More Like this

1. Tribal Constitutions Project

   https://doi.org/10.21825/dlh.89669  

   Redbird, Beth; Delaney, Erin (January 2023, Journal for Digital Legal History)

   Tribal Constitutions, Citing Slavery, and Petitioning for Freedom are digital legal history projects focused on expressions of sovereignty within tribal constitutions, the remnants of slavery in modern law, and the underexamined role of habeas petitioners in challenging coercion and confinement in the long-nineteenth-century United States. Each project deploys legal databases differently, but with the shared goal of contributing key insights to legal historical scholarship and offering interfaces that appeal to a broad, public audience. 

   more » « less
2. Sovereignty, Race, and Freedom in Constitutions, Citations, and Corpuses

   https://doi.org/10.21825/dlh.89667  

   Jagodinsky, Katrina (November 2023, Journal for Digital Legal History)

   Tribal Constitutions, Citing Slavery, and Petitioning for Freedom are digital legal history projects focused on expressions of sovereignty within tribal constitutions, the remnants of slavery in modern law, and the underexamined role of habeas petitioners in challenging coercion and confinement in the long-nineteenth-century United States. Each project deploys legal databases differently, but with the shared goal of contributing key insights to legal historical scholarship and offering interfaces that appeal to a broad, public audience. 

   more » « less
3. Multi-level Collaborative Governance Framework for Designing Accountable AI Systems for Emergency Management

   https://doi.org/10.59490/dgo.2025.980  

   Chen, Yu-Che; Tsai, Chun-Hua; Zendejas, Edouardo (May 2025, Conference on Digital Government Research)

   This paper addresses a gap in the AI governance literature in understanding collaboration between national governments and tribal nations in governing AI systems for emergency management. This conceptual work develops and presents a governance design framework for accountable AI systems to fill the knowledge gap by drawing from the fields of public administration, information systems, indigenous studies, and emergency management. This framework situates the governance framework in a cross-sovereignty historical, legal, and policy contexts. It captures the multi-level features and embeddedness of governance structures, including the levels of collaborative governance structure, software system governance rules, and technical software system design. The focal governance dynamics involve the collaborative process in the bi-directional relationship between governance rules and technical design for accountability and the feedback loop. The framework highlights the importance of multi-level and process considerations in designing accountable AI systems. Productive future research avenues include empirical investigation and resulting refinement of the framework and analytical rigor employing institutional grammar. 

   more » « less
4. Co-Design Smart Disaster Management Systems with Indigenous Communities

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3660643  

   Tsai, Chun-Hua; Huang, Chenyu Victor; Chen, Yu-Che; Zendejas, Edouardo; Krafka, Sarah; Zendejas, Jordan (April 2024, Digital Government: Research and Practice)

   Tribal governments bear an uneven burden in the face of escalating disaster risks, climate change, and environmental degradation, primarily due to their deeply entrenched ties to the environment and its resources. Regrettably, accessing vital information and evidence to secure adequate funding or support poses difficulties for enrolled tribal members and their lands. In response to these challenges, this paper collaborates with tribal nations to co-design intelligent disaster management systems using AI chatbots and drone technologies. The primary objective is to explore how tribal governments perceive and experience these emerging technologies in the realm of disaster reporting practices. This paper presents participatory design studies. First, we interviewed seasoned first-line emergency managers and hosted an in-person design workshop to introduce theEmergency Reporterchatbot. Second, we organized a follow-up design workshop on tribal land to deliberate the utilization of drones within their community. Through qualitative analysis, we unveiled key themes surrounding integrating these emergency technologies within the jurisdiction of tribal governments. The findings disclosed substantial backing from tribal governments and their tribal members for the proposed technologies. Moreover, we delved into the potential of chatbots and drones to empower tribal governments in disaster management, safeguard their sovereignty, and facilitate collaboration with other agencies. 

   more » « less
5. Engagement for Life's Sake: Reflections on Partnering and Partnership with Rural Tribal Nations ^☆

   https://doi.org/10.1111/ruso.12519  

   Schelly, Chelsea; Gagnon, Valoree; Brosemer, Kathleen; Arola, Kristin (January 2024, Rural Sociology)

   Abstract In this paper, we reflect on our collective experiences engaging with Anishinaabe Tribal Nations in the Great Lakes region to support Tribal sovereignty in decision‐making for food, energy, and water (FEW) systems. In these diverse experiences, we find common lessons. The first set of lessons contributes new empirical knowledge regarding the challenges and opportunities that rural Great Lakes Tribal Nations navigate for enacting sovereignty in decision‐making. Our experiences illustrate that while Tribal Nations benefit from a broad and deep commitment to sovereignty and many cultural strengths, they are often challenged by shortages in administrative capacity; technical support; and embeddedness in economic, socio‐cultural, and institutional dynamics that must be further negotiated for Tribes to enact the sovereignty to which they are inherently (and legally) entitled. Productive partnerships struggle when university partners fail to acknowledge these realities. The second set of lessons addresses the potential for, and challenges of, effective engagement processes. We find that engagement with university professionals is often mismatched with the priorities and needs of Tribal Nations. Effective engagement with Tribal Nations requires practical knowledge, applied assistance, and grounded, genuine relationships; these requirements often run counter to the institutional structures and priorities imposed by universities, federal funding agencies, and student recruitment. These findings, associated with both empirical knowledge and lessons on process, highlight shared insights on formidable barriers to effective engagement. Based on our firsthand experience working with rural Tribal Nations on FEW decision‐making, we share these reflections with particular focus on lessons learned for professionals who engage, or hope to engage, with Tribal Nations in rural settings and offer opportunities to transform engagement processes to better support the immediate, practical needs of rural Tribal Nations. 

   more » « less