manage, how to store, how to interpret, and what to share with researchers who are using and evaluating this data. It’s important, as the use of this technology becomes more prevalent, that researchers work directly with tribal communities because of the sensitivity of the information. Where, when, and how is it appropriate to share that data? We also have to be respectful of those tribal communities who choose not to share that information because of how information was treated in the past and because of our ability or inability to protect that cultural information.
“As a former tribal preservation officer, it has been my experience that technology is a bit of a double-edged sword in our tribal communities. Technology and its advances have allowed non-destructive ways of understanding the past. LiDAR, with its ability to see beyond what we can physically see on the landscape, has given us new insights to the past. Some of these contributions and “discoveries” of the past have confirmed what we have been telling researchers all along. For my community at Acoma Pueblo, we have been able to benefit from what LiDAR sees through its lens. Some of these contributions and “discoveries” of the past have confirmed what we have been telling researchers all along. That there are components to this landscape, the uses of these places, and the connection between existing communities that we knew in our own collective memory but that perhaps were not visible physically as we walk the landscape. With this new use of technology, we also know that it is new to many of our tribal communities. Part of the challenge that our tribal communities have is that we have yet to determine who has the right to manage and control the data that comes from the use of LiDAR. Because LiDAR is revealing additional information that may be culturally sensitive to many of our communities, we too, as tribal communities, are starting to have in-depth conversations about how to
The research presented is affirming to those of us from tribal communities who have done this work for years. It validates what we have been saying to researchers all along, as well as to other agencies that we work with. But as a tribal community member, it really highlights those places where we can build partnership in the future.” n
CROW CANYON ARCHAEOLOGICAL CENTER
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