59.04.040 Rrb Principles

(a) The RRB, in examining research proposals, shall be guided by the following principles:

(1) Principle of Fully Informed Consent after Full Disclosure and Consultation--Research should not be conducted until there has been full consultation with all potentially affected communities and individuals including all human research subjects, and each such community and individual have approved the research after full disclosure. Full disclosure includes the full range of potential benefits and harms of the research, all relevant affiliations of the person(s) or organization(s) seeking to undertake the research, and all sponsors of the researcher(s), the use and ownership of all material and information collected, the use and ownership of any derivatives obtained using any material collected as part of the research project, and whether any information or material gathered will be utilized or transferred to third parties

(2) Principle of Immediate Risks and Benefits to the Tribe --The research should be of direct benefit to the Tribe and its Members, and the risks associated with the research should be less significant than the benefits to be gained.

(3) Principle of Confidentiality--This principle recognizes that the Tribe and any human research subjects, at its/their sole discretion, have the right to exclude from publication and/or to have kept confidential, any information including information concerning themselves, their health, or their culture, traditional knowledge, traditions, mythologies, or spiritual beliefs, and all researchers and other potential users shall guarantee such confidentiality.

(4) Principle of Respect--This principle recognizes the necessity for researchers to respect the integrity, morality, and spirituality of the culture, traditions, and relationships of Tribal members with the world, and to avoid the imposition of external conceptions and standards.

(5) Principle of Communication--This principle recognizes that communications should be carried out in the local language, using translators as necessary, or in a manner in which the human research subjects have a full understanding of the right to informed consent; and that each human research subject has in fact provided informed consent prior to the initiation of any research.

(6) Principle of Empowerment--This principle recognizes that empowerment is the sharing of power and is premised on mutual respect. Empowerment means that each affected party feels that their needs are being met in a fair and equitable manner. Empowerment also means that research authorship must be shared between the Tribe and the researcher.

(7) Principle of Equity--This principle recognizes that equity is a sharing of resources. Both the researchers and the Tribe must bring equity to any research contract, agreement or understanding. Each of the participants in a professional research agreement must evaluate such equity in relation to the research. Finance or money is only one form of equity. Community knowledge, networks, personnel and political or social power are other forms of equity useful to a project. Each of these commodities has value and must be shared between the researchers and the Tribe if a proper agreement is to be formulated. The parties must continuously review equity over the duration of a research agreement.

(8) Principle of Mutual Respect--This principle recognizes that in order to develop a professional research agreement, the researchers and the Tribe must generate respect for each other. Respect is generated by understanding the social, political and cultural structures of the other party. The researchers and the Tribe cannot assume that they both believe in the same things or share the same goals and expectations. Proper communication is required if a professional research agreement is to be concluded. Cultural sensitivity training for the researchers as well as research awareness presentations on the Reservation will help develop a mutual understanding in conducting the research project. The Tribe and the researchers must listen to each other with open minds.

(9) Principle of Prior Rights--This principle recognizes that indigenous peoples, traditional societies, and local communities have prior, proprietary rights and interests over all air, land, and waterways, and the natural resources within their territories that they have traditionally inhabited or used, together with all knowledge and intellectual property and traditional resource rights associated with such resources and their use.

(10) Principle of Self-Determination--This principle recognizes that indigenous peoples, traditional societies and local communities have a right to self-determination and researchers and associated organizations must acknowledge and respect such rights in their dealings with our peoples and our communities.

(11) Principle of Inalienability--This principle recognizes the inalienable rights of indigenous peoples in relation to our traditional territories and the natural resources within such territories and associated traditional knowledge. These rights are collective by nature but can include individual rights. It shall be for indigenous peoples to determine for themselves the nature and scope of their resource rights regimes.

(12) Principle of Traditional Guardianship--This principle recognizes the holistic interconnectedness of humanity with the ecosystems of our Sacred Earth and the obligation and responsibility of indigenous peoples to preserve and maintain their role as traditional guardians of these ecosystems through the maintenance of their cultures, mythologies, spiritual beliefs and customary practices.