During our project, important concerns were raised by our community partners about the ownership of traditional ecological knowledge. These concerns are couched not only within a conversation about the profound differences between Western and Indigenous knowledge paradigms but within the socio-political history of universities and researchers. Researchers have engaged in unethical practices that have contributed to a legitimate distrust of researchers and universities. Medical researchers in Minnesota literally stole the bodies of Dakota people (http://www.mnhs.org/mayohouse/learn) and used them for research; the intergenerational anguish of experiences like these as well as continued contemporary concerns around the misuse of data, stolen knowledge and problematic interpretations (Cochran; Smith, 1999) reveal the need for discussion and response.

As such, we developed a two-part Indigenous Data Sovereignty symposium which included public education and a Tribal Partner workshop. This provided an opportunity for students, faculty and the public-at-large, to learn more about responsible and reciprocal research in Indigenous communities and it provided hands-on training and dialogue for the Back to Indigenous Futures and Nibi Manoomin teams and tribal partners to understand the histories and tensions, assert their/our rights to data ownership and inform their/our participation in collaborative research, and inform policies and curriculum at institutions of higher education.

Funding Provided by: http://idea.umn.edu/signature-programs/faculty-driven