The Standing Rock Sioux Reservation encompasses portions of both South and North Dakota. In 2009, a Tribal College Research Grant was awarded to Sitting Bull Tribal College (SBC), Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory USDA-ARS (NGPRL) and North Dakota State University (NDSU) to explore natural resource management on the Standing Rock. Beside traditional scientific studies, a portion of the grant was also used to fund ‘Talking Circles’ which allowed tribal elders to provide feedback on the project’s short-term goal of natural resource management and long-term goal of developing a natural meat project on Standing Rock. After the Talking Circles confirmed interest in the project’s goals, a $5 million-dollar AFRI grant was awarded to NDSU, NGPRL, SBC and South Dakota State University to continue pursuing these two goals.
Results/Conclusions
Positives from the projects were the inclusion of Talking Circles and having an on-the-ground director from a nearby Native American community. Both these helped ensure the project addressed community concerns. Negatives included difficulties addressing administrative boundaries between different units and finding the most effective ways of information to the Standing Rock community. The project was not funded after the initial five years and the cessation of the project can lead to a feeling within tribal communities of ‘Helicopter Researchers’ or researchers using the tribal community. Projects focusing on tribal communities should 1) be led as much as possible by local institutions, 2) both initially and during the project have strong community dialog and 3) be funded for longer time periods.