This week on Meet a Scientist, get to know Rose Bear Don’t Walk, an ethnobotanist, tribal foods consultant at Indigenous PACT, Pbc., and one of our inaugural fellows for our Fellowship for the Future program. She recently received her Master of Science degree in environmental studies at the University of Montana, where she studied the plants of the region and their relationship to traditional Salish foods and nutrition. Her fellowship project — Recovering our Roots — builds on that work, creating a Salish food plant curriculum and field guide for Flathead Indian Reservation schools that will help promote traditional plant knowledge for current and future generations of Salish people. In this interview, she talks about her journey from political science to ethnobotany, her relationship to her Séliš and Apsáalooke heritage, and her goals for her fellowship project. You can follow her on Twitter @rosedontwalk.
When did you first identify as a scientist? What does your research look like today?
Because my background is in political science, I did not consider myself a scientist until very recently. Which is funny because I believe Indigenous people were among the first scientists before the concept of Western science was even created. All the things we learned and knew came from thoughtful experimentation based on observation and curiosity. We survived and thrived through science. So it wasn’t until I realized the depth of plant knowledge the Salish people had and how I had been a small link in that chain since I was young that I realized I was a Salish scientist. All of the traditional practices I had been brought up doing were, in essence, based in science.
My research currently looks like a lot of fun to most folks! I spend a lot of time on the land hiking, walking, and foraging. I’ve been trying to find and document various plant species for food and traditional medicines. So far I have been taking pictures, noting their habitats, and seasonality for future educational materials. I have also been attempting traditional recipes and documenting the process so that if others want to try and make these foods at home, they can. When I’m finished in the field I corroborate my notes and pictures with any sort of literature I have on plants and verify information, as well as put together notable qualities of plants (fun facts, nutrition, traditional usage, etc.). I send out a bi-weekly newsletter to a growing list of Salish community members, Montana residents, and neighboring tribes highlighting my findings.
The current work you do is centered on bridging culture and science through traditional plant knowledge as an ethnobotanist. Tell us how and why you made that transition into plant life and how your political science background has impacted your current endeavors?
My political science background helped me initially figure out that I wanted to learn more about traditional food ways. Our people were once the healthiest in all North America, yet we have transitioned to some of the poorest rates of health in the country. Political science helped me see the immense inequality, historical trauma, and current socio-political underpinnings of our chronic health issues. It was our disconnect from our food culture due to the political, social, and economic barriers forced on us through colonization that made us unhealthy. I wanted to change that.
I went away to try a Master’s degree in New York. It was there that I learned about how incredible plants were and I was curious about the plants of my people. I grew up around them but didn’t know much beyond how they looked and tasted. I wanted to go further and I realized that studying food plants was my calling. Since New York is not exactly the environment in which the plants I knew grew, I moved home and started a Master’s program in Montana where I could study the plants of the region — the plants I already knew but needed to understand. Food plants were such a critical component of the ancestral diet that I believe they hold the key to reversing some of our health issues. Through reconnection with traditional foods and providing access to ancestral knowledge, we can work to combat the negative health status of our tribe and create cultural continuity for future generations so that they may be healthy and well.
What does your project for the fellowship center on and how do you envision future success?
My project is working to promote traditional ecological knowledge and food practices for the Salish community in Montana and expand that knowledge to other Salishan tribes across the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. I want to provide a pathway for others to reconnect with traditional foodways and also learn some cool things about plants while they do so! I hope to help cultivate a healthy Salish community through these plant teachings. Future success looks like members of my community and beyond reaffirming the values of traditional plants and using them on a more consistent basis. I would love for more people be able to identify and use plants properly and share that knowledge with others — and to have a Salish curriculum available so that others may learn and pass on this knowledge!
Upon meeting you, one hears the beauty that is your name and sees the amazingness that is one of your tattoos – both which have significant cultural meanings for you as a Séliš/Apsáalooke woman. Tell us more about what pride and symbolism mean to you and your Native culture?
From when I was a baby my family showed me that love and our culture go hand in hand. They were part of a generation where being Native American wasn’t particularly celebrated by society, but they still pushed forward and became pioneers in their field. I’m immensely proud of my family for their strength in adversity and their incredible accomplishments. Even though they suffered different instances of racism and social issues, they never let me feel that way. I was a little brown girl with a big name and I had to learn how to carry that with pride, joy, and love. So they showed me that and they made it a point to teach me about our traditional ways. Being Indigenous is so much more than the caricature portrait painted by western society, it is based on a foundation of tradition, ancestral knowledge, connection to land and all beings, and the love of generations before us. My name, my language, my love of the land and lineage are all things that will never leave me.
No matter where I go I will always be Séliš and Apsáalooke.
When you're not busy with your work, how do you take the time to rest and recharge?
I am a highly active person so sometimes my rest and recharge just looks like more activity to some! But hiking with friends and escaping to the mountains is really relaxing and connecting to me. Going for runs, working out, and practicing martial arts also give me a mental break while helping me tune into my physical body. Endorphins are a real thing! I also really love to powwow dance. With a lot of the powwows in my area cancelled for the summer because of COVID-19, I have been taking time to listen to the drums and dance in my living room. I like to read, bead, and play with my dog Biagada, which means “Little girl” in Crow language.
Rose Bear Don't Walk seeks to bridge science, culture and health through her work with traditional Indigenous foods and native plants of northwest Montana. A longtime resident of the Flathead Indian Reservation, Rose is a descendant of the Bitterroot Salish and Crow tribes of the state. She has a BA in Political Science from Yale University. Recently, Rose received a Masters of Science in environmental studies from the University of Montana having centered her research on the longstanding relationships Salish people have formed with local edible flora and its implications for community health and cultural longevity. Rose hopes to increase awareness and usage of traditional food plants while also promoting healthy culturally-relevant habits in her Salish community. She is a powwow dancer, dog lover, cook, runner, and Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioner.