Part III-D Learning from Practice: GIS as a Tool in Planning Sustainable Development Public Participation © 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC 433 25 GIS Support for Empowering Marginalized Communities: The Cherokee Nation Case Study Laura Harjo CONTENTS 25.1 Introduction 433 25.2 Geopolitical Context of Cherokee Nation 437 25.3 Cherokee Nation GeoData Center 437 25.3.1 Cherokee Language Preservation 438 25.3.2 Mapping Indian Graves 439 25.3.3 Salina Cemetery Reclamation 441 25.3.4 Place Names and Historic Sites 441 25.3.5 Indian Health 441 25.3.6 Methamphetamine Labs, Risk, and Protective Factors Research 442 25.3.7 Business and Policy Decisions 445 25.3.8 Native American Housing and Self Determination Act (NAHASDA): Formula-Negotiated Rulemaking 446 25.3.9 Arkansas Riverbed Authority 447 25.4 Conclusions 448 References 449 25.1 INTRODUCTION This chapter discusses several uses of GIS and its role in community empowerment at the Cherokee Nation GeoData Center, which is an entity within the Cherokee Nation tribal government. The role of the GeoData Center is to provide spatial © 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC 434 GIS for Sustainable Development analyses and data analyses to assist in decision support, policy issues, and tribal planning efforts. The philosophy behind the Cherokee Nation GeoData Center is to reinforce traditional values specific to Indian culture, particularly that of Cherokee citizens, thereby advocating for and empowering them. The GIS technology is housed in the GeoData Center. Previous GIS projects have integrated traditional values specific to Indian culture, a guiding principle is that the work must advance the lives of Cherokee citizens. Many of the traditional values have been recognized since time immemorial. For example, placing a high importance upon one’s social network ensures that one’s actions are measured and will have positive implications on one’s social network, including the nuclear family, extended family, and surrounding physical environment. The natural environment influences and gives order to a people’s culture [1]. GIS has become a tool of empowerment for Indigenous peoples across the world. Indigenous peoples are strategically using the technology of GIS to empower and advocate for their causes. They are using it internally to empower their people and externally, with governmental entities, to advocate for their people. Empowerment and advocacy on behalf of Indigenous peoples is what ensures survival and pros- perity. Efforts of measured, methodical, and substantial research are forging a path for Indigenous people worldwide in profound ways. Common threads can be drawn between Tribal peoples of the United States and Indigenous peoples of the world that are living as marginalized peoples. Indigenous peoples from all over the world are using GIS to advance their peoples. For example, the Maori of New Zealand are gathering spatial information for land claims, at the same time gathering traditional knowledge and teaching their elders how to use GIS [2]; the Seri Tribe in Sonora, Mexico, are delineating areas for sustainable resource practices [3]. This chapter outlines methods Cherokee Nation currently uses to sustain its citizens and its tribal government. This in turn leads to its survival and prosperity, coupling the tools of modern science with traditional Indigenous values. Advocacy for Indigenous peoples is construed as standing up for Indigenous peoples in opposition to a governmental entity or any other entity that is a threat or detriment to the survival of a people or to its traditional way of life. There have been a string of occurrences within the United States against Tribal peoples. Many stories have not found their way to national interest; however, they are appalling. A couple of the worst transgressions of the twentieth century against Tribal peoples in the Oklahoma region were the placement of Indian children in boarding schools during the late 1800s to mid-1900s, where they were subjected to beatings and molestations and punished for speaking their native languages and, during the 1970s, coerced sterilization of Indian women of childbearing age at Indian Health facilities [4]. This is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg of the political climate that Tribal peoples live in within the state of Oklahoma. The tribal history contains a string of injustices; however, the pressing contemporary struggles include legislative battles and agreements at the state and federal legislative level. These are struggles that can be met with the technology of GIS. In the contemporary United States there are multitudes of tribes clamoring for survival. The struggle is urgent, many tribes are small groups, and once the last © 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC GIS Support for Empowering Marginalized Communities 435 person dies, they are gone forever. Prior to contact there were over a million Tribal individuals with distinct cultures, languages, and governing systems. Much of the Indigenous population was annihilated after European colonization. Many died from new diseases brought to the shores. The Indian population was reduced by approx- imately 70%, from one million at the time of Columbus, to 300,000 in 1900 [5]. The culprits of this dramatic reduction in population were mainly war and disease. The policy of the United States government toward American Indian tribes has been a tumultuous journey. The federal government dealt separately with the various Indian tribes until 1871, when the U.S. Congress enacted a law that prohibited further treaty-making with tribes. Historically, the United States government has dealt with Indian tribes as sov- ereign nations; today tribes are considered domestic sovereigns [6]. Federal Indian policy has had several eras up to the present day. In order to gain a better under- standing of philosophies and principles of American Indian tribes, it is necessary to understand their history. In Stephen L. Pevar’s The Rights of Indians and Tribes [5], the reader is taken through seven eras of federal Indian policy up to current Indian policy. A brief discourse on United States Indian policy illustrates the underpinnings from which the concept of Indian law was borne as well as an understanding of contemporary struggles American Indians face today, some of which include lasting consequences for Tribes from failed Indian policy. The first era was from 1492 to1787: Tribal Independence [7]. Tribes were independent nations. They provided settlers with assistance in what is now America. During the periods of war, various European nations sought their support. In the French and Indian War, tribes allied with the British, the British and American Indians proved successful. As a result the King of England made a proclamation to limit the taking of Indian lands by colonists [8]. However, neither this proclamation nor laws, nor treaties still to come in the future would make a difference. Proclamations, laws, treaties were rarely enforced to the benefit of Indians. Indian land was taken, and tribal peoples were moved off their land to make way for colonists. Another turning point was the American Revolution, which took place between the colonists and the British, with much of this war fought on the aboriginal territories of Indians. Indians perceived this war as a war among outsiders; however colonists would burn villages to engage their participation in the war [9]. Tribes were independent entities that new arrivals in America looked toward for assistance in surviving, assistance in fighting wars. As the new arrivals settled in so did their insatiable want for Indian land. The era of 1787–1828 is called Agreements between Equals. This began the treaty period between tribes and the United States. During this time there were several land cessions on the part of American Indians. The United States benefited the most any time there was a land cession deal brokered with Indian tribes. At the end of this era a dark period for the Indian tribes of the southeastern region of the country came. The Cherokee Tribe among others was subjected to atrocious human rights violations. 1828–1887 was the era of Relocation of the Indians. During this time, what once was a covert policy now became an overt mission, to remove Indians from homelands © 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC 436 GIS for Sustainable Development desired by white settlers. Land was desired either for farming potential, gold, or extrication of other resources from the land. The influx of settlers was pushing resources to an unsustainable condition. This is a problem that is pervasive in the United States even today: unsustainable practices. This era saw tribes located in the Southeast subjected to a forced march called the Trail of Tears, which began in the southeast and ended in the state of Oklahoma. This forced march included Cherokee Nation. In 1887 the Dawes Act was passed, which allowed the government to take and allot the communally held tribal land base in Oklahoma. This land base was demar- cated as the new Cherokee Nation after land cessions of aboriginal homeland during the removal period. The United States government split tribal land bases into aliquot parts and assigned parcels of land to tribal members. After tribal members were assigned property, the United States government then deemed the remaining property as surplus. This surplus property was then opened up for sale to non-Indians. The intent of this land tenure policy was to assimilate Indians into white culture by virtue of converting Americans Indians into land-owning farmers. The boarding schools curriculum where Indian children were sent was steeped in principles of training Indians to become farmers and service providers. The period of 1934–1953 was coined Indian Reorganization, this was a period of readjustment of the existing Indian policy, and it began during the Great Depres- sion. A need for Indian land began to dwindle, due to lack of financial resources by non-Indians at the time as a result of the Great Depression. A critical report was released during this time, the Merriam Report, which outlined the poor status of Indians in the United States. This began a wave of change in Indian policy. It should be noted that the United States had and still takes a paternal stance with Indian tribes. In 1934 policies were put in place that allowed tribes to reorganize with the blessing of the United States. This was a time of nation building since the tribes were allowed to reorganize. In modern times the situation of Tribal peoples in the United States parallels that of other racial minorities. Data trends frequently indicate socioeconomic and health disparities among minority groups, American Indians included. The existence of American Indians in the contemporary United States takes its place along with other marginalized peoples. Marginalized peoples in the country for the most part include racial minorities, Blacks, Latinos, as well as white lower-income ranks. The common thread is that, from a socioeconomic standpoint, they all seem to suffer from the same ills: poverty, health disparities such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and a general lack of wealth, defined as assets such as homes and financial portfolios. Racial discrimination is a pervasive factor in the United States; it is insidious in that sometimes is not called what it really is. This is demonstrated by the amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights that guarantees suffrage for all peoples; however people of color still fight for social justice even today. The use of GIS technology and mapping is rising to meet the challenge of social justice for Cherokee citizens. They have been relegated to a position in which they are on the fringes of people’s consciousness; in other words, they have been mar- ginalized. Socioeconomic variables can be factored into this. Native people usually suffer the highest of all social ills (i.e., poverty rates, unemployment, risk factors © 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC GIS Support for Empowering Marginalized Communities 437 for substance abuse). GIS has been used to measure trends in these socioeconomic variables. 25.2 GEOPOLITICAL CONTEXT OF CHEROKEE NATION The Cherokee Nation is located in the northeastern corner of the state of Oklahoma. The Tribal jurisdictional area is comprised of a 14-county area, which is approxi- mately 7,000 square miles, although only about 45,000 acres of the tribal jurisdiction are actually owned by Cherokee Nation (Figure 25.1). The geopolitical context of Cherokee Nation within the United States is that of a dependent sovereign [10]. There are approximately 500 federally recognized tribes in the United States. The Cherokee Nation Jurisdictional Area services a population of over 80,000 citizens with a land base of 6,945 square miles in northeastern Oklahoma. The service population is defined as the number of Cherokees who live within the 14-county jurisdiction; the number of Cherokees worldwide is over 240,000 citizens. Cherokee Nation operates a tribal government, comprised of an executive branch, judicial branch, and legislative branch. 25.3 CHEROKEE NATION GEODATA CENTER This program is considered a resource provider within the tribe; it researches, gathers, and analyzes information to enable informed and strategic decision-making. The GeoData Center is housed under the major division of Information Systems and serves as a GIS shop to all programs within Cherokee Nation. The GeoData Center is often requested to perform data and spatial analyses and produce descriptive FIGURE 25.1 Map of Cherokee Nation jurisdiction. OK OK Okl aho ma Okl aho ma Counties of Oklahoma Cherokee Nations Jurisdiction Capital of the Cherokee Nation Legend Cherokee Nation 14 County Jurisdictional Boundary with the State of Oklahoma Data Sources US Census Bureau (TIGER Files) Cherokee Nation Geographic Information Systems Department © 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC 438 GIS for Sustainable Development statistics for programs. Typically, when this form of information and analysis is requested, it is applied in the following ways: substantiating a legal argument or position that allows the tribe a voice in a particular matter, or demonstrating a level of need such as the need for adequate diabetes funding to address the diabetes epidemic in Indian Country. The GeoData Center uses its GIS to address five areas: community participation mapping, Tribal empowerment, individual empowerment, community health and community empowerment through maps. All of these efforts are in the context of social justice, advocacy, and empowerment for the Tribe as a whole. The principles behind the mapping also include education about socioeconomic and health issues facing American Indians, informing legislators at the tribal, state, and federal levels, and use of technology usually only available or used by researchers at universities. Cherokee Nation mapping efforts are a hybrid of GIS, scientific and social science research methods, and local tribal knowledge. The indicators used in most analyses are derived from tribally administered surveys, Indian Health Service RPMS (Resource and Patient Management Services), State agencies, and U.S. Census data. This information is mapped frequently at three areal units: Indian community, zip code, and county. From the perspective of spatial data analysis, the following is a brief list of methods used: spatial data visualization, analysis of clusters and trends, creation of socioeconomic indices using quartiles, descriptive statistics, and creation of choropleth maps. The following is a brief list of projects the GeoData Center has accomplished, some of which are described in the remainder of this section: language survey mapping, place-names and historic sites, mapping of Indian communities, Sequoyah Fuels-Uranium Processing Plant, Saline Courthouse, grave and cemetery reclamation, NAHASDA formula negotiated rulemaking, information for tobacco and gaming state compacts, gaming site and health clinic site selection analysis, and a great deal more. 25.3.1 C HEROKEE L ANGUAGE P RESERVATION In 2001, the Cherokee Nation began taking strides toward language revitalization. For tribal members it was common knowledge that less and less of the Tribe was speaking Cherokee. Most significantly, younger generations had relatively few speakers. Language preservation and revitalization efforts were and are being mod- eling after the Maori of New Zealand and the Native Hawaiians, both of which have been successful with language immersion programs. Cherokee Nation received fund- ing for the development of a language plan to initiate Cherokee language preservation efforts. The intent of the plan was to establish a baseline of who was speaking the language, where the language was being spoken, and the level of fluency being spoken. A language survey was conducted. The development of the survey instrument actively involved Cherokee speakers; in taking this approach a culturally appropriate instrument was developed. This method of survey development empowered tribal members to raise an awareness of cultural nuances. The survey was administered in both English and Cherokee. After the survey was administered, interviewers found that surveys administered in Cher- okee took less time that those administered in English. © 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC GIS Support for Empowering Marginalized Communities 439 The language survey was received by the GeoData Center in a database format. There were 40+ survey questions on the survey instrument, and additionally, there was a geographic component to the database that enabled analysis with the GIS. This involved a series of choropleth maps; these maps enabled members of the Language Project to visualize information from their language survey in a more profound way. They were able to determine where their most fluent speakers resided by zip code as well as determine where nonspeakers resided. A key point to mapping respondents by fluency levels aids in resource planning; for instance in locations where there is a high concentration of nonspeakers, this would be the optimal location for a beginning Cherokee class. A high concentration of speakers who are not yet master-level speakers may necessitate an intermediate-level Cherokee class. Maps that illustrated the aforementioned points were developed and provided to the Lan- There were further relationships with the data explored through the GIS, includ- ing the resident zip codes of speakers who spoke Cherokee as their first language. At the conclusion of the Trail of Tears, the most traditional of Tribal members located in areas that bore a resemblance to their aboriginal lands. This terrain is rugged. It is in these pockets where the most traditional are found, where the culture is still thriving, and this is where many of the master-level speakers reside. The Language Project group also rated the Cherokee Language on Fishman’s Scale for language and found that the language is in danger; it is one generation away from being lost. This is evidenced by the results based on the number of speakers by age and gender. There were no speakers under the age of 40 and no speakers who were women of childbearing age. Although this is a sample, it is most likely indicative of the situation the Tribe is in presently. Additionally, as a result of there being so few speakers under the age of 40, it is difficult to recruit fluent Tribal members to earn a college degree that will enable them to teach in an immersion program. 25.3.2 M APPING I NDIAN G RAVES Within the tribal boundary of Cherokee Nation there are Indian graves and cemeteries that are at risk of the location being lost forever. Sometimes these locations are in deeply wooded areas where only the last surviving elder of a family knows the location. Loss of land is a perennial problem tribal people face, and one of the implications of this problem of being shuffled from place to place is that graves do not “shuffle” as well. The way in which Cherokees marked their graves puts the graves at risk for loss of the location and recognition. Historically, Cherokees marked graves with a small footstone and a larger stone for the headstone, graves marked in this way have no signifier of name or date of birth. This places the graves in a risky situation. When land is conveyed into the hands of a non-Indian the significance of a Cherokee footstone and headstone may go unrecognized as a grave to the untrained eye, and the stones may simply be discarded if regarded as debris. In locating graves and cemeteries, many times the process is initiated by a Tribal member. In one case, an elderly Tribal member knew of several gravesites that he assisted the tribe in locating. Previously, the GeoData Center worked closely with the Historic Preservation officer and traveled along to perform GPS fieldwork in © 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC guage Project (Figure 25.2). 440 GIS for Sustainable Development collecting positions of endangered cemeteries and graves. Tribal members frequently initiated the fieldwork and shared knowledge of graves and cemeteries. This required travel often to remote areas within Cherokee Nation, which are sometimes in wooded high-relief terrain, where it can be difficult to acquire the adequate number of satellites for an accurate GPS position. These projects involved collecting the fol- lowing: a point for each grave, a polygon that delineated the boundary of the cemetery, photos of the grave, if available, data pertaining to the name of the individual and the year of birth and year of death. Upon completion of data collection, maps were created, and families were supplied with maps of the gravesite and cemetery. One of the challenges to this project is the flood of Cherokee citizens able to locate graves. This is simply an issue of having the manpower to handle the FIGURE 25.2 Language survey map illustrates the distribution of conversational to master fluency respondents by county. © 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC GIS Support for Empowering Marginalized Communities 441 increased caseload that would be required to locate all Indian graves within the Tribal jurisdiction. 25.3.3 S ALINA C EMETERY R ECLAMATION The Historic Preservation Office and Cultural Resource Center received a report that the city of Salina was planning to construct a building where an Indian Cemetery was believed to be located. Local Tribal members had always maintained that there was a cemetery located at the site, but non-Indians were skeptical of this. The city’s intent was to proceed with the construction of the building; the burden of proof fell upon Cherokee Nation to demonstrate that the proposed construction site housed a cemetery. The Cultural Resource Center gathered documents, which included a map of the Benge Cemetery, depicting grave plots annotated with names. Cherokee Nation staff went out to the site along with personnel from the Kaw Nation. Kaw Nation personnel operated a Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR), and GeoData Center staff operated a GPS unit. The GPR revealed scores of graves; the graves corresponded with the historic map of Benge Cemetery. As a result of the rediscovery of the cemetery construction was halted. This effort proved successful. 25.3.4 P LACE N AMES AND H ISTORIC S ITES The documentation of traditional knowledge is important for Indian tribes. The GeoData Center worked on an initiative to map traditional Cherokee place names; information was received from Cherokee Elders, as well as historical documents. This involved gathering information relating to traditional place names and Cherokee syllabary writing of the place names. From this information a cultural map was created that depicted Cherokee place names. Historically, maps created by explorers ignore Indigenous names, and in many ways this gives the appearance of lack of presence of tribal peoples [10]. The exercise of mapping Cherokee places enables the Cherokee Nation to assert its presence in the modern world. Another form of traditional mapping involves delineating where tribal people believe their community boundaries are. This project entailed interviewing tribal members, placing maps in front of them and asking them to sketch their community boundaries. From these maps spatial data was developed in the GIS to create an Indian Community layer. This data layer was submitted to the United States Census Bureau under a program named Census Designated Places and, subsequently, was a level of geography for which Census 2000 data was enumerated. This data layer has also become a central component of much of the mapping efforts at the Tribe and is used as an overlay with various types of socioeconomic data. In overlaying this data, patterns of data that spatially coincide with the Indian Communities offer a deeper understanding of the socioeconomics of Indian Communities. 25.3.5 INDIAN HEALTH Several Indian clinics are operated within the tribal jurisdiction, as well as two hospitals. Information collected about patients is entered into a database, and this © 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC [...]...442 GIS for Sustainable Development system allows for tables to be retrieved for health data analysis The tribe is presently addressing several health disparities among its tribal membership GIS is used for resource allocation as well as tracking disease prevalence and determining clinic catchment areas The GeoData Center created a scenario of a proposed clinic site and modeled a twenty-five mile... integrate into the GIS This information was then presented to members of the Meth Task Force to be gleaned of the most relevant indicators for American Indian populations The second phase involved collaborating with Cherokee Nation Meth Task Force members This component was significant in that it allowed the Tribe to assess all © 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC 444 GIS for Sustainable Development of... planners to more and more consider participatory processes as part of their work If collaborative decision-making is increasingly appearing to be a precondition for successful planning [1,2], then information sharing is a precondition for collaborative decision-making [3] Furthermore, because a decision is the end result of a process, the level of participation and information sharing at the different... concepts of participation and the use of GIS in land planning It then describes an experimental participatory diagnosis for urban planning in a Geneva neighborhood The chapter focuses on the elaboration and use of cartographic indicators to support this participative diagnosis It concludes in favor of participatory approaches that emphasize the process more than the GIS 26.2 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND GIS Recent... Recent developments in urban planning have involved trying to link the concepts of participation with information technology such as GIS, virtual reality, and the Internet [4–9] Many of them are clearly optimistic about the power of information technology to modify participation and power relationships By improving access to information, these technologies are seen as means for changing the flow of information... by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC GIS and Participatory Diagnosis in Urban Planning: A Case Study in Geneva Diagnosis Group Research Group STEP 1 30 Concerns Research Group Residents Diagnosis Group Research Group Consultation 190 Concerns FORUM Information STEP 2 16 Issues Spatial indicators FORUM Information Cleaning up Interviews Priority level FORUM Information STEPS 3- 4 4 Priority issues Cleaning... represent forms of factual information produced by government, whereas strategies, such as development plans, represent objectives and preferences For their part, residents provide factual information when, for example, they speak about the presence of an infrastructure or its state of disrepair, and they express preferences when requesting better security for a school But these two types of information... strategic issues, not the details of a development project, are discussed The participatory process thus becomes a cognitive process that helps the parties involved grasp the complexity of territorial concerns from the point of view of sustainable development Geographic information provides content for the learning process, and GIS tools facilitate the flow of information among the people involved In... Web-based public participation geographical information systems: an aid to local environmental decision-making, Comput Environ Urban Syst., 24 (2), 109, 2000 9 Talen, E., Bottom-up GIS A new tool for individual and group expression in participatory planning, J Am Plann Assoc., 66 (3), 279, 2000 10 Pickles, J., Ground Truth: The Social Implications of Geographical Information Systems, Guilford Press, New... Community-Integrated GIS for Land Reform in South Africa, Proceeding of GISOC’99, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, June 1999 15 Talpin, J., Elitisme et délibération dans la pensée politique de Pierre Bourdieu, revue Sens Public no 1, Lyon, 2004 16 Nembrini, A and Joerin, F., Use of geographical information in public participative processes, Proceedings of 2nd Annual Public Participative GIS Conference, . Nation Geographic Information Systems Department © 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC 438 GIS for Sustainable Development statistics for programs. Typically, when this form of information and. Part III-D Learning from Practice: GIS as a Tool in Planning Sustainable Development Public Participation © 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC 433 25 GIS Support for Empowering. best for their unique situations in the area of housing. Cherokee Nation participated in Formula-Negoti- ated Rulemaking with tribes across the county with the Department of Housing and Urban Development