Her over 20-year career has featured intensive work with Native American children, adolescents and families, but West Virginia University professor Carol Markstrom sees much more study ahead.

A Minneapolis, Minn. native, Dr. Markstrom first worked with Native Americans while a student at the University of Minnesota. In the 1980s, she served as a family counselor in tribal social service programs in South Dakota and an instructor at the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribes community college.

As a faculty member in the WVU Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences, Markstroms current work focuses on the education and development of Native American children and youth. She was recently invited to present a workshop,”Enhancing the Learning Experience of the American Indian Child,”at the First Annual Conference on the Education of the American Indian Child held in Arizona.

Markstrom, an associate professor of child development and family studies and member of the WVU Native American Studies Program, is currently conducting research for a book,”The Significance of Coming-of-Age Ceremonies for Contemporary American Indian Girls.”The work documents the parallels found in puberty ceremonies across Native American tribes and the implications for positive youth development of contemporary adolescents.

Another current area of research focuses on the psychological effects of uranium mining on the Navajo Nation of the Four Corners region of the American southwest, the intersection of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Markstrom says that Navajo miners and millers who worked in the 1940s through 1970s in the uranium industry endured horrific working conditions without proper protection.

“The grief of family members of deceased miners and millers has been compounded by arduous efforts for compensation,”Markstrom said.”Current concerns also revolve around reclamation of contaminated areas, education of tribal members about topics such as water safety and addressing fears of birth defects in children.”

She hopes that her involvement in this area will help to dispel myths and inform the American public of the difficulties tribes have endured.”People think the atrocities against American Indians were just events of the past, but that is just not true,”she said.”The uranium disaster is just another event in the 500-year history of abuse.”

Markstrom said her research has become a personal learning experience.

“It began as a scholarly activity, but quickly became a personal experience of growth as my own world view, beliefs and values were challenged through exposure to cultures and systems of meaning that were viable and of high importance to Native people.”