Published: March 1, 2017

Cherokee Elder and Clint Carroll

Cherokee elder Crosslin Smith discusses tribal land conservation with Clint Carroll. Photo by Myra Robertson. At the top of the page is an image of wild senna/gvhnage (Senna marilandica), one of the culturally significant plants Carroll is focused on. Photo by Clint Carroll.

CNAIS & Ethnic Studies Faculty, Clint Carroll has been awarded a prestigious early career award. The grant from the National Science Foundation will allow Carroll to continue his work with the Cherokee people, aimed toward advocating tribal environmental education and cultural and ecological resiliency. His research will help to preserve tribal tradition and knowledge for future generations through the Faculty Early Career Development Award, a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation. 

 

“Essentially the proposal and the project is geared toward producing a new generation of tribal environmental leaders,” Carroll says. “That’s really the grand vision of it, and asking these questions that get at the issue of accessing plants and being able to operate as resource users in a checkerboarded landscape.”

“The health of our people is directly related to the health of our lands,” Carroll continues. “By redirecting resources to tribal land conversation and knowledge revitalization, that will have an effect on the health of our people.”

 

Carroll, assistant professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, has been working with tribal elders to promote traditional knowledge and the conservation of tribal land since 2004. Read the full article in the CU Arts & Sciences Magazine.