INDIGENOUS STUDENT DATA: The Chaos, the Peace, and Cultivating New Traditions

Indigenous people are invisible in data for several reasons that include small sample sizes, self-identification of Native identity, lack of generalizability, and lack of relevant variables. Data is something we can both be in control of and, at the same time, out of our control, which begins the chaos found in the data. The chaos can somewhat be mitigated when advocating for Indigenous data governance or complete control of data by Indigenous communities. The peace that can arise when working with data comes when we harmonize with data, learning to coexist with the data that is available. Indigenous methods have allowed us to expose one of the biggest lies ever told; that quantitative data is objective. Access and data should be robust enough to allow tribal governments to answer questions relevant to their Tribal Nation. In data collection, we have imperfect tools, but there is so much room to grow and create a new tradition of Indigenizing data.