A Navajo science teacher is making waves

Jan. 3—Growing up on a ranch in Chinle, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation, Kim Etsitty was enamored with the natural world — the patterns of harvests and nature, the beasts that roamed the dusty landscape, the radiant glow of the Milky Way.

She recalls asking endless questions of her elders, displaying the keen intellectual curiosity that eventually led to her teaching science at Navajo Pine High School in Navajo, New Mexico, about 60 miles southeast of where she grew up. It also has taken her far from home — about 7,000 miles away, to be exact.

Etsitty was one of 13 science communication fellows who left land behind for 11 days last year as part of expeditions arranged by the Ocean Exploration Trust, a nonprofit organization that explores unknown parts of the world’s oceans. Those fellows took part in nine scientist-led journeys departing from various locations. Etsitty and two other fellows, Amanda Dedicatoria and Shilwitt Blodak Quichocho, set sail November 8 from Palau, a collection of islands about 550 miles east of the Philippines, for a journey aboard the vessel Nautilus. It was an adjustment even for an educator accustomed to living far from population centers.

“One person on the ship mentioned we were equivalent to people on the International Space Station, in terms of isolation,” she says, adding that the Nautilus ventured as far as 90 miles from land. “Being on the ship and having a sense of community was reassuring; everybody had a very positive mindset. There was a point when I did get scared because of the current — it got pretty strong — but seeing everybody remain calm under those conditions was reassuring.”

Etsitty has taught high school science for about five years, previously teaching elementary school. She was attending a workshop in Pasadena, California, when she learned about the Ocean Exploration Trust. Her interest piqued, she did what comes naturally, posing question after question.

A SEA CHANGE

The Ocean Exploration Trust and the Nautilus Exploration Program are aimed at making discoveries in the fields of geology, biology, and archaeology while also exploring the sea floor. The exploration vessel Nautilus is a more-than-200-foot-long research ship equipped with live-streaming underwater vehicles. Its expeditions give scientists as well as educators and students the opportunities to have hands-on experiences in ocean exploration.

The nonprofit trust was founded in 2007 by Robert Ballard, Ph.D., a retired Navy officer and oceanographer known for his role in the discovery of the remains of the Titanic in 1985. For more information, visit nautiluslive.org.

“This is how I got into the Nautilus program,” she says. “Just recently, they sent a spacecraft, Europa Clipper, to Jupiter to check out one of the moons, Europa. There is water underneath Europa’s icy surface. So in order to do that, they study a lot of the ocean here on Earth.”

Etsitty and the dozen other fellows were selected from a national pool.

“Kim’s passion for science and bringing new experiences and inspiration to her students really stood out in our application process and onboard,” Megan Cook, director of education and outreach for Nautilus Live, says via email.

Etsitty’s duties included participating in remotely operated vehicle dives from the control room and communicating her activities with curious expedition followers vianautiluslive.org, a 24-hour streaming portal. She also interacted with the approximately 250 students at Navajo Pine High via a Zoom chat.

“Our expedition was to look at different deep-water corals, and we have a lot of coral stories in Diné culture, so I shared some of that with them,” she says. “I was highlighting the importance of our culture, then also highlighting the importance of being curious. I know what it feels like to grow up on the reservation. It seems like the opportunities are very slim, but you’ve got to put yourself out there.”

Chinle is about a 10-hour drive from either Los Angeles or San Diego, and Etsitty first saw the Pacific Ocean as a second-grader.

“A lot of these students might not see the ocean until maybe they become adults,” she says. “I let them know that we interact with it even though it’s far away. It could be through the monsoon season, or the oxygen that we’re breathing right now, or the ancient ocean that used to be here.”

Etsitty, the two other fellows, and the ship’s crew didn’t see land for days.

“At the beginning, it was a shock,” she says. “Over time, you get used to only seeing ocean. Your body learns how to walk on the rocking ship.”

After weeks at sea, Etsitty found out she had to learn to walk on land again. She also was unaccustomed to the reservation’s silence after listening to the boat’s omnipresent motor.

Back in the classroom, “I created presentations with my colleagues as well as my students,” Etsitty says. “My students were curious and asked many questions about how and when to apply. I also brought back coral. They were excited to see that.”

One of the other fellows is from Guam, another isolated island in the Pacific Ocean, and the other is from Palau, which Etsitty says is smaller than the Navajo Nation. The three of them have remained friends and exchanged gifts for the holiday season.

“The people of Palau are going through the same issues as we are on the Navajo Nation — issues that any reservation is going through, like language loss,” Etsitty says. “The Palauan government mimics United States government, so we see the same effects on our language and culture. And so even though they didn’t really know a lot about my background as an Indigenous person, Navajo Nation sometimes feels like an island, and we shared that experience. They had stories about their islands, and they had songs and their languages. It was really neat to connect those together. We were pretty much the same.”

EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel