Sustainable Development in Indigenous Communities in Mexico and the United States By David Beck, Professor and Chair Native American Studies Department Tribal communities in the were from, Ixmiquilpan, he United States and Mexico told them that they are all share similar histories and indigenous. The stigma of challenges, and at the same identifying as indigenous time differ in significant ways. is very strong in Mexico; it UM has partnered with two can lead to discrimination Mexican universities as part of and severely diminish a larger consortium to explore an individual's economic issues related to sustainable prospects, in a way similar to community development in the U.S. thirty to fifty years indigenous communities. This ago. partnership is funded in the United States by a FIPSE (Fund Both Rosalyn and Ilectured for the Improvement of Post to the students and provided Secondary Education) grant, a workshop for the faculty on which the UM International issues relating to tribes in the Programs office supplemented United States in general, and to support my travel to Mexico in case studies in community during wintersession. Together development among various with my family Itraveled to Market day in Actopan, Hidalgo tribal groups in the U.S., the states of Colima and Hidalgo to serve as a visiting faculty member in including the Blackfeet, the Menominee of Wisconsin, and tribes on Oregon's our partner universities, Universidad de Colima in the city of Colima and coast. One of the reasons that the university rector worked so hard to Universidad Tecnologica del Valle del Mezquital in Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo. My encourage us to visit Hidalgo was to bring some legitimacy to the concept wife Rosalyn LaPier (Blackfeet and Little Shell Chippewa), a Ph.D. candidate of indigeneity from the outside world to this community. We were the first in the UM history department, was invited by both universities to share her scholarly visitors from a U.S. university to lecture at this school. Many of the knowledge of ethnobotany and language revitalization efforts from her students and faculty at this university, which is a three year and ten month home community on the Blackfeet Reservation. technical school in a rural state, are indigenous. Most of the students are on 100% state-funded scholarships. Colima is a state on the west coast of Mexico. Its climate is tropical and warm. We began our visit in Colima and took a ten hour bus ride to Mexico After a wonderful week with our marvelous hosts in Ixmiquilpan we returned City where the Rector (President) of Universidad Tecnologica del Valle del by bus to the city of Colima, in the state of Colima, where Rosalyn and I Mezquital, Leodan Partes Vargas met us to provide us with a driving tour of participated in a much-publicized three day seminar at the Universidad his school's home state before we began our work there. Hidalgo is north of de Colima entitled "Seminario Estudios de indigenismo ydesarollo Mexico City, with a dry and colder climate. We hiked in the National Park, communitario en EUA yMexico." The state of Colima is home to a variety of visited a mining town where we ate pasties and drank locally brewed beer indigenous groups. Dr. Renata Gonzalez Sanchez, a member of the Colima (and hot chocolate for the children), and spent an afternoon at a game Economics Department, served as our host. He leads the rural outreach preserve, one of the few places in the region where wildlife biologists can program and organizes community projects in the region, and has served help manage the landscape for larger wild animals such as red deer, which as a close partner with us in our work. Another faculty member, one of the are the size of elk, and wild boar. leading quantitative economics professors in Mexico, gave us a tour of rural indigenous communities that rely on coffee and agricultural products for Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo, is home to the Otomi people, who aided the Spanish development. in the conquest and were thus able to retain some control over their communities in the early colonial era. Features of their cultural heritage The Economics Department at Colima conducts the majority of the are visible in the architecture and the landscape. Otomi elder Francisco sustainable development work in surrounding rural communities, many of Luna Tavera provided us with guided tours of religious sites, both Catholic which are indigenous. Featured speakers at the seminar included members and traditional, and interpreted the artwork which showed clear signs of of the economics department, the tourism department and the social work indigenous religious belief systems. On the other hand, while we were department. Rosalyn and Iboth spoke the first night, and Iwas scheduled on a bus tour with a group of several dozen students he asked how many to present on all three nights. After Rosalyn's first presentation, the faculty were indigenous and none raised their hand. When he asked where they requested that she prepare and give another talk on her home community Beck cont. on pg 3 2 Beck cont. from pg 2 on the closing night of the conference.

Colima, like the rest of the Americas, is home to ancient indigenous peoples. Like many places in Latin America, and indeed even in the U.S., there is great pride in the indigenous past, with visible imagery in many museums and gift shops that is also recorded in history books and even popular magazines and newspapers. But here, as elsewhere, indigenous people in the modern world are impoverished, scorned, ignored, ill-treated and still live at or below subsistence level. However, Mexican universities and their concerned professors are working toward educating indigenous students and developing sustainable social and economic development within indigenous communities. We can only hope that efforts such as we witnessed at the two universities we visited may begin to strengthen the communities and their people. .------~

Otomi cultural leader Francisco Luna Tavera (right) leading atour of important Otomi tribal places. Pictured with him are Sandra Munoz, coordinator of languages at Universidad Tecnol6gica del Valle del Mezquital in fxmiquilpan, Hidalgo; Abaki Beck, Ekoo Beck, David Beck, Rosalyn LaPier and Professor Norberto Alatorre Monroy.

Harrar cont. from pg 1 Ihope that the activities to be undertaken during the exchange willi also make a contribution to enhancing UM's institutional partnerships with ECNU and AAU. Although ECNU has been an official partner of UM for a number of years, thus far no collaborative activities with this university have begun, although as one of China's major universities, it holds promise for exchanges with my department and other units at UM . Its Department of Statistics and Actuarial Sciences has a strong graduate program with an emphasis on multivariate and mathematical statistics. It would be advantageous for UM's Department of Mathematics to have a close working relationship with the faculty and students of ECNU.

Besides being a logical' site for my research interest, AAU's School of Public Health has demographic surveillance and practicum field sites that are of interest to UM's School of Public and Community Health (SPCH). In addition, UM's Intercultural Youth and Family Development (IYFD) Program, a Peace Corps Masters International Program, has a strong desire to use Ethiopia as one of its internship sites. Both the SPCH and IYFD programs would also welcome having AAU faculty participate in co-supervision of their interns and guest lecturing in their classes. However, the specific possibilities are yet to be explored . Of note is that Itook part in the effort to form the AAU-UM partnership. In this process, we have developed a good working relationship with some of the key senior administrators on the AAU campus.

In summary, Ienvisage the experience to be gained from the exchanges leading to a number of peer reviewed publications, extramural funding applications and generating research problems for students besides serving as stepping stones to further research in my own and other departments at UM. On the recreation side, Iplan to travels and learn more about the cultural heritages, not to mention the de.licious foods, of these two ancient countries.

In personal communications, both ECNU and AAU have expressed strong desire to work closely with The University of Montano. As their way of showing commitment to the partnerships, both universities have agreed to grant me full access to their research resources as well as tlousing free of charge during my entire stay. I am grateful to both universities for their generous offers. Also Iwould like to express my gratitude to the Office of International Programs, Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, and the Deportment of Mathematical Sciences for their sponsorship and making this research endeavor possible. 3