This open access online journal gives preference to publishing high impact articles written by Native and Indigenous Peoples. The goal of this journal is to provide a place where Native authors can share, access information, and humbly offer strategies for issues facing Native, Indigenous, Aborigine, American Indian, and First Nations peoples.
Our Story
It has been our experience that certain media outlets do not value Native or Indigenous knowledge or perspectives. To bring validity to our knowledge and research the Journal of Native Sciences was established.
Managing Editors
Hello! My wife and I started JNS to help Natives “get their words out”. There is strong power (“Boha“) in words and Native people are strong when they choose to be. I am a Newe person and I have lived on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in Idaho most my life. I know first hand about the the many and profound problems that face my community. I also know that many of these wicked problems also exist in other Tribal societies. I believe in the passing of knowledge to others, so they know how things came to be, where they come from, and most importantly to instill hope! It is my goal that JNS will contribute to the sacred tradition of passing knowledge from one to another. I also want to say that I have been contributing to JNS as an author simply to keep the journal active. A link to my scholarship can be found here.
Dawn D. Davis is a mother, a wife, a micro-farmer, a small-business owner, a Newe and a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. She resides on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in Idaho with her husband Cleve and two daughters Lilianna Big Tree Nolan and Isla Rain. Her research focuses on the environmental and anthropogenic issues that surround the revered peyote (Lophophora williamsii) plant which is integral to her spiritual practice as an Indigenous woman. Her current research includes the use of GIS to model landscape level changes that are occurring the in Peyote Garden. Dawn has shared her research among Native American, academic, ethnobotanical, and psychedelic audiences nationally and internationally. Throughout her travels, Dawn observed the difficulties and challenges Native American/Indigenous students were confronting in pursuit to publish their work in respectable journals. For this reason, her and her husband founded the Journal of Native Sciences with the hope that it would serve as a platform to highlight the research and work being conducted by Native American/Indigenous researchers, elders, storytellers, and other knowledge holders and seekers. As a member of the Advisory Alliance, Dawn is excited to support her fellow Indigenous people as they share their sacred words. Dawn holds a PhD in Natural Resources from the University Idaho.
Monique is a descendant of the Pit River/Maidu tribes of Northern California. She has a Master of Science from the University of Idaho Forest, Rangeland, and Fire Sciences Program, and dual Bachelor’s degrees in Ecology & Conservation Biology and Fishery Resources, with a minor in American Indian Studies (with an emphasis in Tribal Water Rights and Treaty Rights). She is a board member for Northwest Scientific Association and Diversity & Inclusivity committee member for the Association of Fire Ecology. In addition to working as an Ecologist for 12 years, she has worked in a variety of natural resource positions as a seasonal firefighter, hotshot crew member, and a fisheries and hydrology technician for the USFS, Idaho Fish and Game, and the Nez Perce Tribe. It is her goal that her children and all future generations of tribal people feel that their best interests are addressed in the management of our natural resources, on and off the reservation. Her work has emphasized promoting tribal sovereignty on and off the reservation by sharing our stories and history and promoting cross-boundary collaboration with tribal and non-tribal agencies. Her research has focused on building transparency and trust between agencies and incorporating tribal and community feedback into forest management practices. Her most recent publications are “Getting back to fire suméŝ: exploring a multi-disciplinary approach to incorporating traditional knowledge into fuels treatments” and, “Tribal fire and forest management: Confederated Salish-Kootenai fire history, philosophy, and resource management strategies”.