UW iSchool Ph.D. student Miranda Belarde-Lewis, whose research focuses on knowledge visualization and transferal within Native and Indigenous communities through the creation of art, has been selected by the Native and Indigenous graduate students in advanced academia as their representative for the 2010 University of Washington Tribal Leadership Summit. This year's summit is centered around "creating additional partnerships between area Tribes and the University of Washington." As student representative, Belarde-Lewis will inform Tribal Leaders about current student activities and provide perspective on ongoing partnerships and Tribal-academic collaborations, as well as priorities for the coming year.

Belarde-Lewis welcomes the challenge of representing a very diverse group of communities. She also perceives a connection between her role at the summit and her own work.

"Being able to connect with the Tribal Leaders is important to my research, and the research of my colleagues, because we draw our strength -- and our approval -- from our communities," she said.

This will be Belarde-Lewis's first time attending the Summit, but she sees the strengthening of ties between the University and Tribal communities fitting into the larger picture of fostering stronger Tribal Nations and reaffirming Tribal sovereignty. "It's also important for local tribal leaders to realize that there are people at the University of Washington who are voicing the concerns of Tribal groups, in venues that have historically excluded us," she said.

The Tribal Leadership Summit was instituted in 2007, as part of the government-to-government communication outlined in the Washington State Centennial Accord (PDF), which recognized Tribal sovereignty and called for conversation around issues affecting Tribal communities. The summit is held yearly at the University of Washington, and past conferences have focused on community-based and Tribal participatory research (2009), and the recruitment and retention of Native American faculty, students, and staff (2008). This year's summit will be held May 14, at the Don James Center in Husky Stadium.