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[ Music ]

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My name is Joseph Connolly, and
I'm an aerospace engineer here

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at the NASA Glenn
Research Center.

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As an aerospace engineer
here, I've been working

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on a commercial supersonics
project where we're trying

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to develop new technologies

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to enable a supersonic
commercial vehicle

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that will be able to fly
supersonically over land.

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Working in a research
environment is really fantastic.

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It's something that
I'm really passionate

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about because it's an
opportunity where we get

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to define new problems that
haven't been explored before

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and be part of solutions
that are going

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to advance the current
state-of-the-art of technology.

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I grew up in Niagara
Falls, New York.

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The Irish side of my
family is actually

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from Niagara Falls, Ontario.

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The native American side
of my family is actually

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from Six Nations of Grand River,

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Ontario-is the reservation
that I was part of.

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I think inclusion is very
important for my work

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because it allows people to
have different perspectives

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to come together and
figure out new solutions

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to technology problems
that we have to solve.

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If we're going to be solving
problems that are going to be

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for the benefit for all
people, and if we're going

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to be doing that, we're
going need perspectives

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from all different
people to come

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up with the correct solutions.

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For Native American ceremonies,
sports is really a big part

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of the religious experience.

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Most of the sports, we
call it a healing game,

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and our main healing game
is actually Lacrosse.

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So during the ceremonies
if one of the elders

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or if someone's having some
physical pain, some back pain

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or something's bothering them,
they'll request a Lacrosse game

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and during the ceremony
everyone would go outside

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and we'll actually have a
Lacrosse game for their benefit.

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One of the things that
makes me so proud to work

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at NASA is NASA does
a lot of outreach

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to Native American communities.

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They have done this through
a conference called Native

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People's Native Homelands.

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And basically this
was a conference

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where they're bringing
together NASA climate experts

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and Native American elders

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to do a cultural an information
exchange in terns of some

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of the important things
that have been changing

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in our climate and
within our environment.

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It was an amazing
opportunity to be a part of.

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So one of the things that I
think was really important

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to me growing up was that
I always had my grandmother

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and the Native American
culture all around me,

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and it was something that I
somewhat took for granted.

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When I left Niagara
Falls in the area

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where there is a relatively
rich Native American culture

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and history there and went
to the Ohio State University,

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I found that there was basically
no Native American support

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network at Ohio State
at the time.

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And through that experience
that's when I really started

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to become engaged with my
Native American culture.

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I really started to make
sure I sat down and talked

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with my grandmother so we
could have language lessons.

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We made sure that we
went to the social

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and cultural ceremonies
whenever I was back in town.

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And really spending a lot more
time becoming more familiar

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and understanding the practices
that I would want to pass