Guidance for Working with Montana's Indigenous Communities

Resources and Guidance

• Indian Education for All MUS/MSU Required Training
  • Indian Education for All legislative statement
  • Seven Essential Understandings (see page 17 for a map of Montana's Indian Reservations and historic territories)
  • IEFA implementation expertise at MSU: Center for Bilingual and Multicultural Education
• Walk Softly and Listen Carefully: Building Research Relationships with Tribal Communities
• Native Knowledge 360
• Intellectual Property Rights and Tribal Nations
• Holding Space: A Guide for Partners in Tribal Research
• Becoming Visible: A Landscape Analysis of State Efforts to Provide Native American Education for All
• ndigenous Ally Toolkit article; Toolkit
• Community-Based Participatory Research and Indigenous Research Methodologies Literature
• General recommendations for describing your project and partnership in a proposal:
  • Focus on the strengths you're aiming to support/augment more than the deficits you seek to address.  This is about respect for your Indigenous partners.  Though most funders expect to see a problem statement, you can still frame your intent in positive terms.  See references for Eve Tuck's letter in the Harvard Educational Review.  As the introduction to her letter says, "'damage-centered' research...reinforces and reinscribes a one-dimensional notion of these people as depleted, ruined and hopeless."
  • Provide a positionality statement, situating yourself/your role, and your relationship history with your Indigenous partners.

Nomenclature

Recognize that using specific tribal affiliations (e.g., “Blackfeet,” “Crow,” “Assiniboine,” “Sioux”) to refer to Indigenous peoples and communities is more relevant and respectful than using generic (e.g., “Indigenous,” “Native American”) terms.  Generally, the best approach is to use terms Nations and communities have traditionally used for themselves (e.g., “Piikani,” “Apsaalooke,” “Nakona,” “Dakota”).  In a proposal, you may wish to use tribal affiliations when referring to specific examples or partners (e.g., “Blackfeet/Piikani,” “Crow/Apsaalooke”) and “Indigenous” for broader descriptions, as recommended by leading scholars.  The use of “Indigenous” encourages solidarity across political borders and contexts, while specific affiliations recognize unique contexts, experiences, and histories.  Note that many residents of “Indian Country” refer to themselves as Indians, or American Indians if they’re not using their specific tribal identification.  “Native American” is more often used in academic settings (viz. Native American Studies) but Indigenous is increasingly displacing Native American when a general term is required.

We recommend you make your nomenclature choices transparent to funders, and explain why you are choosing to use a certain term.  If the funder uses one term but you want to use another, explain that you're using terminology favored by your Indigenous community partner(s) (you'll want to follow their lead whenever possible).

Rules for conducting research with Indigenous communities or on Native lands in Montana

• Tribal (College) IRBs
  Bear in mind that tribal IRBs are part of sovereign governance structures.  Their requirements can be different or more challenging.  Assume that the relevant IRB governs research on the whole reservation, not just the tribal college, unless you're informed otherwise.  Some Tribal IRBs govern any research, not just human subjects research (see CSKT resolution below).  Many have requirements and review procedures that go well beyong other instituional IRBs (such as at MSU).  For example, they may require review of any presentation or publication content prior to public release.  They may also go beyond individual human subject welfare to consider a research project's implications for the broader tribal community or cultural integrity.
  In general, the MSU IRB requires you to have the authorization of a tribal IRB before it signs off (and you generally should have both), though rules may vary in terms of which IRB reviews first.
  Tribal IRB timelines can be much longer than MSUs IRB so it is imperative to plan well ahead.  Some of the Tribal IRBs require payment of fees to review your proposed research.
• Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes research policy statement

Organizations

• National Congress of American Indians
• Indian Health Service, Billings Area (includes Units across all of Montana and Wyoming)

Montana's 12 Tribes and 7 Reservation-Based Tribal Colleges

• Blackfeet Nation (or Southern Piegan / Amskapi Pikuni) // Blackfeet Community College
• Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes (Se lis or Bitterroot Salish, Qlisp e or Upper Pend d' Oreille, and the Ksanka or Kootenai)  // Salish Kootenai College
• Crow Tribe of Indians /Apsaalooke // Little Big Horn College
• Fort Belknap Indian Community (Assiniboine/Nakoda and Gros Ventre/A'aninin) // Aaniih Nakoda College
• Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes/Nakona & Dakota // Fort Peck Community College
• Little Shell Chippewa Tribe / Anishinaabe, Metis
• Northern Cheyenne Tribe / Tsetsehesestahase/So'taahe // Chief Dull Knife College
• Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boy's Reservation / Annishinabe, Ne -i-p yah- wahk // Stone Child College