Indian Country leans into traditional knowledge to advance modern data needs

For my people, the Salish, when the Mission Valley on the Flathead Reservation is first blanketed with snow, a new cultural season is underway. Traditionally, winter ushers in a time when we tell our stories and reflect on our histories, weaving in life lessons to remind us of where we’ve been and who we want to be as a people, as a Native nation.   

As snow surrounds me in Montana, I find myself reflecting on conversations about data that have unfolded in Indian Country since the first snow fell last year. In no time during our modern history has data been more woven into the daily dialogue of tribal leaders and policymakers.

The Center for Indian Country Development (CICD) has engaged in many of these conversations about how to collect accurate, comprehensive data with Indian Country in ways that honor tribal data sovereignty. As I consider our collective work to address harmful data gaps that perpetuate the invisibility of Native people, I take comfort in history.  

Data and our knowledge systems 

Over the holidays, my brothers, my dad, and I shared stories of a recent q̓ʷeyq̓ʷay (buffalo) hunt we did in our tribe’s aboriginal hunting grounds in southwestern Montana. Even though it was a one-day hunt, it took months to plan. Reflecting on the volume of  information we needed to carry out the hunt got me thinking about the traditional q̓ʷeyq̓ʷay hunts the Salish did in our part of the world. 

The success of these tribal hunts depended on a deep knowledge and understanding of the natural world that, in modern terms, we could consider a form of data. To drive their decision-making, our leaders relied on information regarding the skills and training needs of the hunting party, their horse and supply inventories, the demand for and the supply of meat in the community, q̓ʷeyq̓ʷay migration patterns, the location of supplemental foods, climate indicators, transportation logistics, and any competition from other hunters in the area. 

While these data didn’t live on rows of spreadsheets or in complex datasets as they do today, Salish leaders were experts in interpreting information found in the physical and spiritual world, and relying on this knowledge to make the best decisions for their communities.  

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