On May 8, 2023, the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs announced in a Dear Tribal Leader Letter a consultation on Tribal data priorities. Ensuring quality data is available to inform policy making, resource distributions and effective program management is critical to advancing the well-being of Indian Country. This fact was made clear in attempts to determine needs for Tribal communities during the emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic and then in efforts to decide on fair, equitable and transparent payments to tribes.
To make progress on this need for improved data, an Indian Country Data Working Group (ICDWG) was established among Federal Agencies to identify shared goals and actions which could be presented to Tribes in consultation. The goals and actions address a spectrum of efforts including: ensuring Tribal sovereignty is recognized upfront in all our practices, improving quality of existing data, creating new data sources, increasing capability to integrate data, and producing new data driven research products.
Accompanying this letter is a description of shared priority areas identified by Federal partners. During the consultation, Indian Affairs and Federal partners will provide a brief summary of the proposed shared goals and actions. We are seeking feedback on the following questions:
- Do you agree with the proposed priority goals and actions?
- Are there any changes you would make?
- Are there additional priorities which we should consider?
We look forward to your input on these proposed shared goals and actions to improve data quality and availability needed to advance Indian Country.
Consultation Materials
Sessions
Comment Deadline
Please submit comments and include "Tribal Data Priorities" in the header, by 11:59 p.m. EDT, July 20, 2023.
