Abstract: Produced with insights from those involved with tribal research in Montana and elsewhere.
Walk Softly and Listen Carefully: Building Research Relationships with Tribal Communities
The National Congress of American Indians Policy Research Center and Montana State University's Center for Native Health Partnerships are pleased to share a new resource. Walk Softly and Listen Carefully: Building Research Relationships with Tribal Communities was produced with insights from those involved with tribal research in Montana and elsewhere.
Increasingly, tribal leaders acknowledge that research is a key tool of tribal sovereignty in providing data and information to guide community planning, cross-community coordination, and program and policy development. Efforts to address longstanding issues, such as health disparities for American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN), have increasingly used partnership research approaches. This document seeks to strengthen these partnerships by providing insight about how culture, sovereignty, and experience matter in research with Native communities. It features two cases of effective partnerships – Messengers for Health in Montana and RezRIDERS in New Mexico – and two vignettes including the reflections of a tribal community organizer and Native researcher. The appendix includes resources and an abridged annotated bibliography with information on research on Indigenous knowledge, research policies and protocols developed by Native communities, and insights on negotiating research relationships with Native communities.
We gratefully acknowledge the various contributors and the support of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, grant number P20MD002317. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities or the National Institutes of Health.