Tribal water security • Data sovereignty • Indigenous futures

About me

Yá’át’ééh. I am Clarita Lefthand-Begay, a Diné scholar, educator, and community-engaged researcher. My work examines how Tribal nations and communities exercise governance, stewardship, and self-determination across land, water, knowledge, data, and technology.

My research is grounded in long-term partnerships with Tribal nations, communities, students, and interdisciplinary collaborators. Across these relationships, I conduct community-engaged research that is accountable to community priorities, responsive to Indigenous knowledge systems, and useful to the people, places, and decision-making contexts that shape the work.

The questions that continue to guide my scholarship emerged during my doctoral research on Tribal water governance and water security. Working alongside Tribal communities, I examined how Tribal nations navigate environmental policy while protecting water according to their own cultural values, responsibilities, and priorities. That work deepened my attention to Indigenous expertise, knowledge plurality, and the structures that either support or constrain Tribal self-determination.

Over time, my work has expanded from water security into questions about knowledge governance, Tribal research review processes, Indigenous data sovereignty, and emerging technologies. In 2025, I was promoted to Associate Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington. In this next phase of my work, I am advancing research on Tribal water security, contributing to theories and methods aligned with Indigenous ways of knowing, and working with AIAN community members, students, and colleagues to think critically about artificial intelligence, Indigenous governance, and Indigenous futures. Across this work, I remain committed to collaborative research that reflects community priorities and contributes to Indigenous self-determination.