Kara McKeever '01 has received a $5,000 Phillip J. Otis Fellowship to promote greater understanding of environmental issues and the connection between the environment and spirituality.

McKeever, a senior anthropology major at Bates, is spending summer 2000 in Browning, Mont., the capital of the Blackfeet Reservation, to investigate how Native Americans near Glacier National Park reveal their collective consciousness and relationship to their environment through a complex system of naming the landscape.

"Seeing certain places triggers memories and events that have occurred in our past, and we relive those events in our minds," McKeever said. "When places, whether they be mountains or buildings, are connected with emotions and stories, they become holders of history."

The service-learning component of McKeever's project will involve working for the Blackfeet Youth Initiative, a nonprofit organization that works to promote cultural understanding between Native and non-Native Americans. The organization strives to build youth leaders in service to the Blackfeet Reservation, and McKeever plans to assist with direct counseling, program logistics and office administration.

Established in 1996 by Margaret V.B. and C. Angus Wurtele, the Philip J. Otis Endowment commemorates their son, Philip, a member of the Bates class of 1995, who died attempting to rescue an injured climber on Mount Rainier in August 1995. Otis was deeply concerned about nurturing a sense of responsibility for the natural environment, and the endowment sponsors opportunities for study, exploration and reflection by students, faculty and other members of the Bates community.