“Before beginning the Environmental Humanities Master’s program at the University of Utah, I worked as a researcher studying global food systems and as a guide in the outdoor industry. I wanted to combine my research and environmental experience, and I wanted to work with others who shared that interest. 

I am in my second year of the program and am working on the Restoring Indigenous Social and Environmental Systems Project. This interdisciplinary project is a collaboration with the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, and I am working on the digital archive piece. We are going through the Marriott Library Special Collections and looking for any information regarding the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone’s history. This information is collected by members of the NWBSN, students, and librarians and is digitized to share directly with tribal members, no matter where they live.

I wanted to be a graduate research assistant on this project because it includes archival research and indigenous research methods. Community-based research takes a large view of what research is. It considers not only the needs of a community, but also the knowledge those community members hold. The way the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation is telling their own history and reshaping the ideas surrounding the Bear River Massacre really fascinated me. 

I love going up to the Wuda Ogwa site on Planting Days to plant trees. This site is the location of the Bear River Massacre and is owned by the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation. The tribe is working on socio-environmental restoration here, and it’s really special to go there with the undergraduates who are on the project. 

Going forward, this program has helped me learn that I want to work in community spaces and be engaged with the land and people and histories of those places.” 

— Cait Quirk, 2nd-year Environmental Humanities Master’s student