KIPI News, November 22, 2022 – Part 1

2 min read

Schools in New York state are under orders to stop using Native American references in mascots, team names and logos by the end of the current school year. New York’s Department of Education told them so in a memo that points to a court decision in June. The Cambridge Central School District north of Albany sued to keep its mascot, despite a state directive more than 20 years ago that told districts to stop doing so as soon as was practical. Native American activists have been vocal about the issue for years. The National Congress of American Indians says some 1,900 schools nationwide still maintain the harmful stereotypes.

 

Tribal sovereignty takes many forms, but in the technology and social media age, none more important than the protection of health and other valuable information sought by outside corporations and other entities. Now a Cheyenne River non-profit organization is on a mission to secure the data of the tribe and individual tribal members. The Native BioData Consortium is already making a big impact and have developed an Indigenous Bio repository that has its own servers. Their focus is to help the community by way of data protection, they call this Sovereignty in Action. Tribal Liaison Burt Dillabaugh tells KIPI News that “We thought we were the customers, when actually we are the product.” As part of their goals, NBDC awarded  4 OLC Cheyenne River students, 25 hundred dollar practicums to develop and share their interpretation of Indigenous Data Sovereignty. The students are Amber Lebeau, Joseph White Eyes, Austin Red Dog and Tashina Sapa Win Smith. Dillabaugh says the plan is to continue the practicums so that the students and others become aware that data sovereignty means you own it, and you decide  what to do with it. 

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