Richard Baldes Native American Excellence Fund Award

Professor and Author, Tracylee Clarke, writes of how Indigenous people serve the land, which makes them suited for the role of being protectors of that land in a unique way. This critical role helps drive Indigenous communities to seek to have a voice in opportunities when it comes to specific substances and actions regarding nuclear energy and mining (Clarke, 2010). A challenge that could occur when working with nuclear energy in mining (which can lead to economic development) only becomes a challenge when aiming to preserve culture and traditions (Clarke, 2010). Though nuclear energy and mining pale in comparison to traditions and culture preservation and are on opposite ends of the spectrum, both are crucial to Indigenous communities. Nuclear energy and mining can contribute to economic development; however these activities can still pose a challenge to those Indigenous communities, due to their potential destruction of the land and sites these communities hold sacred. In addition to impacts to people and land broadly, nuclear and all energy choices have implications for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Indigenous communities need to have a voice in their environments and energy options.

Idaho National Labs (INL) specializes in nuclear energy research. They approached several universities to help them conduct an emerging market analysis for micro-nuclear reactors in remote communities. Those communities have large Indigenous populations, who are dependent on diesel fuel and lack access to other energy sources. Their research seeks to understand how to engage those communities in energy decisions. This project aims to provide information about empowered decision-making in rural communities about natural resource energy and different factors of emerging energy technologies (Righetti et al. 2020). Due to the history of lack of trust of outsiders, our work in the INL project wants to understand how to engage and interact with the communities and to show the importance of better engagement with Native American communities in their energy decisions. The overall purpose of this research is to get a full understanding of how decisions are made on the Wind River Reservation and how we can better engage the community, specifically with regard to energy-based decisions.

To address this research purpose, my research questions include:

• How are decisions made in the Northern Arapaho Tribe on the Wind River Reservation? Is there a difference now and pre-colonization?
• How do decisions occur regarding energy on the Wind River Reservation and specifically within the Northern Arapaho tribe?

The abstract will outline context and background, research questions, potential to explore, and methods for my proposed thesis research.

The near extirpation of bison, once a keystone species in the American West, is an iconic example of how dramatically animal migrations can disappear in the face of human exploitation. But unlike other species that have lost their migrations, a remnant of this wild population persisted in what remains a stronghold for large ungulate migrations in the U.S.: Yellowstone National Park. As bison herds grew in the park over the last century, they also re-established seasonal migrations, becoming one of the only examples worldwide of ungulates learning to migrate. The objective of this project is to evaluate what the 100-year record can reveal about how Yellowstone bison re-learned their migrations, shedding light on what migratory ungulates are capable of in the face of radically changing landscapes and new barriers. This project will thus contribute to the growing body of research seeking to document and analyze animal learning and efforts to maintain landscape connectivity.

The loss of bison in North America meant far more than the loss of migration patternsand their impact on the landscape. The history of Indigenous peoplesand bison were inextricably linked, with the life ways that Native peoples built around bison diminishing along with the herds.As tribes around the U.S.now lead bison restoration efforts, with Wind River as an example, we hope this research can contribute to tribal management efforts and conservation decision-making.Reciprocally, we also aim to incorporate traditional ecological knowledge as it pertains to bison movements in the region.

Questions and hypothesis: Migration is an important strategy in the life history of many ungulate taxa and as a phenomenon has important ecological consequences. A variety of studies now show that migratory ungulates rely on memory of past migrations to time their departures and make their journeys across large landscapes. Knowledge is transmitted culturally, from generation to generation. However, a recent study of another large ungulate migration, zebra (Equus burchelli) in Botswana, provided evidence of animals re-establishing a historical migration just four years after the removal of a fence that had severed the route for nearly 50 years. This study complicates the social learning hypothes is for ungulate migration and offers room for inquiry into the other ecological factors that may facilitate more rapid development of new (or restored) migrations. Although these studies reveal some of the mechanisms of learning that underpin migration, no longitudinal record exists where the evolution of an ungulate migration over a century has been documented. This is especially true where human interventions are involved. Unlike the now famous example of managers teaching whooping cranes (Grus americana) how to migrate via ultralight planes, there have been no documented examples of managers teaching ungulates to migrate via direct intervention.

We aim to investigate the extent to which the social learning hypothesis applies to bison and to identify the relative importance of factors such as spatial memory and environmental cues, in seasonal migrations. More specifically, we will ask how Yellowstone bison re-learned their routes and how long this behavioral process took to play out.We know enough about the modern cues of spring and fall migrations that we can use the historical record to ask key questions about what events likely prompted major movements into new areas as the bison migration expanded.

Mule deer, (Odocoileus hemionus), migration is a mystery as we don’t understand why mule deer visit specific locations season after season. Mule deer migration often follows the green wave or the new growth of vegetation that occurs in the spring (Aikens et al., 2020). Mule deer will often return to their old migration paths from the seasons before which is referred to as fidelity (Morrison et al., 2021). Mule deer often choose sites to stop in and adjust their timing to the green wave. The deer also use these sites to gather the bountiful new plant growth to refuel their energy reserves. Mule deer can spend most of their time in the stopover sites as they are referred to (Sawyer & Kauffman, 2011). Mule deer select habitats that provide enough resources for their needs whether that being for their offspring or needing more nutrition for rut season (Bischof et al., 2012). Mule deer migration has been studied heavily but there isn’t enough research that covers how and why they choose the path they choose to migrate on that includes the stopover sites. (Sawyer et al., 2006). The strength of route and site fidelity may be from different chemical ions in the ground allowing the grasses to grow more efficiently though more nutrient availability

Questions: This project will cover if certain nutrients in the soil give the plants an increased growing capability allowing them to grow larger. In turn giving the mule deer a choice to follow the increased vegetation stands along their migration path. In addition, studying winter and summer ranges to find differences in chemical ground composition and water biogeochemistry for stopover points along the migration path. This project will also covered field sampling and laboratory techniques that are needed for future career advancement.

Several bumble bee species across North America have experienced drastic population declines in the last few decades, including the Western Bumble Bee, Bombus occidentalis, Suckley’s Cuckoo Bumble Bee, B. suckleyi, and the American Bumble Bee, B.pensylvanicus that occur in Wyoming (Cameron et al., 2011).This is particularly disturbing considering bumble bees are highly efficient generalist pollinators that provide vital ecosystem services to agricultural crops and wild habitats, including plants that wildlife feed on. Their decline was so pronounced that they were petitioned for listing under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 2015 (the Western Bumble Bee; Defenders of Wildlife 2015), 2020 (Suckley’s Cuckoo Bumble Bee; Center for Biological Diversity 2020), and 2021 (the American Bumble Bee; Center for Biological Diversity 2021). All three species received a substantial 90-day finding meaning that the US Fish and Wildlife Service will review the species in detail to decide whether or not to protect them. Bumble bee declines may be due to habitat degradation and fragmentation, pesticide application, and perhaps most notably, introduction of non-native diseases from commercial colonies used primarily for greenhouse pollination (Goulson et al., 2015).We have sampled in most regions of Wyoming during the past 4 years, but we have no current or historical data regarding the status of these bees on the Wind River Reservation. Perhaps most concerning of all, we have not observed any B. suckleyi during the last decade.

Our Proposed Research: The Northern Arapaho tribe has approached the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database (WYNDD) about conducting a biodiversity assessment on the Arapaho Ranch. We propose to sample pollinators at the Arapaho Ranch in partnership with WYNDD and the Northern Arapaho Tribe to assess the status of bumble bee populations and to understand why some may be declining.Specifically, our questions are 1.) Do B. occidentalis, B. suckleyi, and B. pensylvanicus occur on the Arapaho Ranch?, and 2) What is the diversity of bees and bumble bees on the Arapaho Ranch. The questions addressed will provide ranch managers with information about the biodiversity of pollinators on the ranch as well as supplying more information about the status and distribution of B. occidentalis, B. suckleyi, and B. pensylvanicus in Wyoming and across their range.