Congratulations to James Rattling Leaf, Robin O’Malley and Chad McNutt who have been awarded seed funding from Rising Voices for their project "Enabling Tribal Data Sovereignty: Supporting Great Plains and Northern Rockies Tribes Data Needs". This project was one of three projects that received seed funding to catalyze their projects and advance the ethos of the Rising Voices Center for Indigenous and Earth Sciences. All entries for this funding opportunity represented important and cutting edge work that advances Indigenous science and action in the Earth sciences.

PROJECT: Enabling Tribal Data Sovereignty: Supporting Great Plains and Northern Rockies Tribes Data Needs

Abstract: Tribal nations require sound information for governance, ensuring the health and welfare of their citizens, and planning. Tribes face particular challenges in accessing, interpreting, utilizing, managing, and protecting data. Limited resources, fragmented / stovepiped federal programs supporting narrowly defined activities, lack of data sovereignty policies, and similar obstacles frustrate action. Ensuring true tribal sovereignty requires access to and the resources needed to effectively use data and information.  This project will further the establishment of a tribally-governed not-for-profit entity that offers human, technical, and financial resources to tribes and tribal programs for specific health, environmental, or socioeconomic data related problems in the Great Plains and Northern Rockies region. Our goal is to increase tribes’ ability to access, interpret and apply data for governance, planning, and for improving economic opportunity and tribal sustainability. Creation of a regional entity with technical skills, orientation to tribal needs / capacities, and adequate resources to support training and data sovereignty issues would enable regional tribal governments to serve their citizens more effectively, support planning, and improve daily life for thousands of Native Americans.

Team: James Rattling Leaf (PI, Rattling Leaf Consulting; USGS North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center), Robin O’Malley (formerly with USGS North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center; Robin O’Malley LLC), Chad McNutt (formerly with NOAA/National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS); co-founder Livestock Wx).

The Rising Voices program facilitates intercultural, relational-based approaches for understanding and adapting to extreme weather and climate events, climate variability and climate change. The program brings Indigenous and other scientific professionals, tribal and community leaders, environmental and communication experts, students, educators, and artists from across the United States, including Alaska, Hawai'i, the Pacific and Caribbean Islands, and around the world, to assess critical community needs and to pursue joint research aimed at developing optimal plans for community action towards sustainability. Rising Voices acknowledges the inherent value of Indigenous knowledge systems and Indigenous science, adaptive practices and processes, honoring them equally with Earth sciences. More information can be found at: https://risingvoices.ucar.edu/.