Persons who feel there's "no such thing as Indigenous Science" obviously don't think it's an important subject to pursue. But almost everyone else agrees that an important benefit of promoting and acknowledging Indigenous science is that it increases the pride of Indigenous persons and encourages Indigenous students to do well in school, dream high for their futures, choose careers in science and engineering, and succeed in those careers. Beyond that, however, there are two broadly diverging viewpoints, related to how people see the relationship between Indigenous Science and Western Science. Persons with the viewpoint: "Indigenous Science and Western Science are the same; there is only one thing -- Science" tend to see the subject in terms of increasing the diversity of the scientific workforce so it reflects the demographics of the nation as a whole. When they say "Indigenous science" they are referring to the participation of Indigenous persons in Western scientific education and research. This is seen as an issue of political fairness and equal opportunity. Minorities are seriously under-represented in the sciences, so the goal here is to improve primary and secondary education so that all Americans have an equal chance to go into a career in the sciences if they so choose. A slight variation of this theme is that (a) we will need a more highly-trained workforce in the future, particularly in science, engineering, and technology, (b) few minorities get such training, statistically, (c) the proportion of minorities in the U.S. population is growing substantially, so (d) in the future we won't have enough trained bodies and minds to do what needs to be done -- meaning we'd better pull minorities into those career tracks. In this view, acculturation to Western worldview is essential for long-term success of Indigenous persons. Persons who disagree with this view often feel it is expressed in ways that can inadvertently sound colonialist (e.g., quote from a prominent science organization's publication: "In our efforts to sustain U.S. productivity and economic strength, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans provide an untapped reservoir of talent that could be used to fill technical jobs.") Persons with the viewpoint "Indigenous Science is different from Western science in important ways, similar in other ways, and a valid way of knowing and learning about the natural world." tend to see the issue differently, even though they still want to see increased minority participation in the sciences. They see the subject in terms of increasing scientific diversity in order to increase the diversity of imagination, method, and experience available to the scientific workforce so it can find new and more powerful ways to address critical environmental, health, and energy problems that threaten the earth's communities. To the people who hold this point of view, acculturation destroys the very diversity from which new solutions can come. Of course, effective collaboration can be more difficult among members of a truly multicultural scientific workforce because of communication problems. So an important part of this process is cultivating "cultural competence" -- "the ability to relate and communicate effectively with individuals who do not share the same culture, ethnicity, language or other salient variables," thereby "fostering the long-term institutional change that will sustain diversity in the future" (quoted from a prominent science organization publication). The Range of Indigenous Science The Processes of Indigenous Science Why Should We Explore, Explain, Acknowledge, or Promote Indigenous Science A Brief History of Indigenous Science Additional Resources on Indigenous Science