Haskell Institute was established in 1884 in Lawrence, Kansas, to partially fulfill treaty and trust obligations of the U.S. Government for American Indians. Its initial purpose was to assimilate Indians into American culture by training young students for careers in farming, such as blacksmithing, and in domestics, such as homemaking. Over the last century, Haskell has evolved into a nationally recognized intertribal institution of higher education for American Indians. Haskell was granted Land Grant status as a Tribal college in 1994, and that same year offered its first baccalaureate program in elementary education. Numerous cultural and educational opportunities available at Haskell are a valued legacy left to American Indian youth by their elders.

The proposed Fire Science curriculum, an emphasis of the Environmental Science bachelor's degree, offers particular opportunities with today's demographic and environmental dynamics. Scheduled to begin during the spring semester, 2005, the hybrid Online Weather Studies course will be incorporated as a required class within the Fire Science curriculum. Real-time discussions and activities of the weather phenomenon have particular relevance to wild fire behavior and its affects of the land and the people. Topics will include: Winds, such as down-slope, Foehm, Santa Ana, Chinook, Mono or East winds, leading to erratic fire behavior; Cold fronts, cumulus clouds, dust clouds, directional shifts, the passing of fronts and wind shifts; Relative humidity and fuel moisture; Thunderstorms, cumulonimbus clouds, thunder, lightning & gusty winds, anvil-shaped clouds, downdraft winds, and the radial spread & velocity of downdrafts; The earth's surface affects on lower atomosphere warming and cooling; Significance of the earth's "heat balance"; A discussion of the daily and seasonal lags in temperature; Relationships between atmospheric pressure, volume & temperature; Temperature-humidity relationships; Atmospheric stability and clouds,including thermal belt, subsidence & thunderstorm developments caused by lifting processes; Keeping current with weather, including observations, forecasts and warnings.