Maka Sitomniya is both simple and difficult to translate from Lakota. The title of the ESIIL Maka Sitomniya Working Group translates this as “Preserving Mother Earth by Asserting Lakota Sovereignty in Earth Data Science”. Maka sitomniya encompasses plants, animals, land, water, sky, and the interconnection of all things.

As described in my Tiwahe post, I was first exposed to this concept in 2023. I just recently returned from the final in-person meeting of the ESIIL Maka Sitomniya Working Group, help 7-11 July 2025 at ESIIL, CU-Boulder. As before, this document is about my journey; the proceedings and report will appear elsewhere.

The journey for me has involved many things. I thought I would be a central coder in the tech team, but found that my strengths are more in the bigger picture, concerning process and communications about the technical arena. I helped shepherd the datacube components from ideas into notebooks and up as draft contributions to the ESIIL Data Library. I did little coding, instead listened a lot and supported the other tech team members.

• what I have learned listening to and being with Indigenous scientists.
• how I am finding my voice and way to contribute
• importance of rhythm and ritual
• value of humor, dialog, and discomfort