Emiliano Manriquez
This study identifies plant specimens of deep cultural and spiritual significance to Arizona’s Indigenous Nations within the Arizona State University Biocollections and examines how digitization, collection geography, and potential genomic sequencing intersect with Indigenous Data Sovereignty. Stewardship is framed through both the FAIR data principles, which promote accessibility and reuse, and the CARE principles, which emphasize Indigenous governance, responsibility, and authority in data use. Over 9,000 plant records from the SEINet mapping portal were filtered using geospatial boundaries encompassing twelve major Tribal Nation reservations. Two refined plant datasets, a Species List and a Genus List, were generated and compared in Excel to match culturally significant taxa (e.g., Salvia apiana, Nicotiana attenuata, Pinus edulis) against herbarium records. The Species List produced 4,321 direct specimen matches, while the Genus List identified 5,290 genus-level matches, indicating that culturally sensitive plants are extensively represented in academic collections. Gaps in smaller reservation datasets likely underrepresented the full cultural scope due to SEINet’s mapping limitations. These findings demonstrate the need for academic institutions to balance FAIR’s goals of openness with CARE’s requirements for community control and ethical accountability. Culturally significant specimens, particularly ceremonial, medicinal, and general ecological taxa, should be governed in collaboration with Indigenous communities to determine appropriate levels of digitization, cataloging, and sequencing. This study models how universities can integrate the FAIR and CARE principles to advance ethical stewardship, reciprocity, and decolonization within biological research.