Donna House facts for kids
Donna House (born around 1953 or 1954) is a special kind of scientist called an ethnobotanist. This means she studies how people, especially Native American tribes, use plants. She also helped design the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
Donna House was born in Washington, D.C., where her father worked at The Pentagon. She grew up on the Navajo Nation Reservation in places like Oak Springs and Fort Defiance, Arizona. She belongs to the Towering House People Clan of the Diné (Navajo) and the Turtle Clan of the Oneida people. Donna was one of nine children and was raised with traditional Navajo values.
She was the first person from Oak Springs to graduate from university. She went to the University of Utah and first studied molecular biology, thinking she would become a doctor. But she soon changed her mind. She decided to study environmental science instead. This field allowed her to explore the important connections between people and the land around them. She is a proud citizen of the Navajo Nation.
Protecting Native Plants
In 1984, Donna House started working for the Navajo Nation's Division of Fish and Wildlife. She became the first head of the new Navajo Natural Heritage Program]. This program was created to find and protect native plants.
For eight years, Donna worked hard to gather information about plants. She focused on protecting endangered plants, especially those important to Native American traditions. For example, she helped find places where Kearney's blue star grows. This is one of the rarest flowers in Arizona, found on the lands of the Tohono Oʼodham people.
Designing a Special Museum
Donna House spent eleven years on the planning committee for the National Museum of the American Indian. This museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. She represented her own Native nations and worked with other tribal members.
Her main ideas helped shape the museum in important ways. She suggested that the museum's main entrance should face East, away from the main road. This direction is important because it lines up with the movement of the sun and parts of the solar calendar.
Donna also found and grew 189 different types of native plants for the gardens around the museum. These gardens were designed to show four different natural areas that used to be found in the region. These included an upland forest, eastern meadows, traditional farmlands, and wetlands. This was also a way to honor Tiber Creek, a stream that runs beneath the museum site. All the land and seeds used for the gardens were blessed before they became part of the museum's construction.
