Introduction It is a known fact that women are underrepresented in science research and teaching (Nelson & Roger’s, 2002). This under representation of women suggests that too few Native American women who study or teach science. The scientists teaching at the tribal colleges are most likely to be non-native men. It is important to have more American Indian Women work in the sciences as it gives women an equal standing when compared to American Indian men, as well as the non-native population in science. My research will result in a directory of all Native American women who are faculty within the science fields at tribal colleges in the state of Montana. I will also be collecting the number of students and faculty from each tribal college and the proportion that are American Indian, the proportion that are women and answer the question of how many American Indian women are teaching science in tribal colleges and how this compares with the proportion of American Indian science students who are women.

Abstract I created a directory for the American Indian Women in science from 5 of the 7 tribal colleges in Montana as well as one institution in Alberta. I also collected information for a student and faculty head count from theses institutions. This research was done by emails and telephone calls. The research conducted was to get an idea of the number of women in science through out Montana. There are a number of women in the sciences. However, there are many more women students than women faculty suggesting that not many of women science students go on to become instructors in the science fields at Tribal Colleges. This research was done so in the future it may inspire more women to instruct in the science fields and to set up a network of women scientists across the Tribal Colleges of Montana

Materials and Methods

First, I will compile a list of all science faculty at the tribal colleges in Montana, as well as at one institution in Alberta, Canada. From this initial list, I will separate the American Indian population from the rest. Finally, I will narrow this list to reflect only those who are women. For the student count I will gather the number of total students, total female students, Indian Student Count, Total Science Majors and Female science majors. For the faculty count I will gather total faculty, total science faculty, female science faculty and native science faculty. Both part-time and full-time students and faculty will be counted.

Data on various faculty members was collected from tribal college websites. The American Indian Higher Education Consortium directory was also consulted to obtain additional information that was needed to conduct this research project.

An excel spreadsheet was created to record information for the directory in to it. A letter was created then sent out by email about the information needed for the directory. Another spreadsheet was created in excel to record information about the number of students and faculty.

After the emails were sent, follow-up phone calls were made to all deans, presidents, science faculty, and people who were not listed on the websites.Another email was sent out that requested information about a student and faculty count. This included information on TSE, FSE, ISC, TSM, FSM, TF, TSF, FSF and NSF

Results

The number of American Women in Science is minimal.

There are more men than women teaching the science majors.

There are more American Indian women students in science than there are instructors

Discussion and Conclusions

When conducting this research I found that there are many of American Indian Women science students at the Tribal College institutions. In contrast, there were few women instructors. There were few women at some institutions but some had one or no women science instructors. As an example Stone Child College has 12 total faculty, out of that there are 4 science faculty with no female faculty. Before beginning the research I hypothesized that there were a limited number of American Indian women in science in the state of Montana. This survey has shown that this idea was correct as far as TC faculty are concerned but is not correct when considering TC science students. There are more American Indian women students than there are instructors in the science fields. It is important to begin to increase the number of Native American women in science faculty in the TCU setting to serve as roll models for women science students.

Acknowledgments Research Mentors:

Penny Kukuk, Iris Heavy Runner-PrettyPaint

Funding: Bridges to the Baccalareate

Other: I would also like to thank Winona Little Bird

American Indian Women In Science

Literature CitedDr. Donna J. Nelson and Diana C. Ross. 2002.A National Analysis of Diversity In Science And Engineering Faculties At Research Universities.

Kailey Shade University of Montana, Project Bridges

Mentor: Professor Penny Kukuk, Iris Heavy Runner-Pretty Paint

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0200400600800

1000120014001600

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