Field Inclusive, Inc.

Experience Reflection: Cheyenne Thomas

“This grant supplemented a stipend for my field assistants, who were able to participate in this fieldwork with the help of the Oneida Environmental Program and the Cultural Fire Management Council. With this collective funding, I was able to provide a livable stipend for multiple Indigenous students interested in this work whom I will continue to collaborate with. It is most notable that I am able to go back home and have Oneida youth and community members support this work through conducting fieldwork with me. As much as they may learn from this experience, I learn
even more as their mentor.”

BY CHEYENNE THOMAS

Throughout my life, I have learned much of what I know about the world through storytelling. The stories I’ve learned within my culture have grounded me and allowed me to maintain a strong connection to our more-than-human relatives that many Western-trained scientists do not have. Since starting graduate school, I have been lucky to share space with and learn from strong Indigenous scientists who are paving the way for future generations in the broader field of ecology. Each of these experiences has helped shape my doctoral research into what it is today. And since I have a supportive advisor, I am able to conduct my research on Tribal lands, including my home Nation.

Broadly, I am interested in investigating and comparing the impacts of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)-Practice Systems and settler land management strategies on insect biodiversity. As a PhD student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University, I am able to explore this through investigating the impacts of Cultural Fire as TEK and prescribed burning as settler management practices. Through my research, I collaborate with the Indigenous communities whose lands I am working on and – perhaps more importantly – I’m able to continue learning from and connecting with those community members in deeper ways. In thinking about my project, I had been inspired by the strong Indigenous women leading traditional fire practices for their communities and realized my academic interests could help fill gaps in our collective knowledge. In other words, what are our insect kin telling us about the different contexts in which fire is applied in land management?

My fieldwork takes place in Northern California, where I am working in remote oak woodlands in Yurok Territory, and Northeastern Wisconsin, where I am working in prairies on the Oneida Nation (my home Nation). Each site was burned earlier this year in the spring, and paired with nearby government-managed lands of similar landscape structure and fire regime (US Forest Service and Department of Natural Resources, respectively). This way, I can compare insect biodiversity between each field site and see if patterns of biodiversity hold up for different landscapes and regions. I recently completed my first summer of fieldwork which consisted of setting pitfall traps for insect sampling, in which I sampled over ten thousand insects over the course of three months! In the future, I will further “zoom in” to this biodiversity through
assessing species and genetic diversity of ants.

The Field Inclusive Research Grant supported my fieldwork throughout the summer of 2024, which will serve as the basis of the first chapter of my dissertation, by providing extra support for my field assistants. As someone who grew up with limited access to educational resources and such, I personally understand the barriers that undergraduate students face regarding fieldwork. When I was an undergraduate, I never knew how to seek these opportunities and – even if I did – it likely wouldn’t have been an option because most opportunities were unpaid and I needed to support myself through college. Luckily, after graduating, I obtained a position with the United States Department of Agriculture where I spent most of my summers in the field and worked as Tribal Liaison to uphold Tribal sovereignty through supporting traditional methods of invasive species removal. Through this, I mentored and trained Indigenous high school and undergraduate students interested in ecological fieldwork. This sparked my passion for helping to increase accessibility to educational and technical opportunities for underrepresented communities such as other Indigenous communities, which I continue to do today. This grant supplemented a stipend for my field assistants, who were able to participate in this fieldwork with the help of the Oneida Environmental Program and the Cultural Fire Management Council. With this collective funding, I was able to provide a liveable stipend for multiple Indigenous students interested in this work whom I will continue to collaborate with. It is most notable that I am able to go back home and have Oneida youth and community members support this work through conducting fieldwork with me. As much as they may learn from this experience, I learn
even more as their mentor.

Right: Traveling to nearby sites with Indigenous field assistants (Deven Metoxen and Cameron McAndrews) in Oneida prairies. Left: Setting pitfall traps in Yurok woodlands with Claire Brown of the Cultural Fire Management Council. PC: Cheyenne Reuben-Thomas

I am forever grateful for the space that Field Inclusive has provided for myself and others to learn about, and help overcome, the barriers of underrepresented and/or marginalized folks in field biology. The grants, workshops, and greater community they offer are invaluable for all. Thank you to Lauren Pharr and Murry Burgess for creating this space and uplifting BIPOC people and communities.

Cheyenne Reuben-Thomas (she/they) is an enrolled member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. She is a PhD Student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University. She was a recipient of the 2024 Field Inclusive Research Grant, sponsored by Wake Audubon Society.