Some efforts to respect Indigenous knowledge can present a challenge for science. Recently, it came to light that the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine braid indigenous knowledge into the hard sciences in the United States. The problem is, of course, on what terms? If Indigenous knowledge is sacred but science is not — and a conflict arises — which will win?

Last Wednesday, we learned that scholars at the Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science based at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, refuse to provide details on what they are doing. The Center has received $30 million in funding from the National Science Foundation to combine “Indigenous knowledge with Western science in effective, ethical and novel ways” in partnership with 57 Indigenous communities.

According to the university, as of September last year, “The center will work on complex, evolving challenges brought on by climate change, including dire impacts affecting land, water, plant and animal life; the danger posed to irreplaceable archaeological sites, sacred places and cultural heritage; and the challenges of changing food systems, all of which disproportionately affect Indigenous communities.”

According to The College Fix, scholars associated with the program have not responded to queries about what, exactly, this entails. Anthropologist Elizabeth Weiss sees it as part of a trend:

When asked about the degree to which scientists in anthropology and related fields actually are embracing the kind of “braiding” proposed by Atalay and the new center at UMass, Weiss said: “Unfortunately, many scientists in general and anthropologists, specifically, are supporting this nonsensical idea that ‘indigenous knowledge’ can help us answer scientific questions.”

“This includes engaging in discriminatory practices, like preventing females from handling warrior remains or telling menstruating and pregnant females that some materials are too dangerous for them to handle in their weakened condition,” Weiss said via email. “It also means engaging in sage burning, hanging devil’s claw in shelving areas, and covering up ‘spiritually dangerous’ artifacts, for fear that ‘dark forces’ will be summoned.”

Additionally, Weiss said braiding looks like “fitting data to the mythology, rather than using data to come to objective conclusions.”

Daniel Nuccio, Scholars refuse to provide details on $30M effort to ‘braid’ indigenous knowledge into science, October 9, 2024

Weiss is best known for her book On the Warpath: My Battles With Indians, Pretendians, and Woke Warriors (Academia Press 2024)

The new Center’s director, UMass Amherst anthropology prof Sonya Atalay, says, “A growing number of national and international agencies are recognizing and mandating that Indigenous perspectives, knowledges and rights be incorporated into climate and environmental science, policy and governance.” That tells us what Top People are backing but it doesn’t tell us whether insights from science or traditional mythology will have priority.

One problem may be that, as we’ve noted here earlier, science and math took hold in ages of public truth. Neither can survive the growing importance of private truth or group truth for long. We can expect some tumultuous news stories in the years ahead.

Note: It’s worth noting that the rise of science in Europe — controversially — destroyed many European mythologies and folk traditions. North America inherited the science. But perhaps researchers will now be forced to incorporate ideas with no scientific standing.