Credit: Shannon1, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Indigenous Placemaking, Colonial Placetaking, and Indigenous Data Sovereignty
Implications of environmental data collection on Tribal lands
By Paige Nizhonii Kya’iyo Johnson, University of Montana
Contact: paigenkjohnson@gmail.com
Chairperson: Kyle Bocinsky, Montana Climate Office
Indigenous Data Sovereignty refers to the right of Indigenous Peoples to control and maintain their own data, including the collection, storage and interpretation of data related to their communities, lands, and ways of knowing. In the Missouri River Basin, colonialism has deeply disrupted Indigenous place-based knowledge systems and relationships to the land. Today, new forms of data collection such as the Army Corps of Engineers’ installation of a Mesonet weather station monitoring network across the Upper Basin raise important questions about data governance and consent on and near Tribal lands.
This professional paper project by Native Resilience Data Fellow Paige Nizhonii Kya’iyo Johnson, a graduate student in the Environmental Studies master’s program at the University of Montana, investigates how Indigenous Data Sovereignty protocols apply to environmental data collected on Tribal lands by federal and state agencies. To better understand how the Army Corps of Engineers is engaging with Tribes on the Mesonet project, Johnson interviewed federal and state officials and documented the range of Tribal engagement practices currently underway. In this paper, Johnson identifies common themes from the conversations and offers recommendations for how state and federal organizations can build more respectful and collaborative relationships with Tribes while supporting Indigenous sovereignty.
Citation: Johnson, Paige Nizhonii Kya’iyo, “Indigenous Placemaking, Colonial Placetaking, and Indigenous Data Sovereignty: Implications of environmental data collection on Tribal lands” (2025). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 12565. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/12565
Storymap: The Missouri River and Indigenous Placemaking
Johnson’s interest in Indigenous Data Sovereignty in the Missouri River Basin was sparked during the summer of 2022, when she researched and created an ArcGIS StoryMap titled The Missouri River and Indigenous Placemaking. The project was part of her Climate and Environmental Monitoring internship with the Montana Climate Office and Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College, based on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. The StoryMap explores the complex relationships between Tribes, the Missouri River, and non-human relatives in the Upper Missouri River Basin, highlighting how these connections have been disrupted by colonialism, the creation of reservations, and the construction of dams.
Click image above to read the StoryMap The Missouri River and Indigenous Placemaking.