Learning About Tribe is First Task of Researchers on Indian Land
Ask not what the tribe can do for you...
The author of this Guest View is Dr. Laurel J. Lacher, Senior Hydrologist,
White Mountain Apache Tribe
When I told my husband that I had been asked to write this column of approximately 1,000 words, he quipped, “You only need nine: Ask not what the tribe can do for you, ....” Actually, he’s just about right. Borrowing from Kennedy’s famous phrase eloquently sums up the essence of doing research on Indian lands.
During my first month working for the White Mountain Apache Tribe in 1996, I attended a meeting where representatives from the University of Arizona proposed a research project involving some data collection on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. Fresh out of graduate school myself, I thought their cause noble and interesting and could see no harm in the Tribe’s participation.
After nearly an hour of courteous academic banter among white folks, a Tribal elder finally spoke up. As I recall, his first question was: “How will this help my people?” Baffled, the academes blinked and stuttered. Before they could come up with a meaningful reply, the elder went on to explain some of the history of abuses done to Indian people in the name of “research.” He raised the specter of archaeology, where sacred remains are exhumed and displayed for public humiliation. He described scientific watershed experiments in the 1950’s and 60’s that legitimized the destruction of majestic cottonwoods along pristine riparian areas for the purpose of salvaging wasted water for downstream users in Phoenix.
Suddenly, my academic alliances and my stomach felt queasy. I can only hope that my ashen face did not reveal my quiet step across the line from UA graduate to Tribal employee. Sitting there in the wings of Tribal advocacy, I felt an uneasy balance trying to take hold. How could I support research in the face of this kind of history? How could I betray my fellow academics by not availing them of the abundant resources of this rich land for the benefit of science?
A Tribal elder finally spoke up....
"How will this help my people?"
More than five years later, I still work for the Tribe, and I still hear that elder’s words as clearly as if he had said them yesterday. I remember him saying, “Anything done on our lands should benefit the Tribe 51 percent or more and anyone else, less.” Today, I take a cautiously proactive approach to academic research on the Reservation. A few central tenets help keep me in line with my employers’ wishes: 1) Any project done on the Reservation must have a clear benefit, outweighing any risks, to the Tribe; 2) If possible, Tribal members should be employed to do or assist in the research; 3) Data collected on the Reservation belongs to the Tribe. The Tribe will decide whether or not the rest of the world reads about it in a journal or on the web. Many people are shocked by this list, but they shouldn’t be. Is it unusual for private ranchers to refuse to allow hydrologic or endangered species studies on their lands? Would you want your property controlled by outside interests because a rare speckled salamander lived in one of your streams? Researchers’ primary strength — intense focus — is also a potentially fatal flaw in the non-academic “real world.” The ability to put a research project in perspective and to instill in it societal value distinguishes those researchers who are destined to succeed with tribes from those who are not. Tribal leaders and elders have very long memories, and to them, one researcher is essentially the same as the rest until proved otherwise.
As academics, our challenge is to do something truly great by using research to benefit the land or resources we desire to study and the people who own them. This ideal presents a problem for some researchers who know little about those people or what they want. The answer is simple but not easy: go visit and spend some time learning. Here are some tips to help get you started: 1) Call the Inter-tribal Council of Arizona in Phoenix (or other similar organization if outside Arizona) to ask for a good contact with the Tribe; 2) Check the Internet, particularly the Tribe’s web site, to learn anything you can about the tribal people, land and resources; 3) Call your contact and schedule a visit. Offer to send some background materials on you and your proposed project in advance of your meeting; 4) Explain your project in plain English. Unless your audience is unusually scientific and well-educated, academic jargon will get you less than nowhere; 5) Put yourself in your host’s place. Try to find an angle that would be beneficial for him/her so that he/she can become your advocate; 6) Offer to present your proposal to the Tribal Council or elders group. Be ready for tough questions like, “How is this going to help us?” 7) Consider potential pit-falls and find ways to preempt them. For example, a) offer to hire a tribal member to assist in data collection and provide guidance on acceptable data collection sites, b) be sure to request a tribal permit for working on tribal lands; c) always ask before taking photographs; d) be very up-front about your desire to publish and offer to have all materials reviewed by tribal legal and/or technical staff before publication.
If these steps all seem viable, then take one more deep breath and ask yourself whether you honestly believe that your work will bring some measurable benefit to the tribe. If so, then carry on and you should have no trouble.
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