Native Research Methods: Creating Cross-Campus Pathways for Ethical Research with Native Communities

Building from Native Research Methods, this proposal seeks to catalyze and lay the groundwork for ongoing structures of support for ethical and reciprocal research with Native peoples and communities across campus. This proposal aligns with the four strategic goals of the university.

This proposal has three objectives:
• Build a network of researchers at the University of Utah who are committed to using Native Research Methods to ethically engage with Native communities (goal 1: develop and transfer new knowledge)
• Catalyze connections between efforts on main campus ( Working With Native Communities Certificate created by Dr. Benally and Indigenous Communication Working Group led by Dr. Endres) and the health campus (Tribal Rural Urban Underserved Medical Education Certificate led by Dr. Sandweiss and Native American Summer Research Internship led by Dr. Holsti) to create training programs for the ethical conduct of partnerships with Native communities (goal 2: promote student success to transform lives)
• Establish research-informed best practices for creating structural support for reciprocal collaborations between Native communities and University researchers across healthcare, educational, and environmental contexts (goal 3: engage communities to improve health and quality of life)

This proposal will accomplish these objectives by:
• Offering networking and learning opportunities through a speaker/workshop/training series
• Facilitating conversation between main campus and the health campus about formal training models and research opportunities
• Creating a report that lays out tangible structures of support and a pathway for implementing research projects in support of Native communities
• Seeking opportunities for external funding to continue the objectives (NIH, NSF, Spencer Foundation)

These objectives work to ensure the long-term viability of the university (goal 4) through engaging improvement practices across the university.

Current Status

2024-05-03
The Native Research Methods symposium was held on April 19, 2025. The symposium featured keynotes from Drs. Margaret Kovach and Shawn Wilson, two preeminent scholars of Indigenous Research Methods, as well as panels on Amplifying Sovereignty; Engagement, Collaboration, and Relationships; and Ethics and IRB. The symposium was attended by over 160 faculty, staff, and students at the U; representatives from Nation nations and organizations; and community partners. Co-sponsorship beyond the 1U4U included the Office of the Vice President for Research; Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; College of Humanities, American West Center, Environmental Humanities Program; College of Social Work; American Indian Resource Center; College of Education; School of Cultural and Social Transformation; Pacific Islands Studies; and Utah Humanities, highlighting how important this topic is to many entities on campus. Attendee feedback was highly positive, calling for more resources devoted to support for Native research methods.

Agenda
9:00am- Opening Ceremony- Rios Pacheco
9:30am- Keynote: Margaret Kovach
10:30am-11:30pm Panel #1: Amplifying Sovereignty
11:40-12:40pm- Lunch
12:50pm-1:50pm- Panel #2: Engagement, Collaboration, and Relationships in Projects
Break 1:50-2:05pm
2:05-3:05 pm Panel #3: Ethics & IRB
3:15-4:15 pm- Keynote: Shawn Wilson
4:15-4:45- networking/mingling
4:45-5:15pm- closing ceremony- Damien Jones, Navajo Nation

Keynoters
Margaret Kovach is an Indigenous scholar of Nêhiyaw and Saulteaux ancestry from Treaty Four, Saskatchewan. She is currently a Professor in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver Campus. Her scholarly interests include Indigenous research methodologies, higher education approaches to Indigenous education, and social justice education. Her research seeks to explore ways in which Canadian universities can cultivate environments that enhance the experience for Indigenous scholars and graduate students. Among numerous publications in Indigenous research methodologies and Indigenous post-secondary education, she is the author of the book Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations, and Contexts through the University of Toronto Press now in its 2nd edition and co-editor of the anthology Royally Wronged: The Royal Society of Canada and Indigenous Peoples through McGill-Queen’s University Press. As a post-secondary scholar, her teaching, research, and writing is compelled by a particular interest in how members of university communities might work, learn, and live at the intersectionality of diversity in service of peaceful, compassionate, and socially just relations.

Dr Shawn Wilson is from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in northern Canada and lives on Syilx territory in Kelowna, British Columbia. He is an Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies and coordinates the Indigenous Knowledges Theme at the University of British Columbia.

Shawn has worked with Indigenous people worldwide and co-leads a research project aiming to define rules and guidelines for respecting and safeguarding sacred teachings, such as Ceremonial and Star Knowledge. He has spent time living, teaching and researching across Canada, the US, Australia, and Norway, along with supervising research projects in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
Shawn is the author of Research is Ceremony, which has sold out multiple printings. He is on the Board of Directors with the Tapestry Institute and has joined the newly established advisory group at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. Shawn has presented at Goals House (Davos) as part of the World Economic Forum and the MIR Centre for Peace. His cites his 3 kids as his greatest achievement, pride and joy.
Shawn Wilson (he/him) BSc (U Manitoba), MA (U Alaska), PhD (Monash)

Spiritual Leaders
Rios Pacheco is the cultural analyst for the Northwest Band of Shoshone Nation as well as a cultural and spiritual advisor for the tribe. Rios studied at the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe and is an artist and maker of traditional beading, feather work, and regalia.

Damien Jones (Navajo) is a Navajo small business owner and craftsman.

Panelists (in order of appearance)
Panel #1
Brad Parry is Vice-Chair and Natural Resources Officer of the Northwest Band of Shoshone Nation. A graduate of the University of Utah’s Department of Communication, Brad worked for seventeen years in the field of water reclamation. He is currently part of the Nation’s ecological restoration at wuda ogwa, also known as the Bear River Massacre Site.

Ashley Cordes (Coquille/KōKwel) is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Media in ENVS and ENG at the University of Oregon and a recent American Council of Learned Societies Fellow. Her research lies at the intersection of Indigenous science and technology studies, digital media, and environmental/place-based studies.

Jenna Murray (Eastern Shoshone) is an MD-PhD Student at the University of Utah School of Medicine & Department of Population Health Sciences. Jenna participated in the University of Utah’s Native American Research Internship (NARI) and was recently featured in a Sundance documentary about her journey to healthcare.

Josh Anderson is a healthcare administrator at Sacred Circle, a medical facility owned and operated by the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation. Josh has a masters of public health from the University of Utah.

Michelle Debbink received her MD and PhD from the University of Michigan in 2013, after which she completed Obstetrics and Gynecology residency at the University of Michigan. Her academic research focuses on reproductive justice, in particular on understanding the community and neighborhood drivers of racial and ethnic disparities in perinatal outcomes such as low birthweight, infant mortality, and maternal mortality and morbidity using qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Panel #2

Fiona Summers is the Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinator for the University of Utah’s Environmental Humanities Program. As a graduate of the EH program, Fiona has worked collaboratively with the Northwestern Band of Shoshone Nation and Antelope Island State Park to amplify Native voices in the park’s interpretive materials.

Hannah Taub is a Program Analyst at the Bureau of Reclamation, specializing in Tribal Consultation and Environmental Policy. A graduate from the Environmental Humanities Program at the University of Utah, Hannah worked collaboratively with the Northwestern Band of Shoshone Nation and Antelope Island State Park to amplify Native voices in the park’s interpretive materials.

Trish Ackley is a park naturalist at Antelope Island State Park in Utah. She specializes in connecting with the public and sharing the magic of wild spaces. Ackley discusses how preserving these lands is important for biodiversity, heritage, and soul.

Skylar Fetter was raised in a tiny town on the edge of the Akwesasne reserve, I am a Kanien’keha:ka scholar and second-year master's student at the University of Utah. Her work examines issues of contamination and remediation policy in freshwater systems in the Kaniatarowanenneh/St. Lawrence River watershed, centering indigenous women's methods of resistance while seeking new opportunities for tribally led remediation and environmental policy.

Panel 3

Lisa Taylor-Swanson is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing at University of Utah. Her research focuses on the improvement of symptom experience with an emphasis on midlife women’s health, gender disparities, and the evaluation of traditional East Asian medicine interventions. She is currently working on a team that is working with Latinas & Indigenous women on menopause treatment.

Sharon Austin (Navajo) who cannot be with us today because of travel, is an Adjunct Professor in Family and Preventative Medicine and owner of Water’s Edge Consulting. She has a PhD and MPH in Public Health from the University of Utah and Master’s degree in medical anthropology from Stanford University. Sharon works in health equity research and community engagement with American Indian Nations/Tribes.

David Sandweiss completed college and medical school at UCLA, and, in 1999, Pediatric Residency at University of Washington/Seattle Children's Hospital. He practiced general pediatrics for Navajo Area Indian Health Service for 5 years. Davis is the Director of Rural and American Indian Outreach for the Dept of Pediatrics Global, Rural, and Underserved Child Health Program, and the Director of the Rural and Underserved Medicine Pathway for the School of Medicine.

Alan Barlow (Navajo) is the Executive Director of the Urban Indian Center of Salt Lake. With dual master’s degrees and over seventeen (17) years of American Indian and Alaska Native health and leadership experience in federal, tribal, and urban Indian health programs, Alan Barlow exemplifies the notion that “culture” is not an abstract concept, but a source of everyday inspiration that drives service-line development and improvement.