RESEARCH AND PLANNING CONTINUED...

A research and planning solution under development by PLHI and partners is ‘Piikani Wellbeing Information Service Environment’ or Piikani WISE, a cutting edge data decision support software driven by and serving Amskapi Piikani.

In collaboration with leading software developers and data scientists at sciGaia, Piikani WISE will embed traditional knowledge and ways of knowing into a multidimensional well being-driven decision support system. Piikani WISE will capture the relations between environmental health and community wellbeing (real and financial) that can be used to support Tribal council and interagency deliberations.

Native Nations experience high unemployment rates and yet the potential to develop a remote IT workforce is extraordinarily high. While many workers would define social and economic mobility as having the ability to move away from areas of protracted poverty, many Native people prefer to stay in their communities for the sake of building economic opportunities at home. Piikani Lodge and partners are viewing this as an opportunity to train Tribal members who are equipped to participate in the IT workforce and fill large gaps in rural IT.

In the context of Tribal Nations, creating a decision support tool that can be tailored to local systems of governance, values and indicators of wellbeing, offers a translational tool for the 564 Native Nations within the United States, both during COVID-19 response and beyond.