Alexandria Ponce,  

Sponsor or Client: 

Title:

Collaboration as the First Step in Creating Relationships with Tribal Communities

Abstract:

Throughout history a part of the Indigenous experience has consisted of being on the receiving end of exclusionary decisions. This can be seen in modern day actions, including the academic research that has been carried out on them, mostly without their consent or input. As time carries on and these fields progress, the methods being used need to follow suit. Frequently, researchers will form a study surrounding an Indigenous group and in most cases it is not clear of the work done to legally (including culturally appropriate processes) carry out the study. However, those actions don’t include the moral obligations or take into consideration the sensitivity of the situation. The tribes are likely to not be included in the decision making for methodologies, the execution of the study, or receive any actual benefit from the research. Lacking this connection and communication is what keeps researchers, even those actively attempting to benefit the community, from carrying out completely ethical research. My current research aims to demonstrate the importance/relevance of interdisciplinary work with fields, such as anthropology, integrating the hard sciences. Through a bibliographic review, taking part in a project that is executing this type of interdisciplinary approach, and holding interviews with the researchers involved in it, I conclude that hard science research will greatly benefit by introducing and integrating fields that focus on studying and working with Indigenous communities groups in a culturally appropriate way, which also lead to a more useful and beneficial research for the Indigenous communities involved.