Turtle Talk

Recent warnings that AI is advancing faster than government can control it have focused on threats to jobs, democracy, and even humanity. Whatever you might think of the most extreme predictions, AI needs guardrails and too few jurisdictions are responding. For tribes, that’s a sovereignty question.

The Cherokee Nation’s AI policy and Data Sovereignty and Governance Task Force report⁠ offers an important model of executive action. But Tribes aren’t merely employers. Sure, they purchase technology, control data and resources, own businesses, and manage employees, but they also legislate, regulate, prosecute, adjudicate, provide remedies, and negotiate with other governments.

Tribes can begin to take action by inventorying AI uses and assessing risks to citizens, elections, decision-making processes, Indigenous data, cultural knowledge, jurisdiction, treaty rights, and future generations. One possible approach is to use a sequence like below, with steps that will overlap and that can proceed in parallel:

continuous risk assessment → executive policy → employment, contracting, and procurement protections → administrative capacity → Tribal legislation creating rights, duties, oversight, and remedies → Tribal enforcement and remedies → intergovernmental and external enforcement

Jurisdictional limits matter, especially when vendors, data, or harmful actors are beyond a Tribe’s reach. But those limits make contracts and intergovernmental agreements more important; they don’t justify inaction. The magnitude of the risks also requires inter-Tribal coordination and resource-sharing between Tribes.

The question isn’t simply how Tribal employees should use AI. It’s how Tribal governments will exercise sovereignty over it.

Some Useful Resources

Cherokee Nation Data Sovereignty and Governance Task Force Report. Provides a Tribal-specific example of executive policy development, institutional assessment, data sovereignty, cybersecurity, and AI governance.

NIST Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework. Offers a structured method that Tribes can adapt to identify, measure, manage, and monitor AI risks.

CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance. Adds an Indigenous-specific framework centered on collective benefit, authority to control, responsibility, and ethics.

GovAI Coalition Templates and Resources for Public Agencies. Supplies practical policy, procurement, assessment, and vendor review tools that Tribes can revise to reflect Tribal law, values, jurisdiction, and sovereign immunity.