UTTC Tribal Leaders Summit: Afternoon session focuses on Indigenous health research

A “helicopter researcher” gathers information and conducts studies about Indigenous communities but then never shares that research with those communities, Julie Smith-Yliniemi, citizen of the White Earth Reservation, said Thursday at the UTTC Tribal Leaders Summit in Bismarck, North Dakota.

The University of North Dakota Indigenous Trauma & Resilience Research Center does the opposite, she said: It conducts “community-based participatory research” that engages directly with Indigenous communities and uses their feedback to improve its studies.

Smith-Yliniemi, director of community-engaged research for the center, shared that work during the afternoon panel “Braiding Knowledge Systems.”

“We need to make sure that data is relevant to the community,” she said, highlighting the need to come together with Indigenous communities to conduct and disseminate research.

Responding to a community need, Smith-Yliniemi is currently researching how sobriety is affected when people regularly engage in “culture camps,” weekly meetings where Indigenous community members craft together. Along with taking feedback from participants, community members also sit on the research team.

Smith-Yliniemi ended the panel by encouraging students and attendees to learn from each other.