In July, Justin Sankey, STEEP trainee and University of Rhode Island PhD candidate in Project Four: Detection Tools, joined René LaPointe Jameson, a research assistant at Silent Spring Institute, for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s powwow on Cape Cod, MA. Justin and René spent a full day sharing resources and talking with members of the public and of various tribes about PFAS contamination in Cape Cod drinking water, private wells, and how this relates to and impacts the long history of tribal fishing and shellfishing practices. Many visitors expressed gratitude for PFAS discussion and the information available at the community event.

STEEP trainees and staff led a half day program at the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe‘s science summer camp for teens: Preserving Our Homeland, in Mashpee, MA. STEEP introduced campers to the science of PFAS and chemicals in our everyday lives and environment. The morning began with a Tribal ceremony of gratitude and cleansing, involving smudging with sage and cedar, and then Jitka Becanova, STEEP lead, led an engaging lesson about chemicals in our everyday lives. STEEP trainees Justin Sankey, Melissa Woodward, Emily Kaye, and Jennifer Sun each led hands-on activities introducing campers to aspects of PFAS, demonstrating a passive sampler, guiding campers to act out PFAS accumulation in the body and the food webs, and explaining how chromatography, the separation of a mixture into its components, can be used in PFAS analysis. The day concluded with a local fish lunch and a closing gratitude ceremony. Approximately 20 campers from grades 5 through 8 participated, and sessions were supported by Emily Diamond, Laurel Schaider, and Erica Meier from STEEP CEC, as well as Jason Steiding, Tribal Liaison and Director of the Mashpee Wampanoag Natural Resources Department, and Dale Oakley, Assistant Director.