What is Indigenous Data Sovereignty?
Indigenous data sovereignty is the right of a American Indian nation to govern the collection, ownership, and application of its own data. Raw data, including digital sequence information from human genomes, have in recent years emerged as a top global commodity.
“Previous government-funded, large-scale human genome sequencing efforts, such as the Human Genome Diversity Project, the International HapMap Project, and the 1000 Genomes Project, provide examples of the ways in which open-source data have been commodified in the past.
These initiatives, which promised unrestricted, open access to data on population-specific biomarkers, ultimately enabled the generation of nearly a billion dollars’ worth of profits by pharmaceutical and ancestry-testing companies.” Keola Fox, NativeBio board member.
Our Policy Work
“Chief’s Committee to Secure and Safeguard Sovereignty, possession over Data, Genomics, AI and their uses” Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Assembly, Red Rock Indian Band, June 2022
“Preventing Evasion of Tribal Nation Data Sovereignty in the Health Research Sector by Means of Technological Modernization in an Unsettled Regulatory Frontier” National Congress of American Indians, #SAC-22-026, November 2022
“Tribal Data Sovereignty and Research Governance Plan” Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, May 2023
“Oceti Sakowin Wóopȟe of Big Data, Omics, and Artificial Intelligence Technologies Policy Guidance” Oceti Sakowin Treaty Conference (Seven Council Fires of the Sioux) December 2022 (pending)