Culturally Responsive Indigenous Evaluation and Tribal Governments: Understanding the Relationship

Over the last decade, culturally responsive (CR) and CR indigenous evaluation (CRIE) resources have become more readily available to academia and evaluation practitioners within the mainstream literature. This is a direct result of the growing number of Indigenous evaluators in the field; the increased access and opportunities for Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners collaborating on evaluation projects and academic initiatives; and changes in policy, programming, and funding that better support CR and/or culturally responsive indigenous evaluation (CRIE) initiatives. Session participants will receive CR and CRIE content summary areas for CRIE: historical and legal foundations; design approaches; application; and practical CRIE strategies for strengthening professional practice and building evaluation industry capacities for CRIE. Our hope is to do more outreach to the data sovereignty network/colleagues to fuse both Indigenous researchers and Indigenous evaluators who are using policy, governance, and sovereignty to protect/uphold Tribal nationhood. This article / presentation provides theory, method, applied case study, new Indigenous evaluation model, and resources to share. Additionally alignment to United Nations (UNDRIP) and American Evaluation Association, EvalPartners, and United Nations Evaluation task force work will be shared.