Campus/Tribal Projects: Loess Hills
Geography is done in the field as well as the laboratory. The Omaha / Winnebago Nations mapping project combines field research with GIS to produce maps for environmental management and ethnobotanical research.
Initial basemaps were developed using standard GIS methods. Students and staff then traveled to the Winnebago Reservation to discuss land use issues with Tribal officials. We shared final maps with Tribal staff and with researchers at Haskell Indian Nations University and the University of Kansas who are developing inventories of medicinal plants on the Reservation.
Current research initiatives include refining these maps, ethnobotany
http://www.ksnhi.ku.edu/research/current.htm#biodiv
and a Loess Hills participatory mapping project
http://people.ku.edu/~dmcdermo/particip_index.htm
For more information contact
RaeLynn Butler raelynn.butler@haskell.edu
Dave McDermott dmcdermo@ku.edu
