Balancing “Know” and “No”: Collaborative Community-Based Archaeogentics Research and Indigenous Sovereignty

Summary

This is an abstract from the "2025 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of David J. Meltzer Part II" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

One of the challenges in collaborative community-based anthropological research is finding mutually beneficial pathways for the host community, and those invited to conduct research, to simultaneously support both sovereignty (host community) and research integrity (outside researchers). For example, what happens if those invited to do collaborative research reach conclusions that run counter to, or contest, traditional understandings held by knowledge keepers within the community? This paper delves into ongoing archaeological and paleogenetic collaborative research that David Meltzer and colleagues have undertaken at the request of Picuris Pueblo, a federally recognized tribal nation in northern New Mexico. Concepts of tribal sovereignty, knowledge production, data sovereignty and community collaboration are discussed, and insights are offered concerning a community's sovereign right to say “no” when collaborators present perspectives based on what they “know."

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 2025 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of David J. Meltzer Part II   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51340