Cultural considerations in service learning with American Indian Reservation community stakeholders

In the process of designing engineered systems, it is not uncommon for engineers to underestimate or altogether ignore the societal and cultural context of the problem. This is particularly true when designs are developed to solve world problems; a lack of societal consideration leads to implementation failures when engineers from developed countries attempt to design solutions "for" people in developing countries rather than working with them. It has been increasingly recognized in literature that stakeholder participation is critical for designing sustainable solutions. However, translating social and cultural values and stakeholder participation into engineering education remains an elusive challenge for educators. A similar challenge exists with engineering design for American Indian Reservations; however, this challenge is amplified due to a long history of racial tensions, biases, and political oppression that leads to American Indian distrust of mainstream engineers. This work in progress describes an ongoing engineering design project that is designed to meet the needs of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (PRIR) while: a) challenging students at a mainstream university to design within an appropriate cultural context, b) incorporating stakeholder participation and 3) increasing opportunities and interest in Native American participation in engineering. Dialogue between community members of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (PRIR, where OLC is located), faculty and students of the Oglala Lakota College (OLC) Tribal College, and faculty and students at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT) have identified that the PRIR community is interested in collaborating on the design, research, and testing of a sustainable, renewable-energy based food production system. The system should not only to meet the community needs for safe and healthy foods, but also serve as a potential source of economic development for the community. This project includes an extensive partnership and has a strong focus on achieving sustainable design and business development through a multi-disciplinary advisory team. Students from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT) have partnered with faculty and students from the Oglala Lakota College (OLC) on the functional design of a renewable-energy based structure for economic development. The design team is advised by faculty at both institutions, as well faculty and experts representing other synergistic projects on PRIR, including an on-going NSF engineering educational effort, the Native American Sustainable Housing Initiative (NASHI), based at University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), to share climate station data and energy monitoring expertise, and Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, a sustainable community grant holder located at Sharp's Corner, South Dakota, just 8 miles from the OLC campus, to share cultural knowledge and values and business development strategies. The paper describes the lessons learned by students and educators when consideration of culture and stakeholder investment become significant components in an engineering design.