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- [Narrator] Indigenous Ways of Knowing.

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Considerations for Researchers

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Working in Indigenous Communities:

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Relationship Building
and Interconnectedness.

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Presented by

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the Center for Native Child
and Family Resilience.

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Paulette Running Wolf, PhD,

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enrolled Blackfeet Tribal Member,

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CEO, Running Wolf & Associates

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- [Paulette] One of the
examples of Indigenous way

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of knowing that I think is
just crucially important

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is relationship building.

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And not just relationship
building within a community,

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but between the researchers

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and the staff that are
coming into the community.

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They have to recognize

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that all of those
relationships are important,

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and being able to understand
the importance of it

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is recognizing that connectedness.

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- [Narrator] Relationships
and accountability

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to those communities are the lynchpin

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of the entire research
or evaluation process.

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- [Paulette] And in my
research on Blackfeet values,

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one of the concepts that I found

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that I think many tribes can respond to

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or be resonant with

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is the process of becoming.

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And we talked about that
in the roadmap article,

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and that I think is so crucial

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because it acknowledges how
life is always changing.

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Things are always growing;
life, the world around us,

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the environment, you know, our families,

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all of that is always changing.

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If we look back to 100 years ago,

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it's a whole lot different.

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So, I think that process of becoming

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is a concept that distinguishes
us from many researchers

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who are coming into our communities

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and don't understand the importance

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of relationship building.

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They come in with an agenda,
it's already locked into place;

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their communities have
rarely had an opportunity

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to contribute to that
agenda, or point out,

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"Yeah, that might work where you been,

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"but it's not going to
necessarily work here."

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We have a process; we
have cultural protocols.

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And this is the way we'd like to do it.

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- [Narrator] Learn
about the unique history

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of the community,

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its experiences with research
and evaluation, good and bad,

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and any cultural protocols,
formal and informal,

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surrounding the planning and
conduct of research activities.

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- [Paulette] And I think
that's really crucial,

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you know, understanding
that sense of belonging,

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building relationships

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cannot only contribute to
individual connectedness,

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but the community then
has another opportunity

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to engage and understand each other.

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And the more opportunities
that those happen,

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such as ceremonies and events

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that they've joined together to produce,

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the more connected they feel,
not just to their community,

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but to their cultural values and beliefs.

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- [Narrator] Lemyra DeBruyn, PhD.

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Lemyra DeBruyn is French-Canadian

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from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

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She has lived and worked in
Indian country since 1972.

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- [Lemyra] First of all, in
terms of relationship building,

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I truly believe that without
relationship building

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and community involvement

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no project is going to be
successful or mean anything.

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It's just not going to have the meaning,

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it's not going to make a difference,

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and hopefully, the goal
of research and evaluation

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is to make a difference in community.

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- [Narrator] Researchers and evaluators

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must build a relationship
with the tribal community

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based on trust and authenticity
prior to beginning any work.

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- [Lemyra] But if you break
that down into the elements

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that are the outcomes of
relationship building,

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it's ultimately trust.

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And if you are able to gain
the trust of the people

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that you're working with,

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and I never think of them as
subjects, it just is beyond me

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to think of community members as subjects,

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so I think of them often as family.

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- [Narrator] The Center for Native Child

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and Family Resilience was
funded by the Children's Bureau,

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Administration for Children and Families,

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U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services,

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under cooperative
agreement number 90CA1853.

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The contents of this product
are solely the responsibility

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of JBS International Incorporated,

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and do not necessarily reflect

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the official views of
the Children's Bureau.