AI Governance Is a Sovereignty Question
Written by Robby Jakovljevic, Director of Information Technology, Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians in General Articles
Date: 08/24/2026
Most AI guidance treats adoption as a technology decision. For a tribal nation, it is a sovereignty decision first.
When we began evaluating AI, we did not start with the tools. We started with our data. Where does it live, who governs it, and what happens to it the moment it leaves our control. Those questions led to an AI Acceptable Use Policy, adopted by our Tribal Council, grounded in Indigenous Data Sovereignty and the OCAP principles of Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession.
The policy created a Tribal AI Committee that includes our executive, operational, technical, and policy leadership. No AI tool enters our environment without going through that committee, and every tool is measured against a structured review. We ask what problem the tool actually solves, and whether it is even an AI problem or something a simpler workflow automation could handle better and more cheaply. We ask where the data goes, what the vendor is permitted to do with it, and who has the authority to shut it down.
That last question matters more than most organizations realize. The decision to discontinue a tool is the committee's. The ability to stop a tool that is actively misbehaving rests with IT, who can act in the moment. We deliberately separated those so that no single person controls our AI, and so that nothing waits for a meeting while harm is happening.
None of this is about slowing innovation. It is about making sure that when AI enters our environment, it serves the Tribe rather than exposing it.
Here is what I have learned. The hardest part is not the technology. It is the discipline to ask the questions before adopting, when the pressure is to move fast and keep up. For a sovereign nation, that discipline is not caution for its own sake. It is the practice of protecting our members, our data, and our cultural heritage from a category of risk that did not exist a few years ago.
AI will keep arriving, whether we are ready or not. Our work is to make sure it arrives on our terms.