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The NAU Review — Meet NAU’s elder cultural advisors, find out what’s happening in engineering research and how NAU is contributing to rural resilience

by Community Contributor • November 14, 2023 • Comments Off

Nov. 14, 2023

The NAU Review. The official news source for Northern Arizona University.

Meet NAU's Elder Cultural Advisors: Paul Long, Diné; Viki Blackgoat, Diné; LeRoy Shingoitewa, Hopi

Long, who is from New Mexico, comes from a line of medicine men and is a medicine man himself. Growing up, his father taught him to be balanced—to know and practice the traditional beliefs and way of life but also to understand western life and education.

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Blackgoat was raised with traditional teachings and values, but her mother sent her to boarding school, starting in FUSD in second grade. During high school, while doing housecleaning, she learned about Dartmouth and joined one of its first co-ed classes.

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Shingoitewa, an NAU alum, grew up in traditional Hopi ways surrounded by extended family. He considers himself culturally able to be in both sides of his world—the world of Hopi and the “white man’s world.” He’s spent his career in education in and out of Tribes.

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A student shows off technology that goes on his arm to two other students.

What’s up in engineering? Find out!

At Engineering Fest on Nov. 30, students will do poster presentations on their research, and there will be panel discussions and networking opportunities. Volunteers are also needed.

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Preparing rural communities for climate change

The Southwestern Mountains Climate Resilience Center, of which NAU is the lead institution, is one of six projects selected to receive funding as part of a $5 million allocation from the U.S. Department of Energy to improve climate resilience. Regents’ Professor Peter Fulé in NAU’s School of Forestry will spend the next three years building the center in hopes of providing vulnerable communities with the tools needed to help manage and fight the inevitable.

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Strength from the waters

Author and historian James Mestaz will speak on the the relentless struggle of the Mayo people of northern Mexico against water appropriation and their enduring survival and fight for their rights.

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