Abstract
In the United States, American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people are frequently under- or misrepresented in research and health statistics. A principal reason for this disparity is the lack of collaborative partnerships between researchers and tribes. There are hesitations from both academic Western scientists and tribal communities to establish new partnerships due to differences in cultural and scientific understanding, from data ownership and privacy to dissemination and project expansion. An infamous example is the mishandling of samples collected from the Havasupai Tribe by Arizona State University (ASU) scientists, leading to a legal battle between the tribe and ASU and ending in a moratorium of research with the Havasupai people. This paper will explore three successful and positive collaborations with a large and small tribe, including how the partnerships were established and the outcomes of the collaboration. In addition, the paper will provide perspective of what needs to be addressed by Western scientists if productive collaborations with tribal groups are to be established.
Highlights
IntroductionIn March 2021, the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the step of their All of Us Research Program would “respectfully engage American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people” [1]
Topsoil samples were collected from four sites—two agricultural (AGR) and two abandoned uranium mine sites (AUM)—with nine samples being collected at each site for a total of 36 topsoil samples
The average concentration of uranium differed at each site: agricultural sites (AGR) 1 was 0.17 μg/g, AGR 2 was 0.09 μg/g, AUM 1 was 0.18, and AUM 2 was 0.26
Summary
In March 2021, the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the step of their All of Us Research Program would “respectfully engage American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people” [1] This announcement reflects the sentiment of many U.S federal and state entities, as well as universities and non-profit organizations, seeking to work with AI/AN populations to address the under-representation of this group in research and healthcare. To increase partnerships with tribal groups, NIH and many public universities have established training modules to educate academic researchers on how to conduct culturally appropriate research with vulnerable populations, including tribal people [3,4,5,6,7,8] These modules are often informed from the work of researchers that have established successful research collaborations with Native American tribes that greatly benefit all parties involved and provide insights into the problems plaguing modern Native American communities [8]. It is our intention to demonstrate that productive collaborations between tribal communities and Western-trained physical scientists are possible, and discuss some barriers that have made these types of projects difficult for some of our non-tribal colleagues
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