Obtaining Consent and Other Ethical Issues in the Conduct of Research in American Indian Communities

SUMMARY In order to conduct effective field research, researchers must be cognizant of the social, political, and historical events influencing the communities where the research takes place. American Indian communities have a number of structural characteristics that can become barriers to good research. Researchers can overcome these barriers by understanding and responding to issues of sovereignty, overlapping jurisdictions, scarceness of resources, and a well-founded skepticism about the value of research and the motivations of researchers. An emerging controversy over the form and nature of informed consent to participate in studies also has threatened research in Indian communities. Where signed permission from parents for their child's participation in survey research has been required, the resulting data have been severely compromised. Several different attempts to obtain written permission have been attempted, but with little success.