Transforming research through indigenous cultural protocols: Issues of access, privacy, and respect

As an Indigenous researcher, I have had many experiences with contemplating and negotiating access among Indigenous populations. Having Indigenous heritage does not provide automatic access to Indigenous people and communities for research. Instead, my role as both insider and outsider complicates the research process. This chapter first offers an historical framework for research issues of access, privacy, and intrusion among Indigenous communities, and then I discuss how Indigenous researchers are redefining the research process and its benefits for their own communities, including how one university academic department in Native American Studies is teaching issues of and methods for Indigenous research.