What do you think?

Should a tribe be able to control the research conducted on its reservation?

The Tribal College Journal invites you to submit your comments about sovereignty in an e-mail to the editor (250 words or less). If selected, your letter will be posted below and printed in the next Journal.

Read the comments submitted by:

Leslie W. Peltier, Turtle Mountain Community College
Aaron Teverbaugh, Portland, Oregon

Submitted by Leslie W. Peltier, Instructor, Dept. of Social Studies, Turtle Mountain Community College

2/17/05

For too long American Indian traditions, languages, customs, ceremonies, and their physical and emotional reactions to European vices have been studied and revised to prove some arrogant hypotheses of academic or missionary types. Language and cultural ignorance has caused misinterpretation of Indian culture, yet the conclusions of these scientific studies have been passed off as pure truth.

Americans still harbor an ingrained disrespect by their disregard for the sacredness of places and artifacts and for the sovereign rights of Indian nations. American Indians must be accorded intellectual property rights that other races have claimed as their own. Some Americans still do not believe that abstract, powerful concepts like democracy, elders’ rights, and gender equality could have originated with the American Indians.

People still question the authenticity of Indian medicinal plant knowledge, as if there could be any better scientists who have conducted longer or greater research than the original inhabitants. Plant knowledge has been passed down for generations before the Europeans even arrived.

Indian knowledge is being misused and credit is not accorded to the real sources of information; the Indian people and elders. Today “New Age” seekers gain “Indian teachings” from unidentified sources and have taken over the manufacturing and selling of Chippewa “dream catchers”, plains “medicine” bags and have exploited the sweat lodge ceremonies. Some non-Indian “New Agers” even say that they have permission to run our ceremonies!

Have centuries of research done the Indian any good? Our ancestors were very practical in their approach to life as we should be today. Let’s not study Indians for the sake of academic speculation or to help some visiting non-Indian earn his Ph.D.

Rather let’s see if we could save the life or limbs of a diabetic grandmother living on the federal surplus commodity diet. Rather than assessing the menstruation patterns of Indian girls, let us find program funding that uses culturally-acceptable methods to bring down the high rates of infant mortality.

Why gather data on suicides and drug or alcohol-related tragedies if nothing is done to relieve the real causes of depression among Indian teenagers? Why study the English-deficiency of Indian students, when our Indian languages are within one generation of becoming extinct? I agree with Cheryl Crazy Bull that the work being done in the indigenous languages classes and labs at all the tribal colleges is very “sacred work.”

Tribal colleges and tribal councilmen must enact tribal research policies and establish research boards of review. We must protect our culture and intellectual property rights and uphold our values by living them. We can no longer be the victims of the experts whose intent is doing what they think is best for us. Indian people who live and work within the reservations must be the research leaders. Let the big research grants come into the reservation economy through Indian hands rather than to the universities. Indian songwriter and activist, Floyd Westerman said it right:

“Here comes the anthros, better hide the past away…Then back they go to write their book and tell the world that there’s more…And not a cent of funded money that the anthros get to spend is ever given to their disappearing feathered-friends. And the Anthros keep diggin’ in our sacred ceremonial sites. As if there’s nothing wrong or education gives them the right.”

Leslie W. Peltier, Instructor
Turtle Mountain Community College
Belcourt, ND

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Submitted by Aaron Teverbaugh, Portland, OR
Dear Editor-

As a cultural anthropologist, I must admit to a bit of bias. However, research is only valuable if it is controlled by the research question rather than by outside political elements.

That said, tribes should be able to (and must be able to, in keeping with principles of sovereignty) dictate guidelines for acceptable researcher behavior (just as institutions require adherence to “human subject” guidelines).

For too long researchers have treated Natives as subjects of research instead of partners in research. Researchers interested in working on the reservation should work with the tribes to develop time, place, and manner guidelines.

They should also be more concerned with research relevant to the tribes rather than espousing grand goals “for all of humanity.”

Aeron Teverbaugh
Portland, OR