"Ok everyone, hang on, here comes a big one!" I said as I steered the pontoon into the oncoming wave. I had five students on the boat with me for an environmental science class. We were conducting a lake temperature profile for Spirit Lake (Mni Wakan), a beautiful and culturally sacred place for the Dakota people. However, the trip did not go exactly as planned. The waves and winds proved a bit high for our purposes, but we eventually found an adequate location to sample. We made it work, which is what we do every day at Cankdeska Cikana Community College (CCCC) in Fort Totten, North Dakota. Although faced with many challenges as a small, rural, tribal college, we also find creative solutions by using a Dakota cultural lens when working in STEM fields.

Pontooning the high seas of Spirit Lake (locals call it Devil's Lake) is just one of the exciting experiences students can have at CCCC. Being a small tribal college has advantages for students and faculty alike because everyone knows and cares for each other. There is a mutually respectful environment for teaching and learning. Faculty get to know students and what's going on in their lives. It is hard to take one STEM course without building these relationships and having a connection to another STEM area.

THE UNIFYING POWER OF MATHEMATICS

The mathematics program at CCCC is the underlying force that ties everything together. Each of the Associate of Science degree programs requires that students pass college-level math, whether college algebra or statistics. Most of the students who come to CCCC struggle with math, and because we know this about our student body, the college has made necessary adjustments. All new students, for example, are tested to determine the level of instruction needed and are then placed into the appropriate course level. Through an NSF grant, "Increasing Capacity and Enhancing Tribal Innovation (ICE-TI)," CCCC has expanded and improved classroom technology and materials for an online, self-paced developmental math sequence. Students can accelerate through remedial math coursework and still attain college-level math credit more quickly than following a traditional pace. This results in access to and completion of STEM degrees in a much shorter time period than the traditional course sequence.

Although self-paced, the math sequence is implemented with multiple support systems in place to increase student self-efficacy, confidence, and success. The college has allotted classroom time with instructors, scheduled open math lab hours with instructors and peer tutors, devised incentives for successful course completion, and created options for students who have been out for a semester or longer to continue their education without repeating coursework. Students even get paid for their participation in ICE-TI research, all of which is aimed at determining the success of project efforts. ICE-TI has provided a much-needed STEM foundation for students, enhancing success and access in all fields offered at CCCC.

Environmental science students brave the choppy waters of Spirit Lake to take water samples. As a Land Grant college, CCCC works closely with Spirit Lake Tribal EPA.

PEEC also works very closely with the Advanced Manufacturing program at CCCC. Advanced manufacturing courses include work with 3D printers and often serve as the impetus for getting students interested in engineering. Students develop parts for drones and attachments for hyperspectral cameras, and they conduct research on composites for 3D printing materials. They learn the art of 3D printing by creating and then painting culturally relevant figurines, such as models of medicine wheels, bison, bears, and eagles. Over time they advance to 3D printing of precise elements, such as those used for the recently created CCCC weather station. Students have access to myriad opportunities by traveling to conferences nationwide related to PEEC and advanced manufacturing. CCCC student Isnala roan Eagle, for instance, recently completed a summer internship at Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico. PEEC and advanced manufacturing are tribal communities' pipelines for tomorrow's engineers.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS AND MANAGING RESOURCES

Tomorrow's environmental leaders will come from CCCC's Natural resource Management program (NRM). A newly revised curriculum allows NRM students to specialize in a given area of interest. The college also expanded NRM course hours so those who work full-time can take classes at night. And a new mentor- ship project that hosts student-mentor lunches and an alumni Facebook group gives current students greater support.

Relationships are very important in the Dakota community— failing to build relationships results in a lack of mutual respect and trust. CCCC hosts talking circles to encourage students' direct comments to build trust among participants. Some students wish to avoid providing constructive criticism face-to-face because it can feel confrontational, something that stems from historical trauma. Instead, a suggestion box was added to expand various avenues for feedback. Understanding such nuances is another aspect of responding to student needs through a cultural lens.

Employing traditional knowledge from Dakota elders, CCCC students learn the engineering techniques behind teepee construction.

In addition to alumni relations, the NRM program has been recently revitalized due to an NSF "Targeted STEM Infusion Project (TSIP)" grant along with funds from the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The TSIP grant aims to include environmental forensics experiences and opportunities while the NIFA equity funds, which the college receives as part of its 1994 Land Grant status, are directed toward the expansion of experiential learning and professional development.

With NRM, students travel to professional meetings such as the First Americans Land Grant Consortium (FALCON) conference, which brings together tribal college Land Grant faculty and students for research, presentations, and professional development opportunities. CCCC recently presented on assessing harmful algae blooms with drones, an NRM advanced manufacturing collaboration project requested by the Spirit Lake Tribal Environmental Protection Agency. Such partnerships with tribal agencies are important to CCCC because, as a Land Grant institution, the college's primary mission is to meet the needs of the community. Teaching, nurturing, and protecting Dakota culture is important to the Spirit Lake Tribe and is at the core of CCCC's mission, so projects with cultural implications carry special value.

Other culturally grounded projects at the college include an assessment of the loss of traditionally important fruit trees and shrubs to flooding, such as wild plum, chokecherry, and juneberry. These plants have long been a source for traditional foods like ca?-pa' kaska'pa (chokecherry patties) or wo'zapi (juneberry mash). Another project centered on a characterization of the disturbed prairie ecosystem along the campus nature trail. Students at CCCC are interested in traditional plants and medicines like sage, sweetgrass, coneflower, and lead plant. They want to understand their heritage including the plants their ancestors used. The college works to fill this need and to ground its curriculum in Dakota culture.

CCCC's campus nature trail has also led to opportunities for cultural projects in NRM classes. Instead of a standard mid-term exam, the environmental science class walks the nature trail on campus to study the plants and animals they see and to select a topic of their choice for the creation of an interpretive sign along the trail. Topics range from milkweed to whitetail deer to white sage, a traditional medicine. On each sign, students include information like a plant's traditional uses or its importance to the Dakota people. Eventually, these signs will be 3D printed in partnership with the Advanced Manufacturing program and placed along the nature trail for all to enjoy.

TSIP and NIFA equity funds have also been used to purchase much-needed equipment so CCCC can become the research center for monitoring the health of Spirit Lake, or Mni Wakan. The lake has long been known for its sacred, healing waters, so it's culturally important and critical for public health concerns such as when harmful algae blooms are present. Therefore, the purchase of a pontoon boat and related equipment for sampling the lake has been a boon to CCCC's STEM programs. They have also enabled further collaboration with PEEC and the Advanced Manufacturing program through the use of drones to monitor and sample the lake or for use in general science or math classes as well as independent, student-led research projects.

CONNECTING CULTURE AND NATURE

Dakota culture is found in every course at CCCC. For example, the college's Nurturing American Tribal Undergraduate research and Education (NATURE) program blends science with culture. In partnership with NDSU, NATURE strives to build long-term collaboration between North Dakota's five TCUs and to increase Native interest in STEM programs, keeping middle and high school students on a pathway to careers in STEM. NDSU also partners with the University of North Dakota and their faculty on the NATURE program. All entities work together to develop curriculum that will be presented to the students in a summer NATURE camp or "Sunday Weekend Academies."

One of the goals of the NATURE program is to connect students with culturally relevant STEM material that ties into CCCC's programs of study. For example, a past lesson related to NRM included understanding "green roofs" and how they can moderate a home's temperature. During this lesson, students learned from Dakota elder Arnold Calf Boss ribs that many tribes used material from Mother Earth to build earth lodges, teepees, wigwams, and other traditional houses. Students learned how to build these structures using the engineering techniques described to them by the Dakota elder, as well as the importance of the materials used. This example is just one in which community cultural experts explain and demonstrate how Dakota culture is connected to a STEM topic. This learning exchange is Indigenous knowledge and it builds Indigenous education pathways.

An NSF Targeted STEM Infusion Project grant enabled CCCC's Natural Resource Management program to purchase state-of-the-art equipment to enhance student learning.

The NATURE program also integrates the Dakota language into each lesson. When an NDSU professor visited CCCC to discuss the anatomy of the eye, Arnold Calf Boss ribs taught students the Dakota word for "eye." "Ishta," he repeated with the students until they were all speaking the word. He noted that the eye is very important for observing Mother Earth. The NATURE program exposes students to STEM using culturally relevant material by including the teachings of elders in each lesson.

"As a tribal college instructor in the program, for me it is important to encourage students to think about careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics because there is a great need to have these types of STEM professionals serving our community," observes Dr. Lori Gourneau, a NATURE instructor at CCCC. "For many of our students, it's an introduction to the scientific method and the research process. It helps the students to build on their critical thinking skills through interacting with college professors by problem-solving, performing experiments, and doing research."

Cankdeska Cikana Community College is a tribally controlled institution of higher learning that always has its eye on cultural inclusion, whether in STEM or any other program. This would not be possible without the leadership of college president and Spirit Lake tribal member Dr. Cynthia Lindquist, who is always encouraging staff to innovate and look for new opportunities but not to forget where we are and who we serve. "Tribal colleges do exemplary work with very limited resources. The strength of this work is the caliber of faculty members who go above and beyond the call of duty in serving our students," Dr. Lindquist stated during a recent research forum hosted at CCCC. "Establishing and maintaining relationships is core to Dakota way of life as well as understanding and practicing respect. respect for self, others, and Mother Earth is integral to STEM disciplines. By incorporating Dakota knowledge into lesson plans and curriculum, CCCC demonstrates its role as a tribal, community college."

In a world where the separation of STEM from culture is often praised, CCCC faculty work toward the opposite in an effort to blend them together to serve the tribal community. As far as we're concerned, that means "mission accomplished."

Heidi Ziegenmeyer is the Land Grant director and natural resources faculty at Cankdeska Cikana Community College.