some day,
[00:27:50.584]you're one of the astronauts chosen,
[00:27:52.320]you're the next John Harrington, perhaps,
[00:27:54.510]heading up to Mars, and so as you can imagine,
[00:27:57.710]you breath out CO two.
[00:28:00.870]Well, that CO two has to be removed and revitalized
[00:28:04.180]so that you can get oxygen back into your system.
[00:28:07.790]What we do here on this planet, CO two goes to the trees,
[00:28:11.430]the plants, they convert that oxygen,
[00:28:14.010]you breathe that in, and everything's good,
[00:28:15.880]but if you're in an enclosed space,
[00:28:17.637]that's a little bit harder.
[00:28:19.570]Who here has seen the movie Apollo 13?
[00:28:24.580]Some of you have.
[00:28:25.600]A little bit?
[00:28:26.680]Remember there's one part where they had the membrane
[00:28:29.017]and they had to replace the square membrane
[00:28:31.610]in the round hole and they had to somehow engineer
[00:28:35.107]how they were gonna do that?
[00:28:36.420]Well, those membranes were the CO two membranes,
[00:28:39.515]and so if you're going on a long mission,
[00:28:41.493]you have to bring up a whole bunch of membranes
[00:28:42.700]that have to be regenerated.
[00:28:44.440]Well, this way, it's purely mechanical.
[00:28:46.620]So, our idea is you breathe out the CO two
[00:28:49.027]and we have water vapor come in,
[00:28:52.110]we can separate out that CO two,
[00:28:54.230]condense out the water vapor,
[00:28:56.070]send carbon dioxide to plants that are onboard
[00:28:59.160]for regeneration, and then send the revitalized air
[00:29:02.530]back to human systems.
[00:29:04.110]We proposed to NASA we could do this.
[00:29:05.983]They actually sent some funding
[00:29:07.620]and we've worked on this project for some time,
[00:29:11.070]but you can do this with a whole bunch of different things,
[00:29:13.644]a whole bunch of different separations
[00:29:15.190]of both gases and liquids,
[00:29:17.030]and it's really depended on three primary parameters.
[00:29:20.230]One is the Diffusion Coefficient,
[00:29:22.400]how fast something moves through a medium.
[00:29:24.860]So, helium would typically move faster than CO two would
[00:29:28.747]because helium's smaller.
[00:29:30.320]Kinematic Viscosity.
[00:29:32.180]These are some technical words.
[00:29:34.350]That's how fast that they respond to perturbations.
[00:29:36.840]So in other words, if I have a piston that's moving air,
[00:29:40.314]well, how fast does that air responds
[00:29:42.900]to that piston pushing it back and forth?
[00:29:45.230]So, that's also key, Kinematic Viscosity.
[00:29:47.748]Periodicity, how fast you oscillate.
[00:29:51.567]Are you oscillating real fast
[00:29:53.210]or are you oscillating real slow?
[00:29:54.810]That also dictates how much separation you make.
[00:29:58.130]So, it's really how the species is able to remain
[00:30:01.390]in faster moving regions,
[00:30:02.740]as opposed to slower moving regions
[00:30:04.640]as the fluid flows.
[00:30:05.870]That dictates your separation.
[00:30:07.810]The final thing, we can use this for biological separations.
[00:30:11.403]You can separate proteins, we can separate out cells,
[00:30:14.710]like DNA, but then you have to shrink you dimensions.
[00:30:18.040]So, all that has to be done on a microchip instead.
[00:30:22.060]So, we have some work training the same technology,
[00:30:24.600]doing it on the microchip instead.
[00:30:27.180]Okay.
[00:30:28.013]That's some of just technical background,
[00:30:30.310]some things we're working on.
[00:30:33.230]So, my primary reason for moving to Montana
[00:30:37.480]was to oversee this program and become the Director
[00:30:40.516]if Indigenous Research and STEM Education,
[00:30:43.720]and really, as you can see here,
[00:30:45.840]this is our mission statement.
[00:30:47.930]So, we're dedicated to the advancements of Native American,
[00:30:50.310]Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian,
[00:30:51.560]and First Nations students in STEM,
[00:30:54.487]and those are academic disciplines and professions,
[00:30:57.490]and our idea is how can we get more Native students
[00:31:00.840]to get their degrees in these areas,
[00:31:04.150]and also develop talent communities
[00:31:07.780]so that they can support students to have these degrees
[00:31:10.480]and support their own economic development, as well?
[00:31:15.760]So, some of the things I work with,
[00:31:17.100]and I'll go through some of these.
[00:31:19.054]Ideally, try and get students to get their graduate degrees
[00:31:23.402]in STEM fields for Native students,
[00:31:27.890]but I noticed, if I just sit there and wait
[00:31:30.450]for Native students to show up on my doorstep
[00:31:32.788]to get their graduate degrees, that doesn't work very well.
[00:31:36.850]So, I need to reach down into undergraduates,
[00:31:39.640]and even through the K through 12 level.
[00:31:41.820]So, we're really working on Native education.
[00:31:43.980]We call it K through Gray.
[00:31:45.600]So, Kindergarten through grandmothers and grandfathers.
[00:31:48.820]So, all those can be involved in getting their education
[00:31:52.330]in STEM fields.
[00:31:53.850]So specifically, I try to build relationships
[00:31:56.340]with both the tribes and the tribal colleges in Montana.
[00:31:59.000]I'll kinda go more into graduates in a moment.
[00:32:01.767]And looking to get and work towards the betterment
[00:32:04.040]of all indigenous peoples,
[00:32:06.010]especially in the State of Montana.
[00:32:09.140]So, here's a map of Montana.
[00:32:11.960]We have seven reservations in Montana
[00:32:14.860]representing 10 different federally recognized tribes.
[00:32:18.130]We also have one State recognized tribe, as well.
[00:32:21.913]So, you can see where the reservations are located.
[00:32:25.100]The University of Montana, Missoula, right there.
[00:32:28.090]That's where I'm located.
[00:32:31.376]Where Dr. Cornelius was talking, Billings.
[00:32:34.190]Billings is right there.
[00:32:36.150]He went to school at Montana State,
[00:32:39.119]which is right there in Bozeman.
[00:32:40.447]Dr. Yellowrobe, when she was talking last night,
[00:32:42.970]saying she was Northern Cheyenne, right there,
[00:32:47.220]where her reservation is located.
[00:32:50.350]So, you can see it's spread out quite a bit
[00:32:53.450]across the State.
[00:32:55.730]The driving time from Missoula to Old Point
[00:33:00.150]at Fort Peck is 10 hours.
[00:33:02.993]I've driven that many, many times.
[00:33:06.573]Really, have to come down here through Billings
[00:33:09.040]and up to Fort Peck, so that's a 10 hour drive
[00:33:12.160]to get, essentially, from one corner of the State
[00:33:13.910]to the other corner of the State.
[00:33:15.927]I've visited all the reservations on a number of occasions.
[00:33:19.480]I can drive over 2000 miles and never leave Montana.
[00:33:23.200]So, it's quite a big area.
[00:33:25.610]I'm sure Nebraska is similar.
[00:33:27.490]The Dakotas are similar.
[00:33:28.550]We just happen to have big States.
[00:33:30.300]There's a lot of driving involved with these States.
[00:33:34.540]What's that?
[00:33:35.373](someone speaking off mic)
[00:33:36.206]What for?
[00:33:37.039](someone speaking off mic)
[00:33:40.730]Okay.
[00:33:42.038]Polson's a nice area.
[00:33:43.030]Yeah, it's on the lake.
[00:33:44.767]So, he's talking about Polson,
[00:33:46.108]which is right on the Flathead Reservation
[00:33:48.260]and is right next to what's called Flathead Lake.
[00:33:50.813]It's a huge mountain lake.
[00:33:52.080]It's a beautiful, beautiful area.
[00:33:53.893](someone speaking off mic)
[00:33:56.006]From here?
[00:33:57.000](laughing)
[00:33:58.242]It's quite a ways, yeah.
[00:34:00.370]Well, the problem is when you get to Montana, like Billings,
[00:34:03.681]you think, oh, we're almost there,
[00:34:04.730]and it's still like another seven hours driving after that.
[00:34:11.840]So, each one of these reservations has a tribal college.
[00:34:15.570]So, there are seven tribal colleges in Montana.
[00:34:18.750]Most of them are two year tribal colleges, two year degrees;
[00:34:21.910]however, we have one, Salish Kootenai College
[00:34:24.510]that actually offers four year degrees, as well.
[00:34:29.100]So, one of my goals in working with students
[00:34:33.030]is I have noticed, especially with our Native students,
[00:34:37.330]that one of the main hindrances that they have
[00:34:41.080]in graduating with a four year degree has been math.
[00:34:44.170]So, the preparations in math
[00:34:45.920]seem to be the main obstacle for students.
[00:34:49.840]Right behind that is probably writing.
[00:34:53.260]Writing is also an issue with our Native students,
[00:34:55.430]as well, in Montana, so one of my goals then
[00:34:58.800]is to help students prepare, both in middle school
[00:35:02.327]and high school, before they step on college campuses,
[00:35:05.610]instead of trying to remediate them once they're there,
[00:35:09.020]'cause we tend to lose a lot of students
[00:35:10.917]trying to take remedial math classes,
[00:35:12.670]remedial writing classes,
[00:35:14.370]and then after their first semester,
[00:35:16.460]they say, this is not for me.
[00:35:18.375]I'm not even getting credit for any of these classes
[00:35:20.750]'cause they're no credit classes,
[00:35:22.198]so I'm gonna do something else.
[00:35:24.012]So, my goal is to help them prepare,
[00:35:26.510]'cause they can take those classes in high school.
[00:35:29.770]We can work with them and have them then go ahead
[00:35:33.780]and take the right classes then in college.
[00:35:36.670]The other thing that I do is I try to help other researchers
[00:35:40.940]become involved with the tribal communities.
[00:35:43.250]Now, a lot of what I'm gonna present next
[00:35:45.010]probably makes sense to you.
[00:35:46.290]It makes sense to us because this is the way that we work,
[00:35:50.630]but when we're working with tribal communities,
[00:35:52.537]and I try to tell others, we usually build
[00:35:55.540]our relationships with these tribal communities.
[00:35:58.509]These take time, and I'm not talking about a couple weeks.
[00:36:00.830]They take years.
[00:36:02.870]So, being Navajo in Montana, it's taken me a little while
[00:36:06.610]to make relationships with the tribes of Montana,
[00:36:08.820]since I'm not originally from here.
[00:36:11.030]In some ways, it's actually worked a little bit better
[00:36:13.360]because there's still some history
[00:36:14.523]between the tribes in Montana.
[00:36:16.520]So for example, if I was Blackfeet
[00:36:18.407]and I went to Crow Country,
[00:36:21.790]there might be a little bit of an issue there
[00:36:23.350]'cause they were traditional enemies.
[00:36:25.950]There's still a little bit of history
[00:36:27.970]between the Blackfeet and the Crow.
[00:36:30.910]And really, what are your intentions
[00:36:32.470]when you're working with tribal communities?
[00:36:34.520]What are you trying to do?
[00:36:36.940]So, I try to tell them that,
[00:36:38.170]again, this might all makes sense to you,
[00:36:40.500]is you should really base your interactions
[00:36:42.670]with tribal communities one what I would call
[00:36:45.050]the four Rs.
[00:36:46.360]So, the four R when working
[00:36:47.450]with tribal communities is respect.
[00:36:50.746]Knowing that we are sovereign nations,
[00:36:54.220]and so when they come to us, they know that they are working
[00:36:56.840]with a sovereign nation.
[00:36:58.600]Self-determination is involved.
[00:37:01.230]Making our own decisions that is best for our community.
[00:37:05.349]And we have generational knowledge.
[00:37:07.955]We don't just have historical knowledge.
[00:37:09.150]We have knowledge that goes back generations.
[00:37:12.280]We've been on this land for a long time,
[00:37:16.680]for time immemorial, in many cases.
[00:37:19.940]Where our first man or first woman came
[00:37:22.023]is from these areas, so we have the knowledge
[00:37:26.098]of what's going on in these regions,
[00:37:30.520]and sometimes that's not acknowledged or even recognized,
[00:37:33.660]and just because it's not written down,
[00:37:35.033]just because it's just passed on orally
[00:37:37.440]from our elders or from our grandparents,
[00:37:39.690]doesn't mean that it's any less significant
[00:37:41.090]than those founded eternal.
[00:37:43.570]So, knowing that each tribe has this type of knowledge,
[00:37:49.050]has this type of connection to the land,
[00:37:52.930]garnish respect from those that are looking
[00:37:55.306]to make relationships.
[00:37:57.236]Again, relationships need to build trust.
[00:37:59.654]This will take time.
[00:38:01.980]You can't just go in there for one year,
[00:38:03.670]get all the information you need, and then leave.
[00:38:06.845]That's not the way that we're gonna work anymore.
[00:38:11.220]What are your intentions?
[00:38:12.290]Are you in there quickly, and then are quickly out,
[00:38:14.270]just getting what you want, and then taking off?
[00:38:17.720]That should not be the case.
[00:38:19.370]Responsibility.
[00:38:20.920]We need to take our communities into context
[00:38:23.840]when we're looking at our research.
[00:38:24.860]What's the benefit to the community?
[00:38:27.090]Not necessary what's the benefit
[00:38:28.410]for you getting your tenure
[00:38:30.070]or for you writing your publication,
[00:38:31.290]for for you getting all the credit,
[00:38:33.640]or what's the benefit for you getting
[00:38:35.368]involved in the community?
[00:38:38.980]And reciprocity.
[00:38:41.270]So, many times the big universities will come
[00:38:44.801]to the tribal colleges and say, okay,
[00:38:46.900]we can do this for you, you should do this,
[00:38:49.660]and we have all this money for you to handle this,
[00:38:52.480]and the tribes will be like, but we don't wanna do this.
[00:38:55.935]This is not what we decided what we wanna do.
[00:38:57.604]We wanna do something different.
[00:38:58.437]Here are our needs, and not only that,
[00:39:00.741]here's what we provide to you.
[00:39:03.940]You may think that you have all the answers,
[00:39:05.760]but we have the answers already that you can use, as well.
[00:39:08.569]So, not only what are you providing to them,
[00:39:10.677]but what are they providing to you?
[00:39:12.320]What type of special skills can the tribal colleges,
[00:39:16.210]these schools, provide to you
[00:39:17.989]and how can you work together on these?
[00:39:21.066]So again, we probably know that this all make sense to us,
[00:39:23.863]but teaching these to other researchers
[00:39:27.059]is quite important.
[00:39:29.965]So, I tell people then, they say, well, how do we do this?
[00:39:32.777]How do we start building relationships?
[00:39:34.510]How do we start building trust?
[00:39:36.210]Well, the best way to do it, in my opinion,
[00:39:38.380]is not through a phone call or through an email,
[00:39:41.270]it's getting in the car.
[00:39:43.369]Road trip.
[00:39:44.950]That's right, get in the car and start visiting.
[00:39:47.800]That's one of the very first things I did
[00:39:49.410]when I was in Montana is I just got in the car
[00:39:51.300]and I started driving to different tribal colleges,
[00:39:53.970]different reservations, and just listened.
[00:39:56.320]So, my big thing was not to come say I have this for you
[00:39:58.547]and I have that for you, I have this program,
[00:40:01.290]I have that program.
[00:40:02.566]It was more, what do you need and how can we help?
[00:40:05.393]And they eventually told me,
[00:40:06.830]this is the areas that we need.
[00:40:08.350]So, road trip.
[00:40:09.670]Find ways to visit these tribal communities
[00:40:11.650]and you get these conversations.
[00:40:13.660]Listen to the needs that are in these places,
[00:40:17.120]and you might have this project in mind,
[00:40:18.960]think this'll be the best thing for the Crow Nation,
[00:40:22.207]the Crow Nation comes back and tells you, no,
[00:40:24.370]this is what we need instead.
[00:40:25.577]So, you might have to modify your project
[00:40:27.610]based on what they indicated what their needs are.
[00:40:34.390]Okay.
[00:40:35.890]So, I'll get through the final part of this.
[00:40:38.002]So, I kinda tell you some of the activities
[00:40:39.110]that I do through, not only being a faculty member,
[00:40:41.760]so I teach engineering classes,
[00:40:44.260]but I also work quite a bit in trying to prepare students,
[00:40:46.460]again like I said, for college,
[00:40:48.590]starting in the middle school level.
[00:40:50.824]So, we have different programs that we have
[00:40:51.990]working with students.
[00:40:54.490]The one that I started
[00:40:56.403]was called Science is Cool Montana, called SICM.
[00:40:59.673]This is what happens when you leave acronyms up to me,
[00:41:03.236]'cause I am not very good at them.
[00:41:05.068]I'm actually kinda terrible.
[00:41:07.560]So, SICM is what we called this one.
[00:41:10.130]So, what we did is we did week long day science camps
[00:41:15.970]to the different reservation communities
[00:41:17.950]and I brought students from the University of Montana,
[00:41:20.280]mostly Native graduate students, to come and help me
[00:41:23.170]and it was through GEAR UP.
[00:41:24.980]There might be GEAR UP in Nebraska.
[00:41:26.970]I worked with GEAR UP in Montana
[00:41:28.497]and we did these long camps at the different communities.
[00:41:32.440]So, Browning is on the Blackfeet Reservation,
[00:41:35.520]Harlem, Fort Belknap, Hardin, Crow Agency,
[00:41:39.240]and Lame Deer is Northern Cheyenne.
[00:41:41.220]So, we went in and did different things.
[00:41:43.345]We did hot air balloons, we did rocket launches.
[00:41:48.020]So, here's the hot air balloons here.
[00:41:50.632]I made it out of tissue paper.
[00:41:55.040]That's what the hot air balloons were made out of.
[00:41:57.137]We did rocket launches.
[00:41:58.130]There are rocket launches there and rocket launches there
[00:42:00.860]that we went ahead and did with the students.
[00:42:02.600]Yeah?
[00:42:03.520]What did you use for the hot air balloon?
[00:42:05.950]The hot air? Yeah.
[00:42:06.783]This is a stovepipe that I put together
[00:42:10.455]and we took some rags and we filled them up with kerosine
[00:42:13.013]and put the rags underneath, lit it,
[00:42:16.110]which the students, of course, think is awesome,
[00:42:18.510]whenever they have fire.
[00:42:20.210]Sometimes, those flames would come out of the top
[00:42:23.734]and so, you put your tissue paper balloon over the top
[00:42:26.700]and sometimes it just catches on fire,
[00:42:29.110]and they actually think that's awesome, too,
[00:42:31.560]and you just have to let it go.
[00:42:32.932]You can't really put it out,
[00:42:33.765]and just say, okay, we'll just have to let it burn up,
[00:42:36.830]and everyone's cheering.
[00:42:37.890]They think it's great.
[00:42:38.723]Yeah?
[00:42:39.769]How did they get the tissue paper
[00:42:41.118]to stick together?
[00:42:42.356]What did you guys use to make them a balloon?
[00:42:44.783]Sure, so what we had is we just used glue
[00:42:48.298]to have them stick together.
[00:42:49.890]So, glue sticks is what we used.
[00:42:54.570]Oh, you guys just--
[00:42:55.700]We just glued them together.
[00:42:56.550]So, what I had is--
[00:42:57.910]So, you put those three tissue paper panels together,
[00:43:01.870]glue them together, you fold it over,
[00:43:04.162]and I had a template, and the template kinda looks
[00:43:07.013]like an airplane wing, like that,
[00:43:08.790]and then you open that up,
[00:43:11.040]and then you glue all those together, so it's all round,
[00:43:14.330]and then you cover the top and you have an opening
[00:43:18.400]at the bottom, and they actually go pretty well.
[00:43:20.700]So, as you can see--
[00:43:22.433]Yeah, they go pretty high.
[00:43:23.532]They go pretty high.
[00:43:25.398]It sorta depends on how cold it is
[00:43:27.447]and how windy it is, too.
[00:43:30.100]Rockets.
[00:43:30.933]We make rockets out of card stock and we use pressure.
[00:43:35.690]So, these little--
[00:43:37.735]If you can see 'em there.
[00:43:38.727]We had a little pump and we'd pump up this container
[00:43:41.644]and then release the valve, and the rockets go shooting off.
[00:43:44.310]Of course, we do a contest to see
[00:43:45.922]whose is the furthest rocket
[00:43:47.510]and they all get excited about that
[00:43:49.503]'cause I give them candy, which always helps.
[00:43:52.600]Are we gonna make rockets?
[00:43:53.883](laughing)
[00:43:55.060]You wanna do rockets in here now?
[00:43:56.720]It's actually a lot of fun.
[00:43:58.210]We probably should next time.
[00:43:59.630]I'll bring my little rocket launcher and hot air balloons.
[00:44:03.562](someone speaking off mic)
[00:44:05.932]On your forehead?
[00:44:06.935](someone speaking off mic)
[00:44:08.471](laughing)
[00:44:10.836]What are you talking about?
[00:44:13.134]Another one.
[00:44:15.171]Another thing we did with middle school students
[00:44:16.567]is we did computer builds.
[00:44:19.122]So, I would bring all the parts of the computer.
[00:44:22.070]I got this idea from the University of Alaska.
[00:44:24.610]They have a program up there,
[00:44:26.096]which I think is one of the best
[00:44:28.290]in getting Alaskan Native students through STEM fields.
[00:44:32.540]One thing they do with students,
[00:44:33.670]they have them build computers.
[00:44:35.210]What I mean by that is you have a case separate,
[00:44:39.217]and you have your power supply separate,
[00:44:40.180]you have your motherboards,
[00:44:41.420]and you have them put that computer together
[00:44:43.710]all by themselves, and they're of course, naturally,
[00:44:47.320]all freaked out.
[00:44:48.929]It's like, I have to put together my own computer?
[00:44:50.882]Yes.
[00:44:51.879]Well, I don't know how they work.
[00:44:52.712]Well, we're gonna learn.
[00:44:53.545]So, we go step by step.
[00:44:55.630]First, you put in the power supply,
[00:44:57.480]then you put in the motherboard,
[00:44:59.200]and we just go step by step with them
[00:45:01.141]on how to put everything together.
[00:45:02.780]So, they build their very own computers
[00:45:04.900]and I tell them, that computer that you've built,
[00:45:07.720]you can keep; however, you have to pass algebra one
[00:45:13.110]by either eighth or ninth grade,
[00:45:15.500]and the idea is that if you pass algebra one
[00:45:17.890]by eighth or ninth grade, then that sets you up
[00:45:19.930]in high school to then take things
[00:45:21.540]like trigonometry, maybe calculus.
[00:45:24.760]If you get through trigonometry in high school,
[00:45:27.403]then you are most likely gonna do well
[00:45:30.580]once you come into college,
[00:45:31.910]if you at least get to that point.
[00:45:35.972]You could get your college credit, too.
[00:45:36.940]Yes, that's very true.
[00:45:39.470]So, by the end of this, they know how a computer works.
[00:45:43.070]So, if I tell them, hey, if you wanna add
[00:45:45.630]another hard drive to your computer, could you do that?
[00:45:47.113]They go, yeah.
[00:45:48.650]If you wanna put more memory in your computer,
[00:45:50.205]could you do that?
[00:45:51.100]They go, yeah.
[00:45:51.960]We know how to do this now.
[00:45:53.350]So, it's really an awesome thing to see them
[00:45:55.150]go from I have no idea how to do this, this is scary,
[00:45:57.690]to oh, this is really cool.
[00:45:59.980]Part of the problem with this
[00:46:05.140]is not very many people have desktop computers anymore.
[00:46:09.450]So, now things are going to laptops or to iPad
[00:46:11.920]or those sort of things.
[00:46:13.240]We might have to figure out--
[00:46:14.300]Can you teach us how to make our own headphones?
[00:46:16.813](laughing) That would be awesome
[00:46:18.292]if I knew how to do that.
[00:46:19.918]Just have all the parts and have you put it together.
[00:46:22.980]I'll have to work on that, but I think that would be cool.
[00:46:25.984]We could do something like that.
[00:46:27.568]Yes!
[00:46:30.720]This fall, I'm actually starting a new program
[00:46:32.817]on the Flathead Reservation.
[00:46:34.618]That was the one that was very closest to Missoula,
[00:46:36.440]where Polson is, just right off,
[00:46:38.760]and we're going to raise the two science fairs
[00:46:41.160]with the middle school students.
[00:46:42.810]A lot of the middle school students
[00:46:43.980]have never done a science fair project.
[00:46:45.700]Actually, who in here has done
[00:46:47.611]a science fair project before?
[00:46:49.707](some people speaking off mic)
[00:46:51.650]Only a few.
[00:46:53.940]So, a lot of these places, no one's ever done
[00:46:55.610]a science fair project,
[00:46:56.850]so we're gonna start those at four middle schools
[00:47:00.980]on the Flathead Reservation.
[00:47:02.860]We're gonna have someone come and help them
[00:47:04.970]with their science fair project,
[00:47:06.230]so it's not like either just up to them
[00:47:08.120]or have their parents do it for them.
[00:47:10.700]We're gonna have someone kinda work with them
[00:47:12.555]through their science fair project.
[00:47:13.570]We're gonna have mentors from the local tribal college
[00:47:16.870]and the University of Montana
[00:47:18.010]helping with their science fair projects
[00:47:19.440]and meet with them once or twice a month.
[00:47:21.543]What really gets them excited
[00:47:23.030]is I tell them that at the end of each month
[00:47:27.310]that you're making good progress
[00:47:28.700]on your science fair project
[00:47:30.320]and you are doing well in your classes,
[00:47:33.113]I'll give you 20 bucks.
[00:47:35.510]So, I give them about $20 to thank them
[00:47:37.143]at the end of each month,
[00:47:38.320]and you should see how excited, middle students,
[00:47:40.100]knowing they're gonna get 20 bucks.
[00:47:41.220]It's like, yeah!
[00:47:43.546]We can use that to buy this, buy that.
[00:47:44.700]Actually, one kid goes, could you hold on to the $20
[00:47:48.966]until the very end of the year?
[00:47:51.718]And I was like, why?
[00:47:52.551]Well, because I will just spend it, is what he said.
[00:47:55.902]I was like, well, I'm not really a bank,
[00:47:57.253]'cause I might spend it, too,
[00:47:58.540]but then he was a little bit worried about that.
[00:48:01.260]So, that's a thing we're gonna do for them.
[00:48:03.810]So, there's gonna be a science fair display, presentation,
[00:48:07.830]at the local tribal college from all these four schools,
[00:48:11.220]and I'll have judges coming around,
[00:48:12.930]and they'll choose the top two or three projects,
[00:48:15.944]and I'll take those students on a field trip
[00:48:18.160]to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
[00:48:21.420]What are you doing?
[00:48:22.387](laughing)
[00:48:25.282](someone speaking off mic)
[00:48:29.369](laughing)
[00:48:31.770]So, they get really excited about potentially going
[00:48:34.070]to Los Angeles, California,
[00:48:36.045]and I love asking them, what do you that's in Los Angeles?
[00:48:40.480]And the two craziest answers I got was there's police
[00:48:43.950]in Los Angeles, and I'm like, yeah,
[00:48:46.460]but there's policemen in Ronan, too,
[00:48:47.880]so I don't know why you are interested in that,
[00:48:50.740]and they think there's casinos in Los Angeles,
[00:48:52.880]and they're all excited about that,
[00:48:54.170]but that's Las Vegas.
[00:48:55.258]It's not quite Los Angeles.
[00:48:57.808]So, this'll be good.
[00:48:59.406]So, this is our first year in doing that.
[00:49:01.300]So, I'm excited to take some students
[00:49:03.300]down to California to see the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
[00:49:06.267]That's where they built the Mars rovers,
[00:49:07.570]like Curiosity and all that,
[00:49:08.990]that's kinda where they put all those together.
[00:49:11.042]What kind of project do they do?
[00:49:14.257]We're just starting those, but it's gonna be projects
[00:49:15.603]that are important to the reservations,
[00:49:18.263]so community-based projects.
[00:49:20.369]Yeah.
[00:49:22.210]I think it'll be good.
[00:49:24.236]Okay, so that's middle school.
[00:49:26.680]So, high school, I have a little bit of a gap.
[00:49:30.050]I'm working towards that,
[00:49:31.327]but right now what we have done
[00:49:32.980]is we do these Bridge Programs,
[00:49:35.930]so if you graduate as a senior in high school
[00:49:38.150]and before you start your freshman year at college,
[00:49:41.000]we ask what Bridge Programs can do for students,
[00:49:42.870]so we 2016, and we had a good group,
[00:49:48.120]and I sort of invited any students,
[00:49:50.260]either if you're coming to the University of Montana
[00:49:52.290]Montana Tech, or Montana State or going to a cattle college,
[00:49:55.230]you can be part of this Bridge Program.
[00:49:56.880]So, we had them take classes in math, in writing,
[00:50:01.530]and also in study skills, and our main goal
[00:50:04.060]is just try to get them prepared, again,
[00:50:05.740]before they come on campus,
[00:50:07.640]instead of struggling through it once they're there.
[00:50:10.280]Do they get credits for doing that?
[00:50:12.970]Are classes weren't long enough to do credits.
[00:50:14.598]Oh.
[00:50:15.431]Otherwise, I would've done it.
[00:50:16.610]If I had more money, I would've made it longer
[00:50:18.080]and gave credits to do that.
[00:50:20.394]That was an important question.
[00:50:23.838]Undergraduate students.
[00:50:26.023]So, have any of you in here ever heard of and REU,
[00:50:29.630]this term before?
[00:50:31.170]So, this is an NSF program.
[00:50:34.670]REU stands for Research Experience for Undergraduates,
[00:50:38.600]and so it's open to any undergraduate students
[00:50:41.227]and are all over the country.
[00:50:44.134]So, if you ever want to find a research project
[00:50:47.720]or a research area you wanna do,
[00:50:50.590]you can look up REU through the National Science Foundation
[00:50:54.520]and you can probably have your choice
[00:50:56.070]of where you wanted to go.
[00:50:58.696]You just apply, say that you're Native,
[00:51:00.280]they might only take you because you've said you're Native.
[00:51:02.340]Who cares?
[00:51:03.220]Just go.
[00:51:04.060]Take advantage of the opportunity that's presented
[00:51:06.040]before you and do some research on another campus.
[00:51:09.020]So, we hosted actually students from tribal colleges
[00:51:12.000]that were part of our program
[00:51:13.820]We originally said we wanted half our program participants
[00:51:18.269]to be Native, and it turned out over three years,
[00:51:20.920]16 out of our 18 participants were actually Native
[00:51:23.940]through tribal colleges, so that was pretty good.
[00:51:26.610]We're glad to host those students
[00:51:28.220]to be a part of that program.
[00:51:30.150]So, we had them do environmental chemistry and research.
[00:51:34.540]I also worked with graduate students.
[00:51:35.825]So, here's an awesome graduate student, in my opinion.
[00:51:39.390]I have a number of them that are great.
[00:51:42.950]This is Ronalda.
[00:51:44.450]She's also Navajo, as well.
[00:51:46.900]I take a Navajo class with her
[00:51:50.020]because I just need help and she's very good at it.
[00:51:53.960]She was Miss Northern Navajo.
[00:51:56.167]That's a demonstration of also knowledge
[00:51:59.500]and traditional practice and language fluency.
[00:52:01.690]She's getting her PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies,
[00:52:04.570]although it is essentially chemistry, what's she's doing,
[00:52:07.000]and some of the work that she does,
[00:52:08.883]studied water faults and remediation
[00:52:11.430]because of all the uranium mining
[00:52:13.320]that happen on the Navajo Reservation.
[00:52:15.520]So, even though she's in Montana,
[00:52:17.620]she's still doing studies in her home area,
[00:52:20.485]on the Navajo Reservation.
[00:52:22.417]So, that's another possibility, too.
[00:52:24.270]So, just because you're in one area
[00:52:25.970]or one school that could be far away,
[00:52:28.020]you can still do work that's important to your community.
[00:52:31.030]She'll be graduating here in the spring
[00:52:33.350]and she's gonna be one of the superstars,
[00:52:36.530]I'm sure of it, with what she's done.
[00:52:38.280]You'll hear about her in other places, I'm sure.
[00:52:41.707]I also have a lab that I dedicate specifically
[00:52:44.520]to any Native student that needs lab space.
[00:52:46.900]If you need access to goods, glassware,
[00:52:48.900]to lab benches, some place to sit,
[00:52:51.000]I have a lab that's open for you.
[00:52:52.780]You can be a part of that.
[00:52:54.787]Couple of others.
[00:52:56.500]Something to consider once, again,
[00:52:58.100]you get your four year degree
[00:52:59.380]and decide to go to graduate school.
[00:53:01.296]There's something called
[00:53:02.129]the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership.
[00:53:04.250]It's for any Native student that attends
[00:53:06.240]one of four schools, or four States,
[00:53:10.660]University of Montana, Montana Tech, Montana State,
[00:53:13.920]Purdue, Arizona, and Alaska,
[00:53:16.560]and it's money to go to graduate school.
[00:53:19.030]So, what it is is we'll give you,
[00:53:21.343]in addition to whatever backing you have,
[00:53:24.560]for a Masters student, it'll give you $20,000,
[00:53:27.780]and for a PhD student, it'll give you $40,000
[00:53:30.210]to complete your program, so it's a great way
[00:53:32.670]to not have to take a second job,
[00:53:34.730]'cause we understand that you go to graduate school,
[00:53:38.000]you may not be alone.
[00:53:39.340]You may have a family that you bring with you,
[00:53:41.360]so this is to help offset some of those costs
[00:53:43.410]that you may have associated with bringing family.
[00:53:48.407]We also did a program called the Pacific Northwest Alliance
[00:53:52.220]and there's a big acronym, PNW-COSMOS, is what it's called,
[00:53:55.749]between some colleges in our region.
[00:53:58.487]The reason why I like this is we didn't just mentor
[00:54:01.480]Native students, we've mentored their mentors,
[00:54:04.760]their advisors, who maybe did not have any experience
[00:54:07.950]working with Native students,
[00:54:09.625]and said this is what's important to us,
[00:54:11.720]this is what's important to your students,
[00:54:13.570]this is what's important to your community.
[00:54:15.720]So, we took them on a field camp
[00:54:19.060]where, on this first land, where they put up teepees.
[00:54:24.570]We also put them on float trip,
[00:54:27.040]and I've been on this for about four
[00:54:28.695]or five different years so far.
[00:54:31.350]So, we pair the advisor and the student together
[00:54:35.980]and we go on a rafting trip.
[00:54:38.200]And originally I thought, well, this is just one way
[00:54:40.510]to get the Natural Science Foundation
[00:54:42.230]to pay for a rafting trip.
[00:54:44.530]It's a good idea, but what's the purpose?
[00:54:46.620]Well, here's where I'd really like to ride.
[00:54:47.877]If you're on a rafting trip,
[00:54:49.560]there's no access to cell phone,
[00:54:51.610]there's no access to internet,
[00:54:53.740]and at the end of the evening, you can't just go
[00:54:55.900]and hide in your hotel room, so you are forced to talk
[00:54:59.690]and converse and bring up different topics,
[00:55:02.620]see other points of views.
[00:55:04.010]It actually turns out to be very good
[00:55:05.770]to have that time isolated together
[00:55:08.230]to talk about what's important to Native people,
[00:55:10.670]what's Indigenous research methodologies,
[00:55:13.470]what's Native science?
[00:55:14.840]These sort of things, and the advisors begin to understand
[00:55:17.670]a little bit better the point of view of their students
[00:55:20.353]that's helped them be able to graduate with their degrees.
[00:55:26.780]Okay, so again, I mentioned I work
[00:55:29.214]with tribal colleges, as well.
[00:55:30.357]One of my trips, I went through and I said,
[00:55:32.390]what are some things that we can help you with?
[00:55:34.000]And they told me two things that were common themes.
[00:55:36.217]One of them was we need some professional development.
[00:55:39.922]So, they wanted a chance to do some research,
[00:55:42.506]they wanted a chance to connect to the university,
[00:55:44.462]so we established that.
[00:55:46.102]So, we did professional development workshops
[00:55:48.920]with a tribal college faculty.
[00:55:51.070]So, this is our first one that we did.
[00:55:53.246]We did it this past summer and we have funding
[00:55:55.790]for one more summer to do these workshops
[00:55:57.950]with tribal college faculty.
[00:56:00.160]The other thing that they asked for
[00:56:01.620]was faculty exchange.
[00:56:03.940]So in other words, they wanted faculty from the university
[00:56:07.920]to come and help teach classes on their campuses,
[00:56:10.750]and vice versa, they wanted some of their faculty
[00:56:13.523]to come and teach classes on the university campus, too,
[00:56:16.490]and we're still working on that.
[00:56:18.319]I'm working on that proposal right now.
[00:56:20.110]We're gonna try to submit that
[00:56:21.390]and see if we can get that running.
[00:56:26.110]So, sort of the end of my talk,
[00:56:27.860]but we've been writing down questions.
[00:56:29.510]These are some of the areas I've received funding.
[00:56:32.000]Inquiry, EPSCOR, University of Montana,
[00:56:36.302]Montana GEAR UP, and the National Science Foundation.
[00:56:38.350]And with that, I'll go ahead and end.
[00:56:41.327]So, this is a picture of my (speaking foreign language),
[00:56:43.840]my grandparents, before they passed away.
[00:56:46.950]One of the last pictures I have of them.
[00:56:49.038]If you've never see the inside of a hogot,
[00:56:50.840]so here's the inside of a hogot.
[00:56:52.505]Usually, their beds on the outside.
[00:56:54.100]There's the fireplace in the middle
[00:56:55.990]where they also cooked, as well.
[00:56:57.880]So, this is essentially
[00:56:59.130]where my grandparents grew up until 2003.
[00:57:02.843]Just a little hogot.
[00:57:04.277]Every time I went to go visit them, that's where I would go.
[00:57:05.940]We'd go visit them in the flats in their hogot.
[00:57:09.270]So, it's not that far off.
[00:57:12.960]So, someone mentioned last night,
[00:57:14.524]they asked, so do you live in a teepee on a reservation?
[00:57:18.063]It's like no, we live in a house,
[00:57:19.559]we have electricity, a Direct TV.
[00:57:21.310]Well, my grandparents didn't actually do that
[00:57:24.007]til about 2003.
[00:57:25.850]No running water, no electricity that they lived in,
[00:57:28.540]but that was their way of life
[00:57:29.690]and that's what they enjoyed,
[00:57:31.490]so I appreciated them letting me know
[00:57:35.690]where it is that I came from, as well.
[00:57:38.270]All right.
[00:57:39.480]We don't have any time.
[00:57:40.524]I've talked enough, so I appreciate your time.
[00:57:42.900]Yeah, question.
[00:57:43.933](someone speaking off mic)
[00:57:47.322]Both.
[00:57:48.155]Both? Both.
[00:57:49.190]Both only spoke Navajo.
[00:57:51.590]My grandad actually spoke a little bit of Spanish
[00:57:55.420]because he worked on the railroads for a while
[00:57:58.070]and a lot of the other workers were from Mexico,
[00:58:01.190]so he picked up some Spanish.
[00:58:03.256]And so, actually, I would sometimes communicate to him
[00:58:04.493]in Spanish 'cause I knew a little bit of the Spanish
[00:58:08.240]that he knew, and it was a little complicated.
[00:58:11.772]One of the funnier things that happened
[00:58:13.610]was when my aunts and uncles would get together
[00:58:17.400]and they were speaking Navajo and they would look at me
[00:58:19.913]and then start laughing, and I have no idea what they said
[00:58:22.850]and I had to go ask my dad,
[00:58:24.670]and he's like, oh, they're just teasing you.
[00:58:26.260]Well, I guess I better learn
[00:58:27.490]what it is they're talking about.

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2018 MATC Scholars Program: Dr. Aaron Thomas

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