Gregory is a Native American educator whose work is dedicated to honoring the foundations of indigenous knowledge in education. Dr. Cajete is a Tewa Indian from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. He has pioneered reconciling indigenous perspectives in sciences with a Western academic setting.
Cajete earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology and sociology from New Mexico Highlands University, with a minor in secondary education. After completing his Masters of Arts degree from the University of New Mexico he aspired to continue his studies there. However, as he explained the subject of his thesis —science from a Native American perspective —it was clear that his professor had no idea what he was talking about.
“Culturally based science, with its emphasis on health and wellness, was so far off the radar in the academy at that time that the professor suggested I take my proposal to the physical education department,” Cajete says with a chuckle as he recalls the discussion.
Fortunately, while teaching in the Indian Education Department at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, he was recruited for a new Independent Graduate Program accredited through the California State Department of Education. He received his doctorate in 1986 from International College, Los Angeles, in its New Philosophy Program in Social Science Education, with an emphasis in Native American studies.
Cajete is one of the foremost scholars in the field of sociocultural studies as it relates to Indian education and curriculum and native science. He has long been a well-known figure in Indian education circles and has become a popular speaker in the mainstream science and education academy conference circuit. As disciplines such as ecological and environmental studies have broadened to indigenous knowledge and pedagogy, Cajete and his work have gained mainstream attention.
He has served as a New Mexico Humanities scholar in ethno botany of Northern New Mexico and as a member of the New Mexico Arts Commission. In addition, he has lectured at colleges and universities in the U.S. , Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, England, Italy, Japan and Russia.
He worked at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico for 21 years. While at the Institute, he served as Dean of the Center for Research and Cultural Exchange, Chair of Native American Studies and Professor of Ethno science.
He organized and directed the First and Second Annual National Native American Very Special Arts Festival held in respectively in Santa Fe, NM in 1991 and Albuquerque, NM in 1992.
Currently, he is Director of Native American Studies and an Associate Professor in the Division of Language, Literacy and Socio cultural Studies in the College of Education at the University of New Mexico.
Dr. Cajete also designs culturally-responsive curricula geared to the special needs and learning styles of Native American students. These curricula are based upon Native American understanding of the “nature of nature’ and utilizes this foundation to develop an understanding of the science and artistic thought process as expressed in Indigenous perspectives of the natural world.
He is the principal investigator for several prominent studies relating to native science and education supported by grant funding from institutions such as the National Science Foundation, New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
He has received fellowships from The Newberry Library’s D’Arcy McNickle Center, the U.S. Department of Education and The School of American Research.
He credits his self-described dedication to honoring the foundations of indigenous knowledge in education as the basis for his success. Born and raised in the Santa Clara Pueblo in northern New Mexico, he attributes this dedication and persistence to his family’s traditional Pueblo values and culture. These values sustained him when he experienced frustration with an often dismissive academy as he chose to pursue the then-unknown area of native science.
Fortunately, Cajete recalls, his work was so far out of the box that he had no illusions of mainstream conformity and success. The simple knowledge and belief that he had something important to share motivated him to gain the skills to articulate this knowledge.
“When you’re ahead of your time, you have to create your own path,” he observes.
Click Here to View The Interview With Dr. Gregory Cajete
Books by Dr. Gregory Cajete
“Look to the Mountain: An Ecology of Indigenous Education,” (Kivaki Press, 1994);
“Ignite the Sparkle: An Indigenous Science Education Curriculum Model”, (Kivaki Press, 1999); “Spirit of the Game: Indigenous Wellsprings (2004),”
“A People’s Ecology: Explorations in Sustainable Living,”
“Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence” (Clearlight Publishers, 1999 and 2000).
* Green, Rayne, Dr. Gregory A. Cajete, and Lucy R. Lippard. Native Views. Influences of Modern Culture. A Contemporary Native American Art Exhibition." Artrain USA: 2004. ASIN B001VAG28W.
Links
Faculty Biography at UNM
Dr. Gregory Cajete Wikipedia Page
Getting to Know Dr. Gregory Cajete
