Community-Based Partnerships Between Tribal Colleges and the Center for Indigenous Health Research

Background:
Unprincipled research approaches and gross misconduct in indigenous and minority health research and practice over the past hundred years provides the basis for the current level of distrust of research within tribal and other indigenous communities.  Tribal communities in the United States, with the support of the Indian Health Service and other federal agencies, have begun the development and implementation of heightened levels of tribal approval processes, tribal institutional review boards, and requirements of researchers to provide greater levels of translational capacity building than in the past.  Along with these efforts, more issues and concerns about the perceived conflict between tribal epistemologies and Western thought  require careful consideration, ongoing discussions, and meaningful methods of implementing joint policy efforts on behalf of researchers, tribal communities and organizations, and other partners. The principles of research in indigenous communities can benefit from community-based participatory research theory.  Each tribal community constitutes a unique culture and people, requiring significant reflection on the translation of research principles into formalized agreements.

Methods:
We developed a series of methods to develop a comprehensive typology of TCU research approvals, generated appropriate documents for each approval process, and submitted a request for review of the research study by each community approval entity.

Results:

We recruited 27 of 31 Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU) to participate in the TCU: Drug and Alcohol Problems and Solutions Study. Participants provided a Letter of Participation and agreed to identify one staff member (TCU Advocates) as a liaison to the study. We met with TCU Presidents and Advocates once each quarter to discuss: (1) instrument review; (2) study methods and recruitment procedures; (3) research progress; (4) dissemination process; (5) TCU Publication Committee formation; and, (6) future research efforts.

Conclusions:
Academic freedom, freedom of speech, and perception of research bias include some of
the concerns raised by Western research institutions when confronted with tribal review and participation in the research process. Research Agreements can provide an opportunity for ongoing dialogue to address the appropriate marriage of Western and indigenous research requirements to allay fears and promulgate effective solutions. We will give examples of our current TCU, AIHEC and the Center for Indigenous Health Research (UW) partnership and create space for discussion of next steps as a way to ensure authentic partnerships in decolonizing indigenous research.