Mapping and Building Indigenous Abundance in NC Waterways (2026-2027)

Background

Indigenous communities across North Carolina continue to cultivate abundance — mutual care, environmental stewardship, cultural resurgence and community wellbeing — even as they confront the long-term impacts of settler colonialism on their lands and waterways. Eastern North Carolina’s river systems, once central to Indigenous trade, travel, foodways and ceremony, have been environmentally altered through centuries of drainage, damming, pollution and development.

Native nations such as the Coharie and Lumbee are leading efforts to restore waterways and revitalize cultural practices. The Coharie Tribe’s clearing of the Great Coharie River has renewed community relationships with land and water, creating ecotourism programs and sparking public conversations about Indigenous environmental justice. Revival movements across Indian Country — including canoe journeys in the Salish Sea — demonstrate how cultural arts like canoe building can anchor environmental restoration, intergenerational knowledge transfer and community abundance.

This project brings these insights to North Carolina by pairing waterway mapping with canoe building, offering students a powerful way to understand how art, engineering, history and Indigenous ways of knowing can shape abundant environmental futures.

Project Description

This project integrates GIS mapping, archival research, Indigenous studies and traditional canoe-building practice, in partnership with Lumbee and Coharie communities.

GIS and Archival Mapping

Team members will:

• Compile five centuries of archival and environmental data to create ArcGIS story maps of hydrological change in the eastern North Carolina coastal plain
• Examine how colonial land and water management reshaped Indigenous territories
• Produce counter-maps that foreground Indigenous stewardship, abundance and resilience

Canoe Building and Cultural Revitalization

The team will build two cedar-strip canoes:

• One on Duke’s campus, teaching students wood-working, engineering and artistic skills
• One in Sampson County during Spring Break, built alongside members of the Coharie Indian Tribe

Master carvers and cultural leaders from the Salish Sea, alongside Lumbee and Coharie knowledge keepers, will guide students in understanding canoe traditions, river-based ecologies and Indigenous resurgence movements.

Community Engagement and Knowledge Exchange

Students will travel to Coharie and Lumbee homelands for field visits, interviews and collaborative workshops. Co-leader Ryan Emanuel’s long-standing partnerships — including the Great Coharie River Initiative — ensure that work develops through reciprocal, respectful relationships.

Co-leader Alika Bourgette’s connections with Salish Sea canoe families will bring experienced carvers and skippers to campus, expanding the project’s global Indigenous relational network.

Anticipated Outputs

• Two completed prototype canoes (one at Duke; one in Sampson County with Coharie partners)
• ArcGIS story maps documenting historical and contemporary waterline change
• Tribal arts and storytelling exhibition at Duke in April
• Knowledge transfer of canoe-building and GIS mapping skills to Coharie and Lumbee community members
• Data and preliminary results to support a National Geographic Society grant application

Student Opportunities

The team will include 4 graduate and 8 undergraduate students. All majors are welcome. Training will be provided in:

• Native American and Indigenous studies
• Critical geography, cartographic methods and archival research
• GIS mapping and spatial storytelling
• Woodworking, canoe-building and traditional design practices
• Community-engaged research and reciprocal partnership building

Students will learn to “counter-map” Indigenous relationships to waterways, engage with knowledge keepers, participate in hands-on craft and contribute to both scholarly and public-facing work. Graduate and professional students will help lead subprojects, mentor peers and develop leadership pathways aligned with tribal community engagement and environmental justice.

In Fall 2026, this team will meet on Thursdays from 1:40-4:10 p.m.

Timing

Fall 2026 – Spring 2027

Fall 2026:

• Develop GIS and archival research skills
• Visit Coharie and Lumbee communities; conduct interviews
• Learn foundational canoe-building techniques
• Begin compiling and designing GIS story maps

Spring 2027:

• Build Duke campus canoe
• Complete GIS story maps
• Travel to Sampson County to build second canoe with Coharie partners (Spring Break)
• Prepare celebratory exhibition at Duke

Crediting

Academic credit available for fall and spring semesters