Indigenous storytelling, Cherokee traditional ecological knowledge, and place-based education

Indigenous storytelling, a transactional communication between narrators and audiences, is expressed through the narratives of Traditional Ecological Knowledge or TEK (Pierotti & Wildcat, 2000). These stories of Indigenous societies such as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) demonstrate and explain their ecological literacy and sustainable relationships with their local outdoor environments (Berkes et al., 2000). TEK stories impart this authoritative information and empower the story’s participants in co-creating their interpretations and connections (Aftandilian, 2011; Hall, 1973). The EBCI, as do other Indigenous communities, share their interrelatedness with nature by acknowledging their interdependence with nature (Cherokee Preservation Foundation, 2014; Datta, 2018; Lowan-Trudeau, 2012; Pierotti & Wildcat, 2000). TEK stories align with and provide support for the ethical strategies of contemporary environmental advocacy (Berkes et al., 2000). The EBCI, used here interchangeably with their historical tribal title “Cherokee,” are members descended from the original Cherokee peoples, indigenous to the southeastern North American continent (Cherokee Preservation Foundation, 2014). Place-based education integrates the experiential relationships between humans and nature to encourage growth in values, comprehension, and skills in environmental sustainability (McKeon, 2012; Sabet, 2018). TEK narratives inherently possess the interactive agency and equal responsibility with local places that place-based education now prioritizes (Aftandilian, 2011; McKeon, 2012). Advancing informed environmental sustainability through place-based instruction for students requires a cooperative engagement that values Indigenous TEK and its practices (Gruenewald, 2003; McKeon, 2012). However, Eurocentric philosophies have historically restricted collaboration with Indigenous societies and their TEK by defining those as non-members of society (Bechtel, 2016; Roberts, 2012). By integrating environmental experiences with TEK, place-based learning can synthesize those narratives with evolving place-based concepts into interdisciplinary sustainability, dissolving artificial barriers that may limit ecological meanings for students (McKeon, 2012). To date, no known research has investigated the integration of EBCI TEK narratives with place-based curricula for middle school students. TEK narratives have the potential to articulate place-based learning, which can foster environmental well-being for local communities, and yet little research has explored this pedagogy. The purpose of this study was to explore middle school student interpretations of a collaborative experience that integrated place-based education, EBCI TEK narratives, and the local environment. As participants reflected on their experience, three major themes emerged through narrative inquiry analysis: cultural literacy, well-being, and respecting nature