Building Trust, Experiential Learning, and the Importance of Sovereignty: Capacity Building in Pre-Engineering Education - a Tribal College Perspective

At tribal colleges and mainstream universities, program success is often identified solely with matriculation and graduation rates. However, particularly for new STEM programs, capacity building is another key measure of success. In this paper, three of the co-authors, who are faculty members at a tribally-controlled college and participants in a multi-year collaborative pre-engineering education initiative between a tribal college and two mainstream universities, provide their perspectives on capacity building in summer camp activities within the alliance. The three each wrote essays reflecting on capacity building, guided by pre-determined questions written by the fourth author. Through qualitative analysis, we present common themes, divergent opinions, and quotations extracted from the essays from their unique perspective as faculty at a tribally-controlled college. We emphasize impacts among the partnering schools, faculty, students, and communities where the summer camp activities took place. Three common themes dominated the essays including the importance of (1) building trust within the reservation community, (2) recognizing the effectiveness of experiential and project-based service-learning approaches, and (3) encouraging tribally-controlled colleges to take a lead role in determining research and educational foci

Taphonomic Evidence of Predation and Scavenging of Teleoceras (Mammalia: Rhinocerotidae), with a Description of the Camelidae from the Minium Quarry Local Biota of North-Central Kansas

Three species of camels were recovered from the early Hemphillian (Miocene) Minium Quarry local biota (Ogallala Group) of north-central Kansas. A small and large camel, Hemiauchenia vera Matthew and Megatylopus cf. M. gigas Matthew and Cook respectively, were identified by comparison to known taxa. A medium-sized camel is assigned to Procamelus based on measurements and biometric analysis of referred metapodials, and may represent a new species. It is the largest Procamelus yet described, and suggests that a phylogenetic relationship exists between Procamelus and Megatylopus. Procamelus can be distinguished from Alforjas, a medium-sized Neogene camelid that consistently exhibits overlap of biometric parameters with Procamelus, by differences in the angularity and shape of metapodial proximal articular facets, and in the osteology of the plantar process

Sedimentology of the Whiteclay Gravel Beds (Ogallala Group) in northwestern Nebraska, USA: Structurally controlled drainage promoted by Early Miocene uplift of the Black Hills Dome

The newly recognized Whiteclay Gravel Beds (WGB) of the Miocene Ogallala Group crop out as a narrow, discontin­uous ribbon of sands and gravels in Dawes and Sheridan Counties, northwestern Nebraska, USA. The WGB are ex­posed in a series of municipal gravel quarries and natural exposures that define a linear trench in underlying strata at least 20 m deep and up to 300 m wide, with short, southeast-trending reaches separating generally longer east-trend­ing sections. This gravel-filled trench can be recognized from the Nebraska–South Dakota border near Whiteclay, Ne­braska southeastward to east of Gordon, Nebraska, a distance of ~ 30 km. The outcrop belt of the WGB is coincident in location and trend with the Whiteclay Fault Zone. Where exposed in quarries, the walls of the trench are steep-sided, vertical, or locally overhanging. Polished surfaces, slickensides, and parallel joint sets are common in the walls of the trench near Whiteclay, but uncommon in those to the east. The narrow belt defined by this trench is filled by stratified gravel (\u3c 2.0 m, typically \u3c 0.3 m) of sedimentary lithologies derived from various Cenozoic units (but prin­cipally Anderson Ranch Formation), and sand. Relatively small amounts of unrounded granitic, volcanic, and quartz gravel are preserved in places. Cross-bedding and clast imbrication indicate paleoflow towards the east. The WGB are interpreted to have formed in response to tectonic upheaval associated with uplift of the Black Hills of South Dakota in Early Miocene times. Fault rupture topography facilitated formation of a steep-sided canyon, or valley, up to 20 m deep, being virtually straight with sharp bends at intervals of several km. An alluvial channel belt developed in the floor of the valley, filling the available accommodation space with coarse sand and gravel via aggra­dational stacking of the deposits of successive channels and channel belts. Channel belts were probably braided, with individual channels up to 4 m deep and a few tens of meters wide. The multi-storey character of the deposit indicates multiple episodes of cutting and filling. The coarse grain-size of the fill suggests energetic discharge with frequent bankfull flows, even though the system had a relatively low gradient (0.004). An abundance of reworked fossil debris is derived from several stratigraphic units, clasts of which have been identified in the fill. The presence of a contempo­rary merychippine horse and a primitive species of the oreodont Brachycrus constrain formation of the WGB to a short interval within the Early Miocene (c. 17.5 Ma). The mammal fauna suggests that this stream was a valuable source of water, while fragments of aquatic organisms such as turtles and fish indicate perennial discharge. The WGB provides a crucial window into a pluvial period in the Miocene that is largely unpreserved elsewhere in the basin, facilitated in part by fault rupture topography