Indigenous traditional knowledge of the lands, waters, sky, and long been dismissed by Western science as anecdote , mythology, or even superstition. But thanks to the efforts of Indigenous and non-Native scientists and educators, that perspective is changing.

It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that a single question changed the direction of Joshua John’s life. He was studying for his undergradu­ate physics degree at Northern Arizona University when he took a quantum mechanics class. “I asked the professor how this would be used and what the applica­tions were,” recalls John, who graduated in 2005. “My professor said those are questions an engineer asks, not a physicist. He encour­aged me to go into engineer­ing after graduating.”

Deanna Burgart’s decision to change careers came about suddenly and unexpectedly. She was attending a luncheon for women in the oil and gas industry when one of the speakers quoted author Steve Farber. “She said, ‘Do what you love in the service of people who love what you do,’” remembers Burgart. “I burst into tears. I realized I wasn’t doing either.”

Sam Low stands in awe of his ancestors — and he isn’t alone. “They possessed ships that were capable of traveling the world,” says Low, an anthropologist, filmmaker, photographer, and lifelong sailor.

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Everyone wants a job that is personally satisfying and improves the world. Few career paths offer as many different ways to achieve both objectives as geoscience.

Like many other Native students, Kenny Swift Bird was motivated to go to college. He had some great teachers at the high school in his small Nebraska hometown of Chadron, less than an hour’s drive from his Oglala Lakota Tribe’s Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. When he took statistics, calculus, and chemistry, his teachers helped him discover both his aptitude for STEM and how much he enjoys it.