Idaho is home to five federally recognized tribes: The Kootenai of Idaho, the Coeur d’Alene, the Nez Perce, the Shoshone Paiute, and the Shoshone Bannock Tribes. These sovereign nations have called parts of Idaho home since time immemorial. In Idaho’s recent history, students of the Shoshone Bannock Tribes have contributed a chapter in Idaho’s history through a STEM education project with NASA that not only opened doors for the individual students involved but also served as a unique opportunity to contribute native voices and experiences to modern day science while representing Idaho on a national stage.

The Shoshone Bannock Tribes’ ancestral homelands span southern Idaho, northern Utah, western Wyoming, and parts of Montana and Nevada. In 1868, the Fort Bridger Treaty established the Fort Hall Reservation in southeastern Idaho—an area today of roughly 540,000 acres—which remains the home of the Shoshone Bannock Tribes. Despite facing many challenges, including forced relocation and assimilation attempts, the Shoshone Bannock people have maintained their cultural identity and traditions. They actively manage natural resources, particularly in fisheries and wildlife conservation efforts, and incorporate holistic approaches to problem-solving and learning.

In the late 1980s, Yaqui Indian Ed Galindo, a high school science teacher at the Shoshone Bannock High School, started working to bring more minority students into the fields of science and engineering in space. In 1993, in partnership with the NASA Space Grant Consortium in Utah, Galindo recruited high school students to participate in a workshop about Mars that advanced thinking on the development of manned and unmanned missions to Earth’s sister planet. Participation in this workshop led Galindo to apply for NASA’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program (RGSFOP), which would give his students firsthand experience and involve them in research areas of interest to NASA. The students selected to participate would have the chance to run their proposed experiment, work closely with NASA scientists, and fly in NASA’s reduced gravity aircraft. Galindo and his students proposed an experiment to evaluate the efficacy of producing liquid phosphate fertilizers in space, and even though all other applicants were from colleges and universities, NASA selected the Sho-Ban Tech class as one of the winning applicants.

In April 1997, Galindo and his team of ten students traveled from the Fort Hall Reservation to Houston, Texas, where NASA’s KC-135A craft and all of the team’s experiment materials and equipment awaited their arrival. The team flew two flights while in Houston. The experiment to produce liquid fertilizer failed during the first flight, but after adjusting the equipment, the team successfully produced liquid fertilizer during the second flight. Over three weeks in Houston, the students achieved the goals associated with the NASA partnership. They gained a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand their perspectives and lend their tribal perspective to science and to this national program.

The National Indian School Board Association has twice named Ed Galindo National Indian Teacher of the Year. His professional background, which includes serving as the associate director of education and diversity at the NASA Idaho Space Grant Consortium, as a former faculty member of the University of Idaho, and as an affiliate faculty member at Idaho State University and Utah State University, prepared him to innovate in the arena of STEM education. His cultural heritage, curiosity for life and learning, and sense of humor have all supported his work to bring more native voices to the field of science. This experience is one of the experiments Galindo has led with Idaho native students, and his involvement continues to leave a legacy for Idaho in space exploration, education, and agricultural science. His work not only benefits Native American students but enriches the educational experience for all, fostering a deeper understanding of diverse perspectives and traditional wisdom.

Written by HannaLore Hein

Photos

STEM_EdGalindo_ust: Ed Galindo, courtesy Utah State University,
ShoshoneBannock_Tribe: NASA, Kennedy Space Center Shoshone Bannock High School Students

Galindo_ShoshoneBannockHigh: NASA, Kennedy Space Center Shoshone Bannock High School Students and teacher Ed Galindo

Galindo_SpaceCenter: NASA, Kennedy Space Center, Ed Galindo

Bibliography

Barta, Jim, Ann Abeyta, Drusilla Gould, Ed Galindo, Georgia Matt, Delverne Seaman, and Garrit Voggessor. “The Mathematical Ecology of the Shoshoni and Implications for Elementary Mathematics Education and the Young Learner.” Journal of American Indian Education 40, no. 2 (2001): 1–27.

Chien, Philip. “Native Student Participates in NASA Recovery Mission.” ICT News, September 12, 2018. https://ictnews.org/archive/native-student-participates-in-nasa-recovery-mission.

Galindo, Ed. “The Journey of Education: Characteristics of Shoshone-Bannock High School and Community Members on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation,” 2003.

Galindo, Ed, and Jim Barta. “Indian Summer: A ‘Hands-On, Feet-Wet’ Approach to Science Education.” Winds of Change 16, no. 4 (2001): 54–56.

Galindo, Ed, and Lorelei A. Lambert. Children of the Stars: Indigenous Science Education in a Reservation Classroom. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2022.

Galindo, Ed, Lori Lambert, and Aaron Thomas. “Native Voices.” New Directions for Higher Education 2019, no. 187 (2019): 29–39. https://doi.org/10.1002/he.20334.

Mills, Jack I., Aaron Thomas, Ed Galindo, Beverly Karplus Hartline, and Amit Dhingra. “Native Pathways to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Graduate Degrees.” New Directions for Higher Education, no. 187 (2019): 41–54.

University, Utah State. “Utah State Joins Indigenous STEM Graduate Education Network.” Utah State Today, June 19, 2014. https://www.usu.edu/today/story/utah-state-joins-indigenous-stem-graduate-education-network.