Indigenous people’s traditional ecological knowledge holds answers for Western scientists — if they listen

How do we know Earth’s environment is changing? The instruments of Western science have been measuring change for the past couple of hundred years. But Indigenous people have accumulated firsthand knowledge of a changing climate over thousands of years of storytelling and survival.

A crowd of science writers gathered on Sept. 26 for a panel discussion about including Indigenous voices in science stories, held as part of the ScienceWriters2026 conference, hosted by Oregon State University.

While our climate is rapidly changing right now, it has always been changing. To illustrate this point, David G. Lewis, an assistant professor of anthropology and Indigenous studies at Oregon State University, shared the story of Marys Peak, which is visible from the conference building where he was speaking in Corvallis, Ore.

Lewis explained that during the last ice age, the Kalapuyans, who originally lived in the Willamette Valley, witnessed a catastrophic flood and escaped to nearby hills, which included Marys Peak. This piece of Kalapuya oral history is an example of how Indigenous people pass on environmental knowledge through storytelling. Lewis, who is a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, said scholars can confirm the practice of storytelling and survival through “anthropology and archeology research for at least 8,000 years,” adding, “We know how to survive.”

Panelist Lyric Aquino, a reporter for Underscore Native News, said that the potency of traditional medicines is changing along with the climate, according to observations made by  Azure Boure, traditional food and medicine program coordinator for the Suquamish Tribe. Even though there is no “evidence” from monitoring to support Boure’s observation, this knowledge conveys facts about the landscape that Western science cannot.

“Indigenous people are out here in our lands seeing firsthand what the federal government isn’t seeing because no one’s out here monitoring this random berry bush, no one’s monitoring this random kelp bed, but that’s Indigenous people doing that every day,” Aquino said. Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge, or ITEK, she added, is tuned into everyday life in a way that Western science is not.

“We just know things because our people know things. They’ve learned things over thousands of years living in their area; they know about their land, just like any other science,” said Lewis. “Knowledge is science.”

Some government officials are trying to create partnerships with Indigenous groups. However, is it a partnership if the government is not listening to Indigenous voices? “There’s a duty to not just agree with what a branch of the government is doing just because they say it is a partnership,” she said.

Part of telling a story is listening, and part of telling stories is acknowledging failure. “It’s important to discuss how maybe a Western solution didn’t work, and how a partnership with a Tribe didn’t work,” Aquino said.

Calling out failures of Western science, as well as inviting ITEK into the conversation, brings agency to Indigenous people, said Aquino. It is critical to invite, value, and listen to Indigenous people, actively acknowledge the richness of their stories, and recognize when Western science is not enough.

“The Native narrative is relevant, always has been,” said Brian Bull, a reporter from Underscore Native News/KLCC.