Native Earth Environmental Youth Camp- Northeast Region – Summer 2012

It was another successful year for the Native Earth Environmental Youth Camp (NEEYC) that was sponsored by SUNY ESF, MCA-Thompson Island Youth Camp and the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force (HETF). The purpose of the NEEYC is to bring together Native students across the Northeast region to teach them about Traditional Environmental Knowledge (TEK) and using western science and integrating the two to help mother earth and sustain our environment for the future generations.

Well, it was another successful year for the Native Earth Environmental Youth Camp sponsored by SUNY Environment Science and Forestry, Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force, and Mohawk Council of Akwesasne Environment. The two week long excursion was funded by the National Science Foundation and directed by Dr. Robin Kimmerer, a Native American of the Citizen Band Potawatomi assisted by SUNY-ESF intern, Meredith Kane, MCA’s Bob Stevenson, and HETF’s Dave Arquette and Noah Point.

On Tuesday August 10^th, 2010 students, environmental officials, and educators from across the Haudenosaunee Confederacy gathered at the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe’s Environmental Division office to set out on a week long journey to Thompson Island. There, they were met for orientation by Ken Jock, Angela Dunn, Setanta O’Ceillaigh, Julie Jacobs, and Craig Arquette from SRMT Environment and Henry Lickers and Scott Peters from Mohawk Council of Akwesasne Environment. Student’s involved with the Youth Camp, sponsored in partnership with SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry and the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force, travelled from Oneida, Onondaga, Tonawanda, Tuscarora, Six Nations, Akwesasne and Cayuga Nation. There was also a student from the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and a student from the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. In all, there were 15 students who attended. The group of students, chaperones and their gear were transported shortly after orientation from Adam’s Marina to Thompson Island. The Thompson Island Youth Camp is managed by, Bob Stevenson from Mohawk Council of Akwesasne.

The Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force (HETF) partnered with SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) Center for Native Peoples and the Environment to establish the first Native Earth Environmental Youth Camp funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). A group of educators got together with a group of environmentalist and developed an environmental youth camp integrating western science with traditional knowledge through a series of hands on outdoor activities focused on encouraging Native youth to get more involved in understanding and protection of the natural world.