For over a decade, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension has been nurturing citizen science in a special way. Its Master Naturalist program inspires volunteers through training and hands on experience — from building and installing bat houses, to surveying endangered plants and animals.
This year, a group of master naturalists in-the-making were treated to something special. The natural resources department of the Ho-Chunk Nation led the training. Registration limited to 20 slots filled up almost instantly after it was posted on-line.
One day a month over a six month period, the group met at sites significant to the Nation, from La Crosse to Madison and places in between.
College student and La Crosse resident Olivia Moran Rodriquez participated along with her brother.
“Every single person that I’ve talked to has been so beautiful, like just open-minded and it’s so refreshing, and just really accepting. I don’t feel like I have to put up something, you know what I mean? Like I feel very like comfortable. And that’s a lot," Moran Rodriquez says.
Tricia Gorby of Madison found the experience both personally and professionally rewarding. She directs UW-Madison Extension’s Natural Resources Institute.
“Getting to know, learn parts of nature that I didn’t know about from Ho-Chunk and traditional ecological knowledge. So today, for example, we were talking about different uses of various plants, talking about language and the language the Ho-Chunk people related to various plants and beings in our natural world,” Gorby explains. “So I think it’s bringing this perspective that in a lot of ways. It’s not something I was taught in college or in my career, and so I think this has been a wonderful experience for me.”
Jessica Schmidt of Milwaukee says it’s hard to encapsulate her take aways in words.
“Master Naturalist programs are sort of a return to land. It’s the restoration of our relationship that for many cultures, for many native cultures has always been. And when we try to separate ourselves from land, or try to separate ourselves from the natural histories, things are going to get lost in the cracks and so I think sort of a way to honor that relationship and kind of bring balance and restoration,” Schmidt says. “I’m feeling sad that it’s coming to an end, but enriched from the experience.”
The group spent its final day in the Black River Falls area. It’s not only where the Ho-Chunk Nation government is located — the region is sacred to its people.
We walked what today is a county park called Wazee Lake Recreation Area. Before that, it was an open pit iron mine. But generation upon generation earlier, the land was stewarded by the Ho-Chunk people.
I talked with another course participant, Diane Rave, as we hiked the trail. A member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, Rave shared a bit about her family history, the significance of the site we hiked, and why she participated in the Master Naturalist program.
First of all, she grew up here. ”My mom’s from Viroqua, she’s nonnative but my dad has lived here all of his life … My mom was one of the first nonnative person to be married in our church, here at the mission” Rave says. “In the early 60s that wasn’t as common as it is now.”
The land was actively mined from 1969 until 1986.
"My parents had friends that were Native that worked at the mine. I think we know now some of the things that are more devastating to the land than they knew back in the early ‘60s,” Rave says.
A burial mound was located somewhere within the site. “We’ve been told that they were aware of but it probably interfered with what they were doing here mining,” Rave says.
She says since its remediation, the parcel has become a popular space to recreate and gather. “There’s an annual duathlon that’s co-sponsored by Ho-Chunk ... There's also a lot of biking and swimming,” Rave says.
Still, she has lingering concerns.
“You see a lot of maahic, which is milkweed and a lot of people use milkweed for cooking. This is still contaminated land … It’ll be several decades before the land would be able to sustain food that is healthy to eat. And that’s what concerns me … I think it should be posted, especially when it’s right in an Indian community,” Rave says.
Rave is a financial aid administrator with the Ho-Chunk Nation. She says, “I’ve done that for thirty plus years, just help students go to college.”
Why did she jump into the Master Naturalist training?
Rave says, “I want to create more opportunities for other tribal members and our youth to be active volunteers in their community; so just being able to create a pathway for that.”
Becky Sapper is the Master Naturalist program director. She considers the pilot an overwhelming success; one she hopes will mark the beginning of future partnerships with the Ho-Chunk and other tribal nations.
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