Research & Academic Scholarship

The term Two-Spirit is a direct translation of the Ojibwe term, Niizh manidoowag.“Two-Spirited” or “Two-Spirit” is usually used to indicate a person whose body simultaneously houses a masculine spirit and a feminine spirit. The term can also be used more abstractly, to indicate the presence of two contrasting human spirits (such as Warrior and Clan Mother).

Pėhéveéšeēva (good day). I am an Assistant Professor of Sociology and American Indian Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. As a social demographer, I apply critical quantitative and mixed methods to research at the intersection of race, indigeneity, data, and inequality. I specialize in survey research in partnership with Indigenous communities and other marginalized populations. I ground my research in the following disciplinary lenses: Indigenous studies, sociology of race and ethnicity, political sociology, sociology of knowledge, critical demography, health policy research, and science and technology studies. As an Indigenous woman (Northern Cheyenne and Chicana), I believe that I cannot be a good researcher and teacher without being a good relative. Building strong relationships with Indigenous communities, organizations, Native Nations, and students requires humility, flexibility, and honoring the lived experiences of Indigenous Peoples—past, present, and future. I nurture these relationships by directing the Data Warriors Lab, which is an Indigenous social science laboratory. We connect researchers, students, and Indigenous communities to build data that support strong self-determined Indigenous futures. Our research model is grounded in the principles of Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance. Our work is driven by Indigenous communities (reservation, urban, and rural) and their pursuit of robust and meaningful data systems, policies, and practices. More on the Data Warriors Lab is coming soon.

PROMOTING INDIGENOUS DATA SOVEREIGNTY THROUGH DECOLONIZING DATA AND INDIGENOUS DATA GOVERNANCE

American Indians (AIs) have some of the poorest documented health outcomes of any racial/ethnic group. Research plays a vital role in addressing these health disparities.Historical and recent instances of unethical research, specifically the Havasupai ...

The Red Paper follows a tradition of Indigenous analysis and agenda making reports, like the first Red Paper released in 1970 by the Indian Association of Alberta in response to Canada’s 1969 White Paper. Our report, “Land Back,” breaks down the current status of land dispossession in Canada, focusing on alienation through resource extraction.

Northwestern is a community of learners situated within a network of historical and contemporary relationships with Native American tribes, communities, parents, students, and alumni. It is also in close proximity to an urban Native American community in Chicago and near several tribes in the Midwest. The Northwestern campus sits on the traditional homelands of the people of the Council of Three Fires, the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa as well as the Menominee, Miami and Ho-Chunk nations. It was also a site of trade, travel, gathering and healing for more than a dozen other Native tribes and is still home to over 100,000 tribal members in the state of Illinois.

The University of Oregon is located on Kalapuya Ilihi, the traditional indigenous homeland of the Kalapuya people. Following treaties between 1851 and 1855, Kalapuya people were dispossessed of their indigenous homeland by the United States government and forcibly removed to the Coast Reservation in Western Oregon. Today, descendants are citizens of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon, and continue to make important contributions in their communities, at UO, and across the land we now refer to as Oregon.*

Following is a slightly extended version of comments I made as part of a panel, “Courage and Social Justice in Our Time,” which was held at the University of Alberta on March 14, 2016. My fellow panelists included:  Dr. Isabel Altamirano-Jimenez, Associate Professor,

Our goal in this article is to remind readers what is unsettling about decolonization. Decolonization brings about the repatriation of Indigenous land and life; it is not a metaphor for other things we want to do to improve our societies and schools.

Article: The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance

From education plans for students to a workshop series for professionals and workplaces. Learn or educate about the land you are on.

Native Americans in North America, who enjoy territorial sovereignty on their lands, are at the frontlines of environmental protection. Their efforts safeguard their rights, culture and livelihoods, as well as

Above –– Infrastructure Otherwise Report 001, Mapping a Many Headed Hydra: The Struggle Over the Dakota Access Pipeline (2017). Text by Katie Mazer,...

For most of its history, the United States worked to acquire indigenous lands through treaties, agreements, and sometimes through forceful relocation from tribal homelands. Tribes were left with what at the time were thought to be the least-desirable lands. But the Supreme Court has often ruled that federal Indian reservations include valuable implied rights.

Indian nations today are faced with a critical dichotomy in their treatment by the federal government. For the most part, Congress has embarked on a path of promoting and encouraging economic development and self sufficiency, while the Supreme Court has taken virtually every opportunity in recent years to undercut the legal and practical basis of reservation self-government. Nowhere is this dichotomy more starkly illustrated than in the environmental arena.

Download Citation | The frontline of refusal: indigenous women warriors of standing rock | Indigenous women stand in solidarity on the frontline of refusal, protecting their ancestral homelands and their ways of life across North America... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

Starting in April 2016, thousands of people, led by Standing Rock Sioux Tribal members, gathered at camps to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline

Over the past three decades, the environmental movement has promoted a view of American Indians as the "original conservationists"—that is, "people so intimately bound to the land that they have left no mark upon it."

We believe the U.S. needs a WaSH (water, sanitation & hygiene) Sector, where diverse organizations join forces with impacted communities to close the Water Gap forever. So we built this database of implementers, funders, academics, community champions, government agencies and more—all committed to improving water and sanitation access across the country. By open sourcing this data and keeping it up-to-date, we hope to foster knowledge-sharing, research, strategic coordination, and most importantly, collaboration to bring impacted Americans the clean, running water we all deserve.

For patients historically stripped of control over their reproductive health, consideration of past violations and transparent discussion are key.

This study examined the experience of caregiving during a pandemic by asking five questions about how COVID-19 was impacting twenty American Indian caregivers providing care to a family member who was disabled, elderly, or had a chronic health condition. Interviews were conducted via Zoom. Themes identified were concern about the care recipient contracting COVID-19, increased caregiving intensity, increased Medical care issues, changes to caregiver health and health behaviors, and support received and increased need for support during the pandemic (material and emotional). Responses indicate that tribes and American Indian health organizations should initiate services that can support caregivers during the pandemic or make changes to their caregiver programs.

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Rather than struggle for new liberties, Native Americans fought to preserve rights that they already possessed.

The final report, Obstacles at Every Turn: Barriers to Political Participation Faced by Native American Voters, was released June 4, 2020, and provides detailed evidence that Native people face obstacles at every turn in the electoral process: from registering to vote, to casting votes, to having votes counted.

The primary objective of this study was to work with tribal communities to define and develop their own healthcare services and strategies for positiv…

This article will review the history of Indian voting rights in Arizona. I begin by reviewing the history of Native American voting rights and the history of voting discrimination against Native Americans in Arizona

On July 15th, 1948, Native American suffrage was finally passed with the Arizona Supreme Court overturning the case of Porter v. Hall, a case where Arizona Native Americans unsuccessfully sued for the right to vote. This gave the Indigenous population of Arizona the right to vote. This historic day came into fruition after decades of […]

Objective To examine reported racial discrimination and harassment against Native Americans, which broadly contribute to poor health outcomes. Data Source and Study Design Data come from a nationa...

The following report, composed by the Lakota People’s Law Project, will delve deeper into what it means to seek justice for Native peoples, including but also moving beyond anecdotal evidence of police violence by presenting empirical data that demonstrates how the justice system disproportionately and cruelly punishes American Indians.