Indigenous Peoples are taking control of their data

Indigenous Peoples around the world are taking control of their data, a movement whose leaders include a Washington State University faculty member.

We're all more aware of the amount of data collected about us, but Indigenous Data Sovereignty means more than that, said Cheryl Ellenwood, an assistant professor in WSU's School of Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs, and a member of the Nimíipuu (Nez Perce) nation and Diné (Navajo).

It's a recognition that data has sometimes been collected without Native peoples' permission and used in ways that disadvantaged them.

It also applies to more than just ones and zeros, Ellenwood said. Indigenous data can be stories, traditions and teachings. It might be sacred objects and cultural artifacts - weaving, masks, pottery, beading - that serve to transmit knowledge and information from generation to generation.

Under Indigenous Data Sovereignty, Native peoples are asserting their right to control how their data is collected, used and retained. Indigenous Data Sovereignty is an extension of tribal sovereignty.

A recent illustration of the issue arose during the COVID-19pandemic. Federal and state health officials initially refused to share critical data with tribal public health departments and epidemiologists, despite the heavy toll the virus was taking on Native communities.

Think, too, about the cultural artifacts taken from Native peoples over the centuries that now reside in museums and private collections.

"These are not artifacts of people of the past, they hold insights into the people who made them and are still connected" to Indigenous Peoples of today, Ellenwood said. "All of these items that people are hoarding and collecting are Indigenous data that need to be governed by Indigenous Peoples."

Indigenous Peoples worldwide are mobilizing to regain control of their data. Indigenous Peoples in Australia and New Zealand, for example, have developed data governance models to guide government practices. In that sense, they are much farther along in this process, but there is progress in the U.S.

Ellenwood was one of the organizers of an Indigenous Data Sovereignty summit held in Arizona last spring that brought together about 600 tribal leaders and Native scholars.

Cheyanne Weikle, a WSU student who's a member of the Tribal Nation Building Leadership Program, attended the summit with Ellenwood and presented her research on Child Protective Services records for Native children.

"I got a good grasp on Indigenous data and what it encompasses, not just from an academic perspective but in terms of how tribal nations measure what data is," said Weikle, who expects to graduate in December with a degree in sociology with a minor in American Indian studies. She is a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Ellenwood said tribal governments are increasingly using policies and review boards to steward research involving their Peoples, lands, and waters. She cited the Coeur d'AleneTribe's research permit to work with the tribe as a "phenomenal" example of Indigenous data governance. That application begins:

"Research is the pursuit of knowledge, and is a sacred undertaking. Thus, it is the Coeur d'Alene Tribe's expectation that research conducted within our homeland is done so with respect for all members of our community, including people, plants, animals, water and land; that it is done with reciprocity, understanding its benefits to both the researcher and our community; that the researcher does so through relationship in our community that embraces and upholds the five pillars; and that the researcher carries the responsibility of ensuring that his or her research is conducted in an ethical way that benefits the Coeur d'Alene people."

Tribes want and need to engage in research with partners like universities and research institutions, Ellenwood noted. It's important that Indigenous Peoples have the ability to control and govern data about them within these types of partnerships.

Indigenous Data Sovereignty, she said, is "more about developing data practices that respect how (Native peoples) want data to be collected, shared, and governed for the life cycle of that data."