Boarding the plane back to Albuquerque, my boots now have dust from a different field that I bring home to my field.

In short, if you ever have an opportunity to workshop your book manuscript - DO IT. Sure, it might be a plane ride and a few time zones away. But you may just come home with corn seeds from fields that you didn't know you needed.

Pretty inspiring comments coming from the second reader of my NEH application, if I don't say so myself lol. By far, these were the most negative comments I received and the lowest ranking score I was given in my successful run for a NEH Awards for Faculty felllowship. Good thing the other readers thought otherwise. The other readers provided feedback taking into consideration my application as well as my letters of recommendation and my CV.  Yet, regardless of the lines and lines of support from the other readers, for some reason, I just can't shake the feedback from that second reader. And I actually received the grant....Am I alone? I can't be the only one who let's the 2nd reader get under their skin, can I? You can judge for yourself as the NEH selected to showcase my project as a sample for future applicants to read. Check out Narrative Section of a Successful Application. Even better... rank it yourself and put that rank in the comments below... lol.

It's not just this application, the 2nd reader stigma has and always will be the bane of publishing hopefuls. This is the same in the grant and fellowship worlds. For those who don't know what / who a 2nd reader is - its basically the person presses and funders bring on to kill your publishing vibe... lol just kidding: It's usually the 2 review of your application or article and their job is to be a critical as possible. They are not there for the feels - they are there to find the holes you have left that could discredit your chance of actually completing a fellowship or any gaps that you have in articles that would discredit the press who is publishing your piece.

But here is the thing... I've been the second reader. And with grants like this one, livelihoods come down to these reads....literally tens of thousands of dollars that let academics pursue dreams. If someone honestly thinks that a junior scholar is incapable because of lack of publishing, lack of letters of recommendation support, whatever - they have to point it out. I've seen it within my own institution, faculty or staff receive the luxurious work load release to research and publish and when the time comes to produce the final deliverables - there is no research or publishable piece to present. So I understand.

But still, hey, second reader, have you heard Taylor Swift's song, you know the one were haters be hatin'. Well that's how you came in....and I was like.... damn, it's only 7am.

So to my second reader,
No offense (so you know I am here to offend), but I don't know if you have met junior scholars like me - the Indigenous scholars who are ridden hard by the academic system and put away wet. I know that sounds harsh and perhaps a bit crude but that is where the scholars like me come from. As minorities in R1 institutes, everyone wants a piece of us so they can claim diversity and equity, whatever that means. As type A personalities in tribal colleges, everyone expects we pick up everyone else's slack. (And if you are offended by the wet horses comment, clearly you have never had horses, sickos 😆. You should be more offended if you are part of the groups who stand by as we are put away wet).

We have learned to dry ourselves off. And you will never see the towels we use because we have a home support system that helps us balance our well-being. Our home may not be our biological relatives, but humans and nonhuman animals that have melted into our lives that wish us to succeed for who we are and not what we can provide for them.

Our drive will out race almost anyone in short or long distance runs, regardless of diversity or other merit based opportunities. If it sounds like a lot, it is - but that's what we, high driven, motivated Indigenous junior scholars do. We show up to cook and stay to clean up. We put in the grant fellowship applications and make rocks move so that we can finish them. Because if we don't, that gives others, especially those who have never met Indigenous scholars, the right to speak of our 'diversity given' opportunity and not of our stellar ethics, both in the work place and in the community.

I know your job is hard, but when you see a packet like mine fly into your email or be placed on your desk for review - you should listen to our recommenders when they tell you of what we are capable of.  If our plans seem impossible of a task, ask yourself, is it unfeasible or is it just unfeasible for you. Look at the C.V. and read in between the lines, where grant management overlap, dissertation completions, and faculty of the year awards. That is not by coincidence, nor given by diversity, or gifted by administrations - that is the work of our horse. I don't want an award because I am an "Indian in Academia," I want an award because I aspire and I can do. If you don't read between the lines, if you don't justify your decision beyond "it doesn't seem feasible" it just looks like you need an excuse to award someone else.  Provide suggestions on how to make it feasible.

Keep taking on roles as the 2nd reader. I took every single feedback you did provide and made it happen. I made sure that my story in my multi-species autobiographic manuscript highlighted the struggles of a junior Indigenous scholar, including my moments of doubt in me... I actually reduced my interdisciplinary connections because that was the dissertation's job - this book's job is to provide applications of real world experiences to reach broader community and academic realms... I contacted minority serving institutes across the nation to not only pitch this project and possible collaboration but to make them aware of grants their institutes could apply to meet their own program's food sovereignty, indigenous research, and community grounded projects come to life... And I built a new home of scholars to help me workshop this manuscript into its final publishing format - it is a team of individuals who, in fact, believe that the evidence is evident of successful objective outcomes. I know that not every scholar is like me. And I know that I can't be awarded every grant or fellowship that I apply to.  But make your feedback, 2nd reader, count for improvement.

But this year's 2023 Sheep Is Life Celebrations in Window Rock, Arizona moved me to throw on my good boots, the ones that rarely see the corral, with some coral and Navajo pearls. On Saturday June 17th,  with a mask and sanitizer ready, I headed to our Nation's capital. After a year of editing I am on the last leg of author edits of my book project prior to submission to the editors. Presenting helps to remind me of my chapter story lines, receive feedback from community members on my interpretations, and reinvigorates my project and the sprouts from the main research. And if there was a crowd I wanted to speak in front of, it was this one. So I stepped out - unsure of what was more daunting: presenting my findings to the group who spent years teaching me or stepping out into a world that has relaxed its COVID prevention protocols. Paranoid?, maybe. Crazy?, possibly. Nervous?, absolutely.

I arrived at the Navajo Nation Museum and saw so many beautiful familiar faces. They were chatting, working with fibers, selling rugs, jewelry, paintings, and shirts. Most were sheep themed - it made me which I wore my black sheep shirt :)  I also noticed the missing presence of those hadn't made it to this side of the pandemic because of age, because of sickness, because of life. The warm sun and slight breeze meshed those memories with the current realities. It felt good to be touched by it all and to be around this group.

I made my way to the auditorium, removed my mask, hooked up my wireless mic, and started speaking. Maybe it was because this was my first in person presentation about my work in the dust of COVID - maybe it was because I was just grateful to be alive, when so many hadn't made it to this dust trail - maybe it was because my husband was in the crowd for the first time. What ever it was, as I spoke I became more and more grateful.

During my presentation, it hit hard -- the positive impact of the Diné be' iiná: Navajo Lifeways organization - the people, the histories, the sheep. They have been part of my journey, integrating a Navajo girl who grew up mostly off the reservation into a confident Táchinii woman who grows with the land and animals of the Chuskas. A lot of people talk about how difficult it is returning home to live, finding a job, fitting in - but it wasn't like that for me. While it may have been daunting, it wasn't something that I was going to shy away from. I accepted positions in the dorm before working up to an associate professor and grant manager for the Navajo Cultural Arts Program. All along, I was raising sheep, or as my book dives into, they were raising me. It had been in my dreams from childhood that I would return - and I have - but never along. My grandparents, family, sheep, shadow, and this Diné be' iina: Navajo Lifeways group helped me to secure my footing.

We have woven together, run together, butchered together, eaten together, celebrated together, and complained together.

I was particularly excited to share with Sheep Is Life's audience the introduction of the Indigenous Animals Studies curriculum at Diné College. This was an important result of my dissertation and my conversations with the individuals I met through the Navajo Lifeways Organization. In particular, at my very first focus group at Roy's house, a group assembled to butcher with me and to help me to fine tune questions for my dissertation. Roy himself suggested asking about what classes students could take to reconnect with nonhuman animals and if students would be interested in them. Turns out they were and now they can - so thank you, Dine Be'Iina Inc, for hosting not just Sheep Is Life, but for living it :) You have helped me live it too!

Sheep Is Life, I'll see you next year - hopefully with a book in hand!

If you would like to check out the presentation - I speak for about 30 minutest starting at the 50 minute marker: https://www.facebook.com/709240484/videos/6530199793698042/

Coffee is the Start to All Great Days: We grab some coffee from the 1st floor of Diné College's Ned Hatalthi Center Building and make our way to my office - a room that has been vacant for the last year because of my sabbatical. These days it is more of a storage area than a place of critical thought or student advising. Embarrassed by the dust and clutter, I make room for Dr. Kelsey Dayle John to sit down and we start chatting about horses, sheep, dissertations, and life as Diné women, ranchers, and academics.

I met Kelsey after googling resources on Indigenous animal studies. I had found abstracts of articles that spoke to me as if we were writing from the same space: Diné relationships with nonhuman animals. She focuses on horses 🐴 and I sheep 🐑, both animals that have been written off as acculturated nonhuman animals acquired during colonial contacts 🇪🇸🙄. I tried to access her dissertation, book chapters, and articles but our library unfortunately did not have subscriptions. So, like any good academic - I stalked Kelsey on Facebook 👀 and asked for copies via messenger 🤣.

We got to chattin' online and, boy, did we have a lot in common! I shared this blog about my manuscript writing adventures. She sent videos and articles and let me know that she would be organizing the Horses Connecting Communities gather. This would be the 3rd annual community learning space that will take place June 17-18 at Diné College Rodeo Grounds to honor and perpetuate the legacy between Diné people and horses (PSSST - there is still time to register and attend so get on it!). We planned to meet up during one of her visits to Tsaile ... coffee - it was decided as a good meeting place :)

More than Animal Studies: Meeting Kelsey was a breath of fresh air because she made me feel normal about my thoughts about Animal Studies as a Navajo woman who works and lives with livestock. She had completed her dissertation a few years after I did. As we talked I wished we had met earlier, when I was in the trenches of writing. My biggest hang up during that time period was deciding if Animal Studies was what I was doing. I mean, I was justifying Diné relationships with nonhuman animals with the non Indigenous trending studies, using the lingo, had committee members dedicated to the field ... but what I was writing about was/is taught to me by animals (domesticated, wild, dreamt). It is much older than the academic field of Animal studies; it is much more prestigious than academia itself. Kelsey got that. 

Purpose of Human Animal Studies Classes at Diné College: So I shared with her our new courses on animal studies from Indigenous standpoints that I had been working on as part of my larger NEH award. This part of my award was also an updating of my Animal Studies repertoire. I read A LOT of topics within the realms of Human Animal Studies, Animal Narratology, Critical Animal Studies, and Animal Science. I looked at curriculum in place and suggestions of how to create Traditional Ecological Knowledge lessons from places like Dr. Seafha Ramos' website Stem Trading Card: TEK Lessons. I checked out books like Dr. Margo DeMello's edited volume Teaching the Animal: Human–Animal Studies across the Disciplines (2010) to justify course descriptions and draft letters to adiministration. And I read as many of the Indigenous scholars I could find who worked with nonhuman animal relationships (enter my fb stalking of Kelsey lol). I found blogs to be a wonderful space to talk outloud. Dr. Zoe Todd's website Specultative fish-ctions helped me to organize my own website and blog (even how to find space to promote our family's art business - check it out).

The courses are spread across the Anthropology and Native American Studies disciplines and are meant to transition out ANT111: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology and usher in approaches that understand culture beyond anthropocentrism, beyond primitive studies of Indigenous peoples and cultures. More specifically, they are closely aligned to four of Diné College Strategic Goals in 2022:

1. Diné Identity: These classes allow for students to engage their own Diné perspectives as they dialogue their experiences with other communities, especially in the areas of nonhuman animals: How are Diné people creating, maintaining, and breaking relationships with non-human animals and what these signify for us as Diné people.
2. Student Success: These classes builds critical thinking skills, more specifically tribally centric critical thinking skills, that allow for student success. In other words, they allow for the development and refinement of skills that can be directly and immediately applied to their course of study and their daily experiences. No longer is the Western approach the only approach, but Diné inherent knowledge constitutes the foundations of how to solve problems.
3. Institutional Transformation: Classes engage Diné College in Anthropology's attempt to transition from its archaic format in which Indigenous peoples are merely subjects of study into realms of understanding the relationships between human and nonhuman animals and the more-than-human of our homelands.
   
4. Nation Building: Ultimately, these classes assist students in reflecting and enacting upon measure that will build holistically well-balanced Navajo individuals, healthier Navajo families and a stronger Navajo Nation. As the Navajo Nation looks to build economies, understanding how human and nonhuman animals contribute to said economies will bring about sound work environments.
   

What do the Discpline Prefixes and Course Levels Indicate?
None of these classes have prerequisites, because in reality relationships between human and nonhuman animals can start anywhere, at any level, or at anytime. But the NAS classes allow for a sensory component to learning that the ANT classes don't engage as much. While students learn how to conduct multi-species ethnographies in the 116 and 216 classes, it is not until the 316 and 416 classes where we work with Dinécentric sensorial arenas. Students are required to work with their own livestock or assist with Diné College's Land Grant Office and their animals to reengage communication with both human and nonhuman animals.

So why bother with the ANT classes at all?
For starters they meet the general education degree checklist 😆. I am currently working on NAS meeting that criteria on its own. In the meantime, this has helped to facility other programs, such as the Animal Science degrees here at Diné College to add these classes to their degree checklists.  But beyond checklists - the ANT classes bring me back advice by my doctoral advisors, Dr. Mendoza and Dr. Vareses, who told me as a Navajo Native American Studies scholar I will need to know both Western and Indigenous approaches, theories and trends just as well as, if not better than, scholars from the so-called main stream disciplines. It will only add to my tools in my tool kit and give me an upper hand in any debate or dialogue. I have taken that into my own pedogogical practices. Often you will hear me tell students "do not throw the baby out with the bath water." Just because they are written by non-Indigenous scholars, doesn't mean they aren't helpful in articulation or thought processes - even if it is to deconstruct their own discipline.

Therefore, the ANT classes introduce unique perspectives from both Western and Indigenous ways of knowing on how we relate with animals.  This information helps us to grow how we look at ourselves. The NAS class will allow for us to focus on how we as Indigenous people dialogue and depart from other Indigenous communities throughout the globe.

✅ Update current trends in Animal Studies literatures, practices, and curriculum
✅ Create Indigenous Animal Studies courses to accompany my book manuscript

Classes are open to all Diné College students and will be taught in rotation. Thank you to all those great minds, scholars, teachers, and community members, who have helped bring these courses to life!
Don't forget to register!!!!

From Response Paper to Book Review: While some of my cohort started publishing book reviews during graduate school, I waited until after I graduated. My first review was for the Tribal College Journal (and I continue to publish with them today because I love the audience and the editors). I remember accepting the request and being really nervous because, even though the author wasn't Navajo, the book was about Navajo people and by a well-known anthropologist working in the areas of Native foodways. It took me FOREVER to write those 500 words. Well actually, it was pretty easy to get down 1000 words. I needed to cut it to 500 - that took forever. I sent it out to 2 or 3 of my friends to read and re-read for me. And I kinda felt sick to my stomach submitting. It was my first ever piece that would represent my thoughts in a published arena - and my thoughts are pretty honest. And what if I submitted it with spelling and grammar errors? Would the editor regret asking me to write for them? But when it came out, response to my book review was great and I was over the hurdle of getting my first publishing out there!

Recipe for Book Reviews:
The journal that you are writing for will have their own specific details that you will need to adhere to: citation formats, word count, headers, biographies, as well suggestions on what they want to see in your review. Pay attention to those instructions because they will kick back your book review if you don't. Not the best start to building a relationship with editors 😆.

Now-a-days, I am taking book review requests in areas that are helpful to my book project. To date, I have three styles that I have utilized:

• General minimalist word count book review (500 words) such as the Tribal College Journal.
  • Book summary (one paragraph)
  • Significance of the book (one paragraph on the key concepts brought to light by the author)
  • Critical holes in the book (one paragraph on areas overlooked by the author)
  • How this book applies to classrooms or Native Nations (one paragraph)
• Critical analysis mid rage word count book review (1000 words) such as the American Indian Culture and Resource Journal.
  • Book summary (one paragraph)
  • Significance of the book (two paragraphs on the key concepts brought to light by the author)
  • Critical holes in the book (two paragraph on areas overlooked by the author)
  • Additional readings that compliment and/or complicate the author's main perspectives (one paragraph)
  • How this book applies to classrooms of Native Nations (one paragraph)
• Creative writing book review essay (3000 words) such as Transmotion.
  • At this moment - my favorite writing comes in the form of a creative writing book review. So far, I have only done one of these but I look forward to writing more. These are unique story telling pieces where I am able to tell a story about my experience reading and writing about literature.
  • I had an opportunity to give feedback on The Diné Reader (2021) for Transmotion. I particularly enjoyed this writing because I was able to frame it through a conversation with a blue bird that I had just woven on my loom. It includes teachings from my nálí and from our corn field, entering into a terrain of lateral oppression and how we, as Native people, are shamed when we offer honest feedback about our own people and their work.

Book Reviewing Friends: All the book reviews that I have done have been written by authors who I have never met or were merely acquaintances with. As more and more of my friends are publishing, I am receiving requests for book reviews about their work (and even reviews for books by my former professors). Up until now, I have pushed them away. I don't know why really... closeness, fear of losing a friendship, difficulty with emotional separation, general intimidation - I don't know really. 🤦🏽‍♀️

But, thanks to my buddy 🤝 Dr. Andrew Curley, whose book Carbon Sovereignty: Coal, Development, and Energy Transition in the Navajo Nation will be dropping in April 2023, I'll hopefully work through those discomforts by way of a book discussion during the 2023 Diné Studies Conference. Dr. Jennifer Denetdale organized a panel of Diné scholars to dialogue with Andrew and discuss the relevance of his study to local, national, and global academic conversations as well as it's impact on Navajo communities.  We are just waiting for word on whether our panel was accepted or not. 🤞🏽

I also just accepted a request to review my NAS colleague at UNM and home girl 👭, Dr. Wendy Greyeyes' A History of Navajo Nation Education: Disentangling Our Sovereign Body (2022). Hopefully, the panel will help with confidence writing about my friends' work in written format.

So as I said, completing book reviews, they are the sheep leg holding of academic publishing. Slowly you build your confidence and hopefully, after a few rounds, you'll look to hold the knife.

If you do a google search on "are dissertations a scholarly source" you will find subtext such as from Walden who claims: 

• "Note: While dissertations are definitely scholarly and are reviewed and edited before publication, they do not go through a peer-review process, and thus, aren't considered peer-reviewed sources."

I get it - I understand what peer-review is and its purpose. But as someone who spent more than a decade researching a topic thoroughly, guided with leading academics in their fields of study, awarded a doctoral degree indicating a level of knowledge in that topic, to then be told that their research isn't valuable in a dissertation format by statements such as "there is no previous research on... <<insert topic>>" when in fact that argument was made and defended in your dissertation, kinda pisses me off.  ​The counter is that not all dissertations are the epitome of research or critical inquiry - agreed. But then I wander into a worm hole of "how did the body of work withstand its defense? " and "why was it approved by their committee?"

It's an honest discussion that I have had with my colleagues, evening fighting back about the mantra of "a done dissertation is the best dissertation." As an Indigenous scholar who works with and in Indigenous communities - if the "R's" of Indigenous research are part of your framework, then that statement doesn't apply to you. Your dissertation or thesis, especially if you are working with communities (regardless if they are Indigenous or not) is a reflection of the relationships that you have established and are striving to maintain. Are you just done with them because you are done with your written body of work? Your findings are significant to them and they too deserve closure.  Done isn't a closure. Solid research with reported findings and continued relationships with the community are. And with your defense and submission of your committee approved thesis/dissertation, your community now also encompasses the academic community; so you should be prepared for your work to be engaged by your new peers and they should be ready to engage yours. The relationship doesn't end with that submission.

Now, this is not to say that I feel that my dissertation is in perfect condition; if it were, I would not be doing editing - my grammar, Chicago format, and sentence structures are cringe worthy at times. Not to mention, that I have grown so much since that 2016 Proquest publication that the time away from that written body of work has helped me to rethink my findings in a new, perhaps more mature light. But I don't devalue the findings, stories, and relationships from that writing, even if contemporary research conducted by myself or others have complicated those initial results. As I am in the editing process, I find my self writing about my dissertation as the 1st edition. My book publishing will be the 2nd edition with updates and a new voice, one that is grounded in storytelling instead of ensuring that I include a worldly breath of written works on the topic as presented in my "unique" literature review or of my statistical "brilliance" through presentations of equations (j/k but they are solid in the dissertation 😂😝😜). 

Returning to my thoughts on published dissertations and theses, I honestly ask for academics, new, junior, and senior scholars, to do a run through on your topic in Proquest. With the growing number of Indigenous authored projects, keep in mind that not all of us have the desire, resources, or time to transition our dissertations into a book manuscript or article publishings. YET - the research, the data, the revelations from cultural, scholarly grounded perspectives may rock your world, or at least, your project. You may be astounded at the high level of the Indigenous critical inquiry stemming from our youth. Don't discredit the value of our black sheep resource - dissertations by Indigenous authors who are culturally grounded.  

With that, I wanted to highlight some black sheep that I incorporate in my book project from Navajo scholars. And if you know of more, comment below... building a herd of black sheep requires some help 🐑🐑🐑🐑: 

Ph.D. Dissertation
Wade Campbell (2021) Na’nilkad bee na’niltin – Learning from Herding: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Historic Pastoralism on the Navajo Nation, KIVA, 87:3, 295-315, DOI: 10.1080/00231940.2021.1893456

Masters Thesis
​Lister, Andee Rose (2018) The bioaccumulation of uranium in sheep heart and kidney: the impact of contaminated traditional food sources on the Navajo Reservation. Masters thesis, Northern Arizona University.       

There is a brilliance in these black sheep sources that merit recognition in our literature reviews and critical evaluations of questions at hand. Ahe'hee' nitsáago, shidiné - t'áá awołí bee iniłta. --- yeah...you, I am talking to you  🥹

Navajo Nation Human Research Review Board Purpose
As explained in a 2006 Science and Engineering Ethics Journal article, “Protecting the Navajo people through tribal regulation of research” by Doug Brugge and Mariam Missaghian, through a review board, follows a process and procedure specifically created for biomedical research conducted with Navajo people. Here is where it gets a little tricky for people like me -  qualitative, ethnographic oriented - because the NNHRRB is primarily concerned with clinical and biomedical projects. But fear not - I am here to share what I know on submissions of socio-cultural projects for NNHRRB review.

Word of caution - the following is based off my experience; my Navajo collaborators are all 18 years or older and are not identified as "high risk."  For direct instructions that are specific to your research and your participants, contact the NNHRRB. You can't blame me for tabled or denied projects; but I'll accept some credit if your project is approved and you complete some awesome, ethical research 😎. 

Who Needs to Submit to the NNHRRB
First, figure out if your project needs NNHRRB approval. You would think that this is an easy question ... If you are working with Navajo People - you go through the NNHRRB ... but people/institutions/programs/organizations and even the NNHRRB itself make it tricky.

At the core, if you are coming to the Navajo Nation to conduct research (qualitative, quantitative, clinical, biomedical of any kind) with Navajo people who live on the Navajo Nation, ✅ you definitely need approval. Even if your own institution or agency expedites your project through their IRB, ✅ you still need NNHRRB approval - this includes multi sited projects (i.e., comparison of the Navajo people to another tribe).

Now, if your project is working with "Native Americans" who are in locales off the Navajo Nation and there happens to be Navajo people in your random sampling, 🚧 often it is left up to the Principal Investigator (PI) and the sponsoring institution to decide if NNHRRB approval is needed. In scenarios such as this, for socio-cultural projects, more often than not, PIs will indicate that their project include qualitative research with a "sensitive" population, list "Native Americans," address how they will mitigate risk factors at their institution's level and forgo the NNHRRB process. Now - I am not saying this is correct or incorrect, I am only reporting on how I have seen projects completed by colleagues and other scholars 🫣.

But if you are researching on the Navajo Nation and you are working with Navajo people - this means even if you an enrolled Navajo individual and working with your own family - ✅ YOU WILL NEED TO RECEIVE APPROVAL FROM THE NNHRRB and, if you aren't doing any funny business, you should honestly want to. FYI: There is an exception for enrolled Diné College and Navajo Technical University students enrolled in research classes at those institutions - but I will address that later in this blog so pay attention for that.

Okay... now that that's settled....

What is Your Project's Classification
Depending on your project classification, you will have a  different set of requirements to submit. Here are the three project classifications that the NNHRRB has outlined on their NNHRRB New Application Checklist Document.

1. Community
2. Health / Medical Facility
3. Education / State Schools, BIE, Contract Schools
   

Be sure to check out this document to see the distinctions between these projects as well as the requirement distinctions.

3. Abstract

• This is where you put the who, what, where, when, why, and how elevator pitch in a neat 2 page document. Although I have all hope that every NNHRRB committee member reads the applications thoroughly 🧐 - (if they don't) this page provides an overview of what you intend to cover and how you are going to do it. Check out page two of their guidelines here but if you are too lazy for that - I copied and pasted below:
  • The name of the proposed study, A general description of the study population, The geographical area where data will be collected, The number of the subjects to be recruited for the study, The gender of the subjects to be recruited for the study, The proposed benefits to the subjects, The proposed benefits to the Navajo Nation, The proposed personal benefits to the Principal Investigator, The proposed time period for the study to complete the twelve-phase process. (If you don't know what the 12-phase process is check out this document by the NNHRRB: "PI Guidelines")
• This abstract document actually became quite useful for me. For example, I submitted it to entities such as IHS, Chapters, Agencies and Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Department for the purpose of securing the NNHRRB approval. So In all my requests for support, I just attached this abstract and kindly directed them to the attachment in my request for permission/support (i.e.: "Please see the attached project abstract for additional details related to my proposed research project").

4. Navajo Nation Human Research Review Board Application

• This is the nitty gritty of your project. There are 6 formal sections to this application in which you will provide narrative of the details to your project. Each section has several questions, with a total of 17 detailed responses required and a whole lot of attachments. Go to page 6- 8 for all the questions in the NNHRRB provided "Guidelines". My suggestion is to literally type out the question in bold and respond directly below in TNR 12 font. Be sure to reference supplemental documents directly through your outlined appendix.

1. Part 1: Community Involvement (Questions 1-5)
2. Part 2: Benefits to the Navajo Nation (Questions 6- 9)
3. Part 3:  Research Project Description (Questions 10-16)
4. Part 4: Informed Consent (Question 17) For the informed consent I typically put "Refer to Appendix B: Informed Consent" and reference page number in the application packet.
5. Part 5: Certification by the Principal Investigator Go to  page 9 of the NNHRRB Guidelines - just print, read, sign, and include. I personally just include it under the section: Part 5 and not as an additional attachment. But it's up to you.
6. Part 6: Attachments: Following the completion of the NNHRRB Application 17 questions, you will need to provide an elaborate appendix with several documents. These attachments  will vary depending upon the role and type of research (Community, Health / Medical Facility, Education / State Schools, BIE, Contract Schools). Here are the requirements for a community lead project:
   

• • F. Navajo Historic Preservation Department Permit: For ethnographic/ historical projects, you will need to be reviewed by the Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Department. Here is their contact information:
    • Navajo Historic Preservation Department
      P. O. Box 4950
      Window Rock, Arizona 86515
      Telephone Number: (928) 871-7198/7153
      
• For this petition, you could mail it in, walk it in, or you could email the department with your request to conduct ethnographic work. In my request, I also provided them with the abstract that I used for this application (go back to #3 in this blog). They read through your project and (if warranted) issue you a Permit - C. The permit is good for 1 year and the request for continuation is straight forward - email them.  If you have a multi-year project, you will need to request continuations from the NNHPD as well as the NNHRRB. You will include the permit in your application.
• G. Navajo Nation Certificate of Confidentiality: The guidelines indicate "that the principal investigator(s) apply for the Certificate of Confidentiality from the Federal Agency to ensure maximum protection for their study participants regarding their privacy."  This is distinct from Part 5: Certification by the Principal Investigator. I found the NIH Grants and Funding "How to Get a Certificate of Confidentiality" most helpful. From that page I went to the "Get your CoC" link. You must demonstrate that you have petitioned for a CoC to the NNHRRB. So I completed the request, printed it out and included the request document in my NNHRRB packet.
• H.  Privacy Act Statements:  Here is the link the NNHRRB provides for the Privacy Act itself: NN Privacy Act.  Read it! After which, in your application, you must provide copies of the letters you submitted to (1) the Navajo Area IHS Director, the Navajo Area Office, (2) the Privacy Act Coordinator and (3) the CEO of 638 Hospital on the Navajo Nation attesting to the understanding of and willingness by the Principal Investigator to abide by the provisions of the Privacy Act. So three letters. Page 3 of the NNHRRB Application will give you addresses and phone numbers that you can contact to find out who these individuals are. You can send a hard copy of your abstract and a letter stating who you are, your project description, and a statement disclosing your agreement to adhere to the NN Privacy Act or you could email them your statements. In the latter option, print out the email correspondence and include that.
  
• I. Budget Statements: You need to include your budget break down. If you have a grant funding you, just include your budget from that grant. If you do not have a budget, you still include a statement declaring that there is no budget associated to this project.
• J. Research Tools: Here is where you put your surveys - the actual tools going to be handed out to collect data. Any surveys or measures (qualitative or quantitative) to be used must be placed here. This allows for the NNHRRB committee to see exactly what will be asked

There may be other supporting documents that you will need for community socio-cultural projects. I do not have experience as my project did not need these areas of support. I would call the organization itself and ask to present at an official meeting. Also ask them if they have a template that you can use for resolutions. That will save both you and them a lot of time. Lastly, be sure to include your abstract (see #3) in your initial request and have a couple copies on hand when you go to present.

• • K.  School Board Resolutions
  • L.  Navajo Medicine Man Association or Dine’ Hataalii Association Supporting Resolution
  • M. Azee’ Bee Nahagha Association (Native American Church)
  • N. Other Navajo Nation Council Subcommittee: Heath, Education, Human Services, Law and Order, Natural Resources

Here are some additional components that I include in the Attachments but are not on the NNHRRB checklist. If you don't include these and your project gets tabled.... don't say I didn't tell you 🥲:

• • O. CITI Training Certificates: I am not sure if this is an actual requirement, but I complete my CITI training and include my certificates in the NNHRRB process. I have to have it completed for the Diné College IRB application, so why not include it here.
  • P. Advertisements: Once again, I didn't see any official requests for advertisements, but I needed it for the Diné College IRB application, so I just include it in my NNHRRB process.

Other Thoughts about the NNHRRB Application Process
Tabled Projects: As of late, I have seen projects tabled because their application is missing either one big component or a lot of small components (missing timelines, missing resolutions, missing support letters, missing measures, etc). Best way to be prepared is for you to be as organized as possible. If your project isn't prepared by the submission deadline, don't rush - just wait to submit at the following meeting. Your first impression should be one of preparation and organization. So my suggestion is to start your preparation way in advance - I suggest at least 3 months prior to the submission date (4 months prior to formal presentation to the NNHRRB). I know this is difficult because some of you are graduate students (and others are just impatient lol) but, as I tell my students - the more solid your IRB project packet presentation the better prepared you are for actually implementing the project. It will make your presentation much smoother. The presentation itself then becomes a training ground for you to talk about your project. The more you talk about it with audiences such at the NNHRRB, the more real your project becomes. 

Academic Discipline Notes: The NNHRRB committee is composed primarily of experts from biomedical and clinical professional/academic backgrounds. This makes the presentation of socio-cultural projects a bit challenging at times. The first time I presented the committee wanted to push my project into an Animal Science realm, when I work in the area of Animal Studies (they are very distinct). Don't get upset, wait for them to finish their commentary and respond with clarification. As with all presentations to general audiences (grants, fellowships, IRBs), avoid discipline specific jargon.

Emic Cultural Notes: If you are well attuned to a specific cultural area, (1) do not assume you know all - be open to hearing what some of these individuals share (even if they are taking you down a worm hole) and also (2) do not hold back on your own areas of cultural knowledge - just like you don't know everything, the same goes with the committee members (everyone is here to learn). I have been fortunate to learn from a few of the committee members and they have hopefully also learned from me. I have also been on the other end of that spectrum as well. With that said...

Discrimatory Notes: If you feel that you are being discriminated for whatever reason - make that declaration, document, and submit a complaint. I have, in previous years, experienced and seen race and gender of the PI be questioned, and as a result, the entire project put under scrutiny.  Now - there are times when gender or culture does play a role in research, access to cultural content, or data analysis. But when projects are tabled or denied merely based on the race of the PI and the biases of individual committee members, there is an ethics violation that require immediate legal review.

Honest Notes: Although I have some disagreements with the process and procedure, especially during COVID (you can check out the ICT article for more info on that), I must confess, this past time around was much smoother than my previous experience. I feel like the committee is better prepared for socio-cultural projects now than they were 10 years ago when I first presented to the NNHRRB. I also speak the Navajo language better and I am firmly grounded in my community and profession. Additionally, I am now on the Diné College IRB so I am starting to fully understand the intricacies of IRBs. Because of all these factors - and the change of atmosphere/leadership of the NNHRRRB - my project was reviewed for ethics, which is the purpose of the NNHRRB, and the committee members were professional, curtious, and helpful. Finally, like butchering - the more you do it, the familiar the knife becomes in your hand.

Last Note:  CONTACT THE NNHRRB COORDINATOR FOR ASSISTANCE. This blog is not an official 'how to' document  approved by the NNHRRB . This are just my thoughts and my experiences.

If you have any more guidance, be sure to put them in the comments! Your experience can help others navigate what is often considered a tedious and often stressful part of the research process. It doesn't have to be :)

Checking Press Tails:
"OOOO - This tail is nice!" When deciding on which sheep to butcher, we check tails. The area around the tail should be thick - if it is bony...we will pass until we can adjust the tail quality. So, when I checked press tails, I looked at the content they generally publish: what books have they published, were there topics similar to mine,  were there books that I was already familiar with from within my discipline.  If a press didn't have enough fat in these areas- (aka little to no attention on NA/IS topics), I passed.

I also made note of over saturation within the press - for example - if a press had a lot of topics similar to mine (aka heavy Navajocentric publishings). It wasn't that I was going to not pick them because they have a lot of Navajo content - I mean, have you ever decided to not butcher a sheep simply because it was too fat?  🤣

Series Examination
Most of the time we butcher weathers (castrated male sheep). Now gender in terms of characteristics and attributes pertaining to femininity and masculinity wasn't really a consideration as I continued reviewing the wide array of presses that I could submit to. But, characteristics associated with series within the presses were. This was new information for me to think about. I know this sounds silly- but I never really paid a tremendous amount of attention to series within presses before.  How the times have changed - I was all over this now. So I identified series that focused on Native American and Indigenous Studies and made that a criteria for my list.

Age of Presses and Series:
You can taste age in the sheep - and its not like fine wine gets better with time. As sheep get older, their bones and their meat get tougher. Some people like that taste and others prefer tender lamb meat. I needed to figure out what kind of taste I wanted in a publisher. Diving into the age of the presses also meant exploring the reviews and classifications of presses like making note of tier one presses. What's tier one press?  Great question... check this ranking out: Ranking List of Academic Publishers (I didn't rank these by the way... google found it for me). Selecting (and being selected by) a tier one press may be helpful for tenure or for pursuing employment at a R1 Institute. (I know what you are thinking - okay now on top of picking a publisher who will want me, I need to think about how this selection will impact my future politically in the tenure process...in short - yes, no, and maybe - depending on what you want in life. I know mind blown -  🤯 . Well don't worry about that now -- FOCUS -- what do you want your meat to taste like!).

In the case of series - I noticed that some were quite new and others were long standing. The longer standing series offered more publishing examples and, with that, an idea of what their final tastes are.  Often there is an actual feel to a series (voice of the text, content, image, etc.) The younger series, however, seemed to offer a lot of support to newer authors. And let's face it, we could all use a little bit of help and support: check out my first blog for an example of that!

Examining the Behavior of Presses:
There are times that there is a sheep just asking to be butchered: like that +100lb whether that broke my orbital bone trying to escape being sheered in 2020 (that was fun); or that time when the twin brother of a goat we were trying to catch to butcher jumped out of the corral (we took it as a 'take me, not my brother' call). Sometimes, a press or a series just calls to you. It could be a geographic area highlighted, or the reputation of the editors, or the support of the press for new authors, or the long standing relationship factor with returning authors.

My suggestion isn't to just go off your gut... sometimes you take more on your plate than you can chew - so if your gut wants to go with a certain press, don't settle for "it just feels right"- figure out why it feels right. When we get ready to butcher... checking tails is just the first step in making our selection. So when you are checking press tails - just because they want you, doesn't always mean its a good fit for you. And if they deny you, take it as a learning experience, use the feedback as constructively as possible and keep searching for your next sheep to butcher.

Corral of Presses
Every sheep you butcher is distinct and so is each publishing press. And not to throw another hurdle in your planning and prep, you may find out along the way that maybe sheep meat isn't your thing - maybe you are looking for goat meat. We haven't discussed presses other than "academic" presses. You may decide to go with a press that is intended for another audience. Once again, as you are checking tails, you want to think about what is best for you.

What I can you.. is that in doing this review of presses and series, I learned so much about publishing trends in terms of themes and I even picked up some books I needed to read for the purpose of my book manuscript and the classes that I am developing. So yes, this took some time but it wasn't all procrastinator's paradise. I now have a working list. Next step - time for my to place these guys in a hierarchy... what are my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices. Judging is a hard, but someone has to do it. Oh wait... in this case, it's me... I'm the judge. 😫

The following is a listing of presses that I have narrowed down that seem to be a fit for me. There is no Da Vinci's Code here to be deciphered (or maybe there is and I haven't even realized it yet 🤯).  The blue links bring you to helpful information about the press and to the purple links bring you to series. (If I missed any good ones... let me know - I'll review and update this list).

Yale University Press:
Series - The Henry Roe Cloud Series on American Indians and Modernity
"Drawing upon multiple disciplinary perspectives and organizing them around the place of Native Americans within the development of American and European modernity, this series emphasizes the shared, relational ties between indigenous and Euro-American societies. It seeks to broaden current historic, literary, and cultural approaches to American Studies by foregrounding the fraught but generative sites of inquiry provided by the study of indigenous communities."

University of North Carolina Press:
Series - Critical Indigeneities
"Critical Indigeneities publishes pathbreaking scholarly books that center Indigeneity as a category of critical analysis, understand Indigenous sovereignty as ongoing and historically grounded, and attend to diverse forms of Indigenous cultural and political agency and expression. The series builds on the conceptual rigor, methodological innovation, and deep relevance that characterize the best work in the field of critical Indigenous studies."

University of Nebraska Press:
Series- Many West
"The UNP-APS series offers opportunities for UNP to build on its already strong reputation in the field of Native American and Indigenous Studies by attracting the best new scholarship in the field and partnering with American Philosophical Society, the largest archive of Native American and Indigenous materials in North America and one of the Top 3 learned societies in the world."

Series - New Visions in Native American and Indigenous Studies
"The partners envision the series as open to any high-quality scholarship in the field, but manuscripts will be solicited in broad thematic areas related to editors’ research interests and expertise: Domesticity, Intimacy, and the Family; Decolonization, Reparation, Redress, and other legal issues; and Comparative and Transnational Indigenous Studies. These areas represent some of the most important new directions in the field of American Indian and Indigenous Studies in the last decade."

University of New Mexico Press:
Series- Studies in Indigenous Community Building
"This series focuses on how Native and Indigenous peoples are building their communities to resolve twenty-first century challenges. Using Native Studies knowledges, means, and approaches, the books showcase distinctive, inspiring, and insightful works that emphasize how to sustain Native and Indigenous traditional ways of life. Titles in the series draw from a variety of disciplines including education, health, governance, history, culture, and other nation-centered studies."

University of Washington Press:
Series-  Indigenous Confluences
"Indigenous Confluences publishes innovative works that use decolonizing perspectives and transnational approaches to explore the experiences of Indigenous peoples across North America, with a special emphasis on the Pacific Coast."

University of Minnesota Press:
Series - First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies
"First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies publishes books that exemplify contemporary research in indigenous studies. This initiative is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as a joint collaboration of four university presses: the University of Arizona Press, the University of Minnesota Press, the University of North Carolina Press, and Oregon State University Press. These studies are supported with unprecedented attention to the growing dialogue among Native and non-Native scholars, communities, and publishers."

University of Arizona Press:
Series - Critical Issues in Indigenous Studies
"The series editors seek monographs, edited collections, and synthetic works by new and established authors whose work prioritizes Indigenous peoples’ voices and knowledge and critically engages their lives, stories, and experiences. The series encourages a critical assessment of the “locations of engagement,” where the lived experiences of Indigenous peoples intersect with scholarly and Indigenous intellectual production. The series editors are especially interested in works that analyze colonization, land dispossession, and oppression while foregrounding Indigenous peoples’ resistance to these processes."

Still Need Help Picking a Sheep
This was me! Reach out to former advisors. I did and boy, did they help. My dissertation advisor helped me to focus, reinvigorated my project, put me in contact with editors, and got me to set a date to get my book proposal out.  Our chat took us back 10 years to when I was in the trenches of grad school... but in a good way (with a few more grey hairs, a few more kids, and tons of new experiences).

And if you didn't have a kick ass relationship (professionally or personally) with your grad school advisors, talk with friends who have published, read blogs, call editors from the presses you are interested in, and SEND OUT YOUR MANUSCRIPT PROPOSALS. The only way you are going to start a relationship with a press is to actually put things into motion. You can check tails all you want, but if you never pick up the knife, you are never going to start butchering.