Alexx Sanchez
asanch16@uwyo.edu
The High Plains American Indian Research Institute (HPAIRI) is working toward launching a new research institute in the Wind River reservation area to enhance university and reservation relations.
“We’re launching a new research institute. Part of what we hope to do is basically be a conduit to facilitate research relationships between the University of Wyoming and the tribes on Wind River,” Associate Director of HPAIRI Torivio Fodder said. “In the way that it would work in practice is that if the tribe had a research need such as if there was a water manager that was interested in connecting with a scholar on the best practices for planning, they could come to HPAIRI and chat with us and we would try to provide a connection with a faculty member interested in doing that kind of work on the reservation.”
One issue that has been faced is the distrust between researchers and American Indian tribes. Fodder said it was due to the extractive research that has been conducted in the past.
“A number of university institutions in the past have engaged in what we call extractive research practices. So they come into the reservation community, they perform a study, they might connect with some people in the community and then they leave, but they don’t necessarily leave any of their research or findings behind with the community,” Fodder said. “Over time as it has persisted, a lot of new communities have become skeptical about the benefits they can receive from academic research.”
With this institute, the HPAIRI is looking to change the practices of the past and work toward doing research that will be beneficial to the Wind River reservation community.
“What we’re hoping to do is to turn the page on all of that and provide access for scholars to the reservation,” Fodder said, “but also to help make sure that when academics come onto the reservation that they are engaging with the community in a meaningful way and leaving some of their research behind for the tribes so they access to information.”
William Gribb, UW professor of geography, is one of the academics working with the reservation. He is focusing on agricultural resource management.
“I’m part of a team now that is to do an agricultural plan for the Wind River reservation. HPAIRI is a part of that,” Gribb said. “A team of four faculty will put together an ‘ag’ plan for the Wind River reservation so it’s not just for one tribal group, but it’s for integrating and collaborating between the tribal groups on the Wind to look at agricultural development for the next twenty years. It’s a three-year project to do that. That is just one of many things that HPAIRI is working on and will work on.”.
Before getting the institute off the ground, HPAIRI first had to establish a relationship with the leadership of both the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes. During the meetings, HPAIRI wanted to get the leaders’ input about whether they thought this institution was useful and whether the work they planned to do would be helpful to the reservation communities.
“We really wanted to connect with the tribes instead of just coming in and saying, ‘Well here’s the research institute and we want to do this and that,’” Fodder said. “We wanted to go to the tribes first and find out what their needs were and to find out if the institute we had in mind was a kind of a way to meet some of those.”
To follow up the initial meetings, HPAIRI has been in continuous contact with the tribes by visiting the reservation at least once a month to meet with tribal leaders and community members.
During the previous week, HPAIRI had a major kickoff event featuring Walter Echo-Hawk who is an internationally renowned expert on indigenous human rights. Echo-Hawk gave a speech in the Wyoming Union West Ballroom on Oct. 19.
HPAIRI also has two pending projects for the future. One is focused on women’s health on the reservation, and the other will be a water management program that HPAIRI is coordinating.
“I think it has great opportunity. As long it is all supported by the university I think it will do well,” Gribb said. “It’s whole intent is to utilize the expertise on campus to assist with reservations with issues they brought up and ask for assistance. It makes perfect sense. We have seven hundred experts in fields that could help the reservation.”
