Cornell Atkinson Indigenous Data Sovereignty cluster — Manaʻoakamai Johnson, Charles; US land-grant academic IDSov anchor

Global (with operational anchors at Cornell, in Pacific islands, with Tohono O'odham Nation, and Aotearoa-linked scholars)

Content

The Cornell Atkinson Indigenous Data Sovereignty cluster is the US land-grant academic anchor for Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDSov) research and Indigenous-led data infrastructure work. It extends the global IDSov framework (CARE Principles, IEEE 2890-2025, UNDRIP Article 3) into a US institutional academic context, anchored at Cornell University.

Lead researchers

Steven Manaʻoakamai Johnson, Ph.D.

• Title: Assistant Professor, Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment, Cornell University (Ithaca NY)
• Faculty Fellow: Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability
• Affiliate Faculty: American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program, Cornell
• Background: Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) scholar; Ph.D. Geography, Oregon State University (2021); M.S. Biology, University of Guam (2017); B.S. Biology, Barry University (2010)
• Affiliations: Vice President, Tåno, Tåsi, yan Todu 501(c)(3) (Saipan, MP); AAAS Council Early Career At-Large-Member (2023-2025)
• Substantive research focus: Indigenous-led data infrastructure for ocean and coastal conservation; community-led monitoring; climate cooperatives; decolonial methodology; r Kupuna / Kānaka ʻŌiwi frameworks
• Connection to agriculture: Substantively limited — Johnson’s primary research is marine / ocean conservation, climate cooperatives, Indigenous knowledge systems. The Cornell Atkinson IDSov cluster extends his work into agrifood-adjacent questions (food systems, food sovereignty) but his primary research is marine.

Michael Charles

• Title: Citizen of the Tohono O’odham Nation; Cornell CALS (‘16)
• Substantive research focus: Computational modeling for Indigenous data sovereignty; community-defined research atlases; statistical summaries of Indigenous data
• Connection to agriculture: Direct — the Tohono O’odham Nation is in the Sonoran Desert (Arizona / Mexico border region); agricultural and food-system dimensions of Indigenous data sovereignty are part of Charles’s substantive work.

Cornell institutional context

• Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability — Cornell’s sustainability research hub. The IDSov cluster is positioned here as a Faculty Fellowship research area.
• American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program — Cornell’s interdisciplinary Indigenous studies program.
• Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment — Johnson’s home unit. Cornell CALS.

Why this unit matters

The existing units/indigenous-data-sovereignty.md covers the IDSov framework (CARE Principles, IEEE 2890-2025) and operational anchors in Peru, Aotearoa, Mexico. The Cornell Atkinson cluster is the US land-grant academic anchor for IDSov work — a substantively different cell:

• Existing IDSov unit: covers global framework + international operational anchors (Peru, Aotearoa, Mexico)
• This unit: covers US land-grant academic IDSov work — connecting the global IDSov framework to US institutional / land-grant / extension context

The land-grant institutional anchor is structurally important because:

• The US Land-grant system is the largest single deployment infrastructure for US agricultural research and extension (see units/extension-foundation-2026-national-ai-report.md)
• IDSov work within this infrastructure is structurally distinct from IDSov work in international Indigenous-led organisations (GIDA, ONAMIAP, Te Mana Raraunga)
• The cluster provides an institutional pathway for IDSov methodology to engage with USDA AI Strategy and Cooperative Extension without being absorbed into either

Substantive research contributions

Johnson’s publication record (per February 2026 CV) demonstrates substantive IDSov work:

• Kassam KA, Charles MT, and Johnson SM. 2023. “Significance of different ways of knowing in responding to the climate crisis: the necessity of Indigenous knowledge.” PLoS Climate 2(7), e0000237. — substantive IDSov-and-climate work.
• Spalding AK et al. (incl. Johnson SM). 2023. “Engaging the Tropical Majority to Make Ocean Governance and Science more Equitable and Effective.” npj Ocean Sustainability 2(8). — IDSov methodology for ocean governance (parallel to agrifood).
• Johnson SM and Villagomez AO. 2026. “Representation and Power in Ocean Conservation Documentaries: A Decolonial Analysis.” Oceans and Society. — decolonial methodology.
• Johnson SM and Watson JR. “Climate cooperatives to support sustainability in the face of mid- and late-century ocean climate analogs.” In review at Frontiers of Ocean Sustainability. — climate cooperatives framing (parallel to JoinData / NAPDC cooperative alternative; see units/joindata-netherlands.md, units/napdc-national-ag-producer-data-cooperative.md).

The “climate cooperatives” in-review paper is substantively parallel to JoinData / NAPDC cooperative framing for agrifood data — Johnson’s work extends the cooperative / commons logic to climate-adaptation contexts.

What this unit is doing in the taxonomy

Anchors the US land-grant academic IDSov work cell. Distinct from:

• IDSov framework unit (units/indigenous-data-sovereignty.md) — global framework + international operational anchors
• NAPDC (units/napdc-national-ag-producer-data-cooperative.md) — US federally-funded cooperative framework development; adjacent but distinct (cooperative / commons rather than Indigenous-sovereign)
• Mila FLAIR (referenced in units/indigenous-data-sovereignty.md) — Indigenous-language AI; Canadian / Latin American operational context
• Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability (parent institutional context) — broader sustainability research hub; this unit is the IDSov cluster within it

Why it matters for talks

• The Cornell Atkinson cluster is the canonical US land-grant academic anchor for IDSov work. Talks about US institutional engagement with Indigenous data sovereignty should reference it.
• The cluster’s substantive work on “climate cooperatives” parallels the cooperative / commons alternative for agrifood (JoinData, NAPDC). The parallel is worth surfacing.
• The Cornell institutional position means the cluster’s work can engage with USDA AI Strategy and Cooperative Extension without losing IDSov framing.

Critical context

• Johnson’s primary research is marine / ocean conservation, not agrifood per se. The agricultural / food-system application of his IDSov framework is structural — agrifood is one cell where his methodology applies, not the primary cell of his work. The cluster’s relevance to agrifood AI is framework-extension, not direct agrifood-AI deployment.
• Charles’s agricultural connection is direct (Tohono O’odham Nation context) but his work is not primarily AI deployment — it is data sovereignty methodology applied to Indigenous community contexts.
• The cluster is a small team within Cornell, not a large institutional programme. Substantive IDSov operational deployment at US scale remains a gap (per G-043, G-048).
• The cluster’s work is positioned within the broader Cornell / Land-grant institutional context. Whether IDSov methodology can scale to operational AI deployment within the Land-grant system is an open question — Cornell Atkinson is the anchor, not the deployment infrastructure.
• The cluster does not duplicate the GIDA / CARE Principles operational anchors in Peru (units/indigenous-data-sovereignty.md). Cornell Atkinson is the US academic-anchored counterpart; GIDA / ONAMIAP / Te Mana Raraunga are the international Indigenous-led operational anchors. Both are substantive; they are distinct cells.