The Impact of Data Sovereignty on American Indian Self-Determination: A Proof of Concept using Data Science
Presentation Type
Event
Abstract
The basis for my work is further examining the ideas of American Indian self-determination and tribal sovereignty beyond the legal and political definitions to provide a more modern approach to regaining eroded sovereignty through data sovereignty. Deloria (1976) theorized that maintaining the term sovereignty strictly in a legal/political context becomes a limiting concept designed at preventing solutions. Appropriately, this concept began as my initial framework design to adjudicate Federal Indian Law, policy, and theories by quantification using computational statistics. McKinley et al. (2012) asserts that in order to construct more enduring governments and viable economic institutions, education in Indigenous communities should uphold the values, interests, and cultures of the communities and nations. Thus, new understandings of Indigenous nationhood can be not only conceptualized, but can serve to protect and preserve community, sovereignty, and cultural traditions. Data Sovereignty is a realization of this new theory and praxis. The underlying foundation that is critical in this concept is higher education as it relates to nation building. A nation building approach coupled with higher education is deemed to be the most effective way to begin quantifying previously only qualitative assumptions about how American Indians serve their community. My 2016 story map, The Impact of Data Sovereignty on American Indian Self Determination was quite a lengthy discussion on American Indian history, Federal Indian Law and Policy, and the primers of how data sovereignty could further the development of unifying a data platform for data collection, management, and storage in Indian Country. Data sovereignty reflects how these concepts relate to cultural capital, educational praxis, and finally GIS/spatial analysis in developing this platform through statistical design theory. I will explore two case studies in realizing this theory and practice, but also discuss further open source initiatives I would like to pursue above and beyond this. I feel by developing this praxis through my doctoral dissertation, it will become more clear how powerful GIS and statistical design theory is for an American Indian scholar developing smart solutions for tribal communities. Thus, indigenous scholarship through educational nation building models the power of data sovereignty in real time.
Start Date
2-12-2018 12:00 PM
The Impact of Data Sovereignty on American Indian Self-Determination: A Proof of Concept using Data Science
The basis for my work is further examining the ideas of American Indian self-determination and tribal sovereignty beyond the legal and political definitions to provide a more modern approach to regaining eroded sovereignty through data sovereignty. Deloria (1976) theorized that maintaining the term sovereignty strictly in a legal/political context becomes a limiting concept designed at preventing solutions. Appropriately, this concept began as my initial framework design to adjudicate Federal Indian Law, policy, and theories by quantification using computational statistics. McKinley et al. (2012) asserts that in order to construct more enduring governments and viable economic institutions, education in Indigenous communities should uphold the values, interests, and cultures of the communities and nations. Thus, new understandings of Indigenous nationhood can be not only conceptualized, but can serve to protect and preserve community, sovereignty, and cultural traditions. Data Sovereignty is a realization of this new theory and praxis. The underlying foundation that is critical in this concept is higher education as it relates to nation building. A nation building approach coupled with higher education is deemed to be the most effective way to begin quantifying previously only qualitative assumptions about how American Indians serve their community. My 2016 story map, The Impact of Data Sovereignty on American Indian Self Determination was quite a lengthy discussion on American Indian history, Federal Indian Law and Policy, and the primers of how data sovereignty could further the development of unifying a data platform for data collection, management, and storage in Indian Country. Data sovereignty reflects how these concepts relate to cultural capital, educational praxis, and finally GIS/spatial analysis in developing this platform through statistical design theory. I will explore two case studies in realizing this theory and practice, but also discuss further open source initiatives I would like to pursue above and beyond this. I feel by developing this praxis through my doctoral dissertation, it will become more clear how powerful GIS and statistical design theory is for an American Indian scholar developing smart solutions for tribal communities. Thus, indigenous scholarship through educational nation building models the power of data sovereignty in real time.