On Wednesday tribal leaders and members of Indigenous institutions came together to discuss the role data plays in Native American communities at a virtual event hosted by the Center for Indian Country Development.
The impact of poor data can have drastic, even tragic, impacts on Native communities.
Chrystel Cornelius is CEO of Oweesta Corporation and member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota. She said there is an obligation that non-Native organizations have when working with tribal communities: understanding a history that needs to be known and respected.
Cornelius said her North Dakota tribe was downgraded because of a Census undercount that resulted in land loss by the federal government.
“So the government in 1867 decided to do a census of our people,” she said. “So they came out in the dead of winter, right? Our bands didn't all live together, and they only found 16 full blood families.”
There were actually hundreds of families. But federal officials reduced the reservation’s size based on those inaccurate numbers.
“We still remember that. So data hasn't always been our friend. Data collection hasn't always necessarily and especially benefited us,” she said.
These are the kinds of issues around tribal digital sovereignty the summit is designed to address.
This year 23 speakers highlighted the need for tribal communities t0 decide how to maintain and control their own data usage and records.
But participants had many ideas of what that looks like. So earlier this year the National Congress of American Indians issued a resolution with a more comprehensive definition. It basically says tribal digital sovereignty is the authority over all physical and virtual network infrastructure. That includes how data is collected and stored, as well as how people can access it and how it’s used.
The American Indian Policy Institute also created a definition of Indigenous digital sovereignty as well as Indigenous data sovereignty and network sovereignty. The issue has taken on more urgency with the expansion of broadband in Native communities. Summit participants say these communities have the rights, strengths and knowledge to care for this information.
Governor of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes Reggie Wassana said data is imperative to figure out where the largest populations are in his communities and what their needs are so tribes can deliver services. But he says some Native Americans are weary of participating and giving out their information.
“You know, even in my own family, my mom didn't want to do things because she didn't want anybody to know her personal information. My uncle was the same way,” he said.
He said educating community members about how their information will be used is helpful in getting more participation.
“So we do have to talk to our elders and say this information will not be used,” he said. “You'll be a number, and you won't be a person. So that we can understand that 10 of these elders in this community all have the same need.”
Larry Wright Jr. from the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and the executive director for the National Congress of American Indians said tribes also need to know where the data is going.
“What is that protection so it doesn't get used or misused, and tribes feel safe about having that where it's stored and how it's used in even a collective aggregate,” he said.
Wright said there needs to be more accurate data from tribal nations to ensure equity and fairness. Other challenges include gathering data in sparsely populated areas and the importance of using multiple data sources.
This is the fourth time the Center for Indian Country Development held the summit and it pledged to continue holding it every year.
Support from the coverage comes from the Thornburg Foundation.
