| REBECCA RAE (Jicarilla Apache), Research Lecturer III, University of New Mexico-Center for Participatory Research and Santo Domingo Pueblo

| BEVERLY GORMAN (Navajo/Diné), Program Specialist/Social Worker, University of New Mexico-Center for Participatory Research and Santo Domingo Pueblo

| EUGENE TSINAJINNIE (Santo Domingo Pueblo), Epidemiologist, University of New Mexico-Center for Participatory Research and Santo Domingo Pueblo

| ESTEFANITA CALABAZA, Prevention Specialist, University of New Mexico-Center for Participatory Research and Santo Domingo Pueblo

The Tribal Data Champions Fellowship was created to equip and enhance Indigenous peoples’ skills and confidence in data and research and to increase the number of Indigenous people advocating and collecting, analyzing and reporting data that can support better data outcomes for tribes. The TDC Fellowship provided an opportunity for Indigenous people working in their tribal communities, a tribal organization, or organization that works with tribal communities to strengthen their knowledge in data and evaluation by participating in a 12-month innovative Indigenous based co-learning and collaborative community of practice. The yearlong training was centered in an Indigenous evaluation framework driven from Indigenous worldviews that acknowledges holistic, collectivism, community oriented, and spiritual measures that define healthy communities; and strengthens processes to define how to develop, govern, protect, and control the collection, ownership, and application of data for tribal communities. Rethinking data through an Indigenous framework helps to redefine the data narrative from a deficit model to a strength-based approach that advocates for data justice, racial equity and Indigenous data sovereignty. It’s a re-framing of how data questions are asked, collected, analyzed and reported within tribal communities. This also puts Indigenous people at the table as creators and contributors, not just recipients of research and data. 

The presentation aims to share:
1)  The development and implementation of the Tribal Data Champions Fellowship. 
2) Shared learnings from the Tribal Data Champion Fellows.