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How to get started if you only have little experience with GIS but want to improve?? asking for a friend haaha

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Check out this new track about planting native from eco rapper, Hila the Earth. Native Plants are the organisms that have coevolved with a certain ecosystem for centuries. Pass this on to your favorite music lover, and let's get those native plants on the MAP!

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WE CAN DO THIS! ONE PERSON AT A TIME* REGENERATEBIODIVERSITY PLANT NATIVE *No experience necessary! GET ON THE MAP 36,764 ALREADY ON Doug Tallamy co-founder HNPIn the past, we have asked one thing of our gardens: that they be pretty. Now they have to support life, sequester carbon, feed pollinators and manage water.

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Impact of new methods for taxonomic identifixation

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Impact of new methods for taxonomic identifixation

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How do you much do you think that the development of new methods for identification (for example iNaturalist) could impact the democratization of conservation process in the future?

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A study of the correlation between STEM career knowledge, mathematics self-efficacy, career interests, and career activities on the likelihood of pursuing a STEM career among middle school students

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A study of the correlation between STEM career knowledge, mathematics self-efficacy, career interests, and career activities on the likelihood of pursuing a STEM career among middle school students

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Overall, results of the present study show that career knowledge is limited among middle school students and that they have a declining interest in STEM and have low MSE scores. Students are interested in careers that involve a wide variety of activities but do not appear to relate these activities to STEM careers. Our results point to the importance of finding and expanding on ways to increase authentic learning opportunities in secondary school in Atlantic Canada such that students are better able to participate in collaboration, problem solving, and the application of scientific knowledge in their classes. Such learning opportunities would ensure that students have access to more information on the actual nature of work in the STEM field and what is required to pursue these careers. This strategy would also serve as a motivator to those who are not aware that STEM careers involve people skills, creativity, and problem solving.

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https://a.co/d/5g77m4J

A classic!

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https://a.co/d/63INZIr

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Houston Audubon is also looking for presenters for their November AviChat event.

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AviChat is a series of brief, informal, science talks about bird conservation and research hosted by the Houston Audubon YPAC during Houston Bird Week.

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https://a.co/d/fC6BAEe

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Check the events for Houston Audubon’s upcoming Houston Bird Week!

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Houston Bird Week is a celebration of the important role Houston plays in the journey of billions of migratory birds and the everyday lives of our resident birds. In addition to Houston's vital location along the Gulf of Mexico, the growing popularity of planting native plants, restoring prairies, bird-friendly education programs, and Houston's Lights Out for Birds program were among the many efforts and programs that gained Houston the Bird City designation in 2020.

Houston Audubon and local conservation partners arrange a week of virtual and in-person events centered around our region's birds and wildlife - from birding opportunities and watch parties to trivia, movie night, and more, there's something for all Houstonians to enjoy. Your participation and excitement will help our city continue to be a welcoming home for birds. Keep up with Houston Bird Week on social media using #HoustonBirdWeek and follow us on our social media accounts at @HoustonAudubon.

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Houston Bird Week 2023 Houston Bird Week is a celebration of the important role Houston plays in the journey of billions of migratory birds and the everyday lives of our resident birds. In addition to Houston's vital location along the Gulf of Mexico, the growing popularity of planting native plants, restoring prairies, bird-friendly education programs, and Houston's...

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https://a.co/d/7JGPsjc

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https://a.co/d/76hj10n

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https://a.co/d/1ezj6Wt

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https://a.co/d/eoPHx3E

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https://a.co/d/5QVfzmE

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https://a.co/d/a4PTZO4

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Introduce yourself, who you work for, and tell us ONE thing you hope to get out of attending the Arboretum's Field Notes Symposium?

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#HonorNativeLand - U.S. Department of Arts and Culture

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A call to action and guide to open public events and gatherings with acknowledgment of the traditional Native inhabitants of the land. Acknowledgment is a simple, powerful way of showing respect and a step toward correcting the stories and practices that erase Indigenous people's history and cultu

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Explore Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages in your area

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Explore Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages in your area

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Mapping

We strive to map Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages across the world in a way that goes beyond colonial ways of thinking in order to better represent how Indigenous people want to see themselves.

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Native Land is a resource to learn more about Indigenous territories, languages, lands, and ways of life. We welcome you to our site.

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New Logo, New Look

Introducing our new logo and colors, designed to build on our traditional look and feel, while conveying our evolving energy, commitment, and momentum in serving Native communities. ...

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Home | First Nations Development Institute

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The American Indian Center of Houston
is devoted to enhancing the Native American community in the Greater Houston area through personal, social, health and
cultural development.

How we got started.

The American Indian Center of Houston grew from an idea derived from The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana. They saw a need for the greater Houston area as there were very few programs and services available for not only their 200+ tribal citizens but for all Native Americans. With over 60,000 Native Americans in the Houston area, the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe took steps to open a center that could bring valuable programs and services to the community.

The American Indian Center of Houston is established as a Section 7871 nonprofit and held its grand opening on February 29, 2020.

Contact Us
Nikki McDonald
2000 S. Dairy Ashford, Ste 550
Houston, TX 77077

[email protected]
(346) 374-8516

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The American Indian Center of Houstonis devoted to enhancing the Native American community in the Greater Houston area through personal, social, health andcultural development. The American Indian Center of Houston grew from an idea derived from The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana.

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The Ishak are an Indigenous people who have lived in southwest Louisiana and southeastern Texas since precolonial times.

by Jeffery U. Darensbourg

Gift of the Estate of Belle J. Bushnell, 1941. Courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.

The Ishak are an Indigenous people who have lived in southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas since precolonial times, with traditional lands stretching from Vermilion Bay to Galveston Bay. Various organized groups of Ishak exist currently, and while federal agencies have documented the Ishak in the past, no current Ishak groups enjoy federal recognition. Many Louisiana Creoles have Ishak ancestry, causing the group to be known sometimes as "Creole Indians." The tribe has had a lasting influence on zydeco music, and its language is undergoing a resurgence.
Naming
The self-designated name for this group of Indigenous people is "the Ishak," a name that approximately means "human beings" or "people," but it may be related etymologically to the concept of birth, as in "those who have been born." The Ishak are also known by the Choctaw exonym hattak apa -meaning "man eaters"-which was carried over into European languages as "Atakapa" with various spellings. That name has often been used deliberately and incorrectly in centuries past, especially as a slur to dehumanize the Ishak. While the Choctaw's name refers to cannibalism, evidence of actual cannibalism amongst the Ishak is dubious at best and slanderous at worst. The name "Atakapa" likely didn't refer to actual cannibalism. Historian Elizabeth Ellis points out that "man eater" was a metaphor for someone who would take another into slavery during the early colonial period in Louisiana. As such, it was likely the specter of being enslaved by the Ishak in battle that caused some tribal neighbors to use the term. It was later picked up by colonists as a justification for cruel treatment toward the Ishak.

During a reorganization of Ishak people in 1996 under the late Chief Hubert Singleton, the name "Atakapa-Ishak" was chosen for what is perhaps the largest current group of Ishak, the Atakapa-Ishak Nation of Southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas. Other organized groups of Ishak people include the Attakapas Opelousas Prairie Tribe as well as the members of the Grand Bayou Indian Village in Plaquemines Parish, the latter being a geographic outlier. Other historically related peoples include the Opelousas as well as the Akokisas and Bidais of Texas.
Traditional Lands
In precolonial times, the Ishak lived in territory stretching from what is now known as Vermilion Bay in Louisiana to as far as what is now known as Galveston Bay in Texas. This territory included areas such as Lake Charles, Lafayette, St. Martinville, and Carencro, places where Ishak people still live now. Some of the traditional Ishak areas were named the Attakapas Parish of the Orleans Territory by the United States after the Louisiana Purchase, a continuation of the French practice.
Early Contact with Europeans
The Ishak are likely the Han People who rescued the shipwrecked Cabeza de Vaca in 1528. Based on his documentation, this means the Ishak were among the first of many Indigenous nations for whom colonizers noticed both the cultural acceptance of transgender people and marriages that were not heterosexual. Alexandre de Batz's 1735 painting Desseins de Sauvages de Plusieurs Nations contains an image of an Ishak person wearing a feather headdress, sporting facial tattoos, and carrying a calumet, a ceremonial pipe. Ishak on a bison hunt were encountered by French memoirist Louis Milford in the late 1700s.
Ethnic Identity
Due to a history of living in close proximity to African-descended people during times of slavery, segregation, and beyond, most contemporary Ishak People have African ancestry. Many also identify as Louisiana Creoles. One reason perhaps for a lack of recognition of the tribe is a prejudice against people who are of both African and Native American ancestry being recognized as Native. So many Louisiana Creoles have Ishak ancestry that the Ishak are sometimes colloquially known as "Creole Indians." Ishak people today typically embrace their mixed identity.
The Arts
One Louisiana art form often associated with the Ishak is zydeco music. Not only do many zydeco musicians recognize their heritage in the tribe, but the geography of zydeco generally overlaps with traditional tribal lands. Some scholars, such as Rain Prud'homme-Cranford, have noticed traditional Gulf South Native American musical and dancing forms within zydeco culture. This heritage led Hubert Singleton to title his monograph about the Ishak, The Indians Who Gave Us Zydeco.

Contemporary Ishak poets and playwrights include Tanner Menard, Carolyn Dunn, Rain Prud'homme-Cranford, Andrew Jolivétte, and Jeffery U. Darensbourg. The works of all these writers focus in some way on mixed Indigenous identity.

Ishak baskets are preserved in several prominent museums, including the National Museum of the American Indian.
The Ishakkoy Language
The language of the Ishak is properly known as Ishakkoy, "Ishak talk," or Yukhiti Kóy, "the talk of the sort of people we are." It has been incorrectly known as Atakapan, in a way similar to the misnaming of the Ishak themselves. The language was described by Albert Gatschet and John R. Swanton of the Bureau of American Ethnology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Contemporary linguist David V. Kaufman has both developed a new orthography of the language and published a revised and reorganized version of the Gatschet and Swanton dictionary, making the materials more accessible. A revised grammar of the language has been published by Geoffrey D. Kimball. Contemporary narratives in the language have been composed by tribal member Russell Reed based on these new materials. New poems and songs have been composed in Ishakkoy by Tanner Menard, Joseph B. Darensbourg, and Jeffery U. Darensbourg.

Author
Jeffery U. Darensbourg
Suggested Reading

Barnes, Bruce Sunpie and Rachel Breunlin. Le Kèr Creole: Creole Compositions & Stories from Louisiana. New Orleans: University of New Orleans Press, 2019.

Darensbourg, Jeffery U. "Hunting Memories of the Grass Things: An Indigenous Reflection on Bison in Louisiana." Southern Cultures 27, no. 1, 2021, 14-24.

Ellis, Elizabeth N. The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022.

Kaufman, David V. Atakapa Ishakkoy Dictionary. Chicago: Exploration Press, 2019.

Kimball, Geoffrey D. Yukhíti Kóy: A Reference Grammar of the Atakapa Language. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022.

Menard, Tanner. "Anacrusis." beestung 2, 2020.

Prud'homme-Cranford, Rain, Darryl Barthé, and Andrew J. Jolivétte, Louisiana Creole Peoplehood: Afro-Indigeneity and Community. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2022.

Additional Data

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The Ishak are an Indigenous people who have lived in southwest Louisiana and southeastern Texas since precolonial times.

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Why do some populations feel disconnected from the conversation?
How can we help people feel more connected?

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Best practices in participatory discussion and engagement.

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Best practices in participatory discussion and engagement.

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What works for volunteer groups, classes, guided tours, etc?

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Hod do you get the message out?
Social media?
Mailers?
Billboards?
What has or has not worked in the past?

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How do you approach these conversations?
Are there any conversations you don't discuss?

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How can we make ecological restoration a more mainstream or common practice?

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How can we make ecological restoration a more mainstream or common practice?

# data[].attributes.headline
How do you attract different audiences for the initial connection?

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How do you attract different audiences for the initial connection?

# data[].attributes.headline
How do you adapt your message for different audiences?

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How do you adapt your message for different audiences?

# data[].attributes.headline
Which concepts seem to be hard for people to understand?

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Which concepts seem to be hard for people to understand?

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Public communities?
Civic leadership?
Funders?

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What are the most common or important messages that need to be communicated?

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What are the most common or important messages that need to be communicated?

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What are the pieces of management that the public pushes back on the most?

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What are the pieces of management that the public pushes back on the most?

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How do you navigate that?

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Do you feel enough consideration is given to the management of public/visitor interactions with these sites?

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Do you feel enough consideration is given to the management of public/visitor interactions with these sites?

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What are some ways that y'all deal with visitors?
What would you like to see improved, regarding people management?

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In a given year, what's taking the most energy and what is taking the least?

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In a given year, what's taking the most energy and what is taking the least?

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What are some of the toughest challenges surrounding hiring and staff retention?

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What are some of the toughest challenges surrounding hiring and staff retention?

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Have you seen a shift in the available candidate pool regarding skill set?
Do you have a system of training and tips for staff retention?

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What do you set up - or wish had been - at the beginning to help manage your sites?

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What do you set up - or wish had been - at the beginning to help manage your sites?

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How do you incorporate this - yearly review or just work as you go? Is it a formal process?

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Does your organization have one?
How was it developed?
Do you feel that it is applicable and useful?

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Are your management actions guided by pre-developed goals and quantifiable metrics?

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Are your management actions guided by pre-developed goals and quantifiable metrics?

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If so, what are those goals and metrics?
If not, would having goals and metrics help or hinder your efforts?

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How do you prioritize elements and implementation?

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What are hiccups you didn't see comin?

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Is it important to see the site during design and implementation?

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Is it important to see the site during design and implementation?

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Can you speak to your experience of working with the community in both design and implementation phases?

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Can you speak to your experience of working with the community in both design and implementation phases?

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What are the biggest challenges at the different phases of a project?

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What are the biggest challenges at the different phases of a project?

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During design?
During construction?
During implementation?

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Has native plant sourcing impacted the design or implementation of restoration projects?

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Has native plant sourcing impacted the design or implementation of restoration projects?

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Any favorite sources or methods for acquiring native plants?

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What have been some of the most valuable tools and strategies for funding and phasing of projects from a budget perspective?

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What have been some of the most valuable tools and strategies for funding and phasing of projects from a budget perspective?

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How are most of your projects funded?

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What elements are most important to understand before the design starts?

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What elements are most important to understand before the design starts?

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How do you incorporate ecology into the design? 

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How do you incorporate ecology into the design? 

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What's often missed?

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What are the urgent needs in our region?

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What are the urgent needs in our region?