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Welcome to Oglala Lakota College
Integrated Data Cube Project
Welcome to our community of learners, researchers, and collaborators. Whether you are taking a class, participating in an internship, conducting research, or exploring a community question, we invite you to explore our learning materials, datasets, and environmental data science tools.
The USDA-NIFA Integrated Data Cube (IDC) project at Oglala Lakota College connects Earth data science with Tribal priorities, knowledge systems, and self-determined decision-making. Together, we are building resources to explore land, water, agriculture, and ecosystems while expanding local expertise in working with environmental data.
Explore Our Series
Our repositories bring together tutorials, analyses, and supporting resources for use in classes, internships, and research. Each repository provides information about its materials and how to get started.
| Area | Series and resources |
|---|---|
| Education | Data Cube Tutorial: Explore how land changes over time and learn how a data cube helps investigate those changes. |
| Hydrology | Hydrology: Explore notebooks for analyzing and visualizing water data on the Pine Ridge Reservation. |
| Agriculture and Habitat | Pine Ridge Bison Habitat: Explore environmental data relevant to bison habitat. |
| Biodiversity | Species Occurrences: Download, display, and analyze species observations from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). |
| Geospatial Data | Dataset Resources: Find information about datasets used in the project. |
| Mapping Resources | Pine Ridge Bounding Boxes and Historical Geologic Maps: Find geographic reference tools and explore historical maps. |
| Data Preparation | Data Ingestion: Explore Python tools for downloading, streaming, and preparing environmental datasets. |
Getting Started
- Learning about data cubes? Begin with the Data Cube Tutorial.
- Working in a class or internship? Follow the series selected by your instructor or mentor and review its README and setup instructions.
- Exploring a research question? Browse the relevant series and dataset resources to understand the available data and methods.
- Interested in collaborating? Contact us to discuss questions, teaching opportunities, or contributions to the project.
These resources are growing. Review each repository’s documentation for its current scope, requirements, and limitations.
Our Project
Environmental changes affect water availability, habitats, agriculture, and community well-being. Tribal Nations bring generations of knowledge and enduring relationships with their homelands to understanding and responding to these changes.
The Integrated Data Cube initiative brings environmental datasets and analysis tools together so that students, faculty, and collaborators can investigate questions across places and through time. Our work with IDC/Cubedynamics supports both research and hands-on learning at Oglala Lakota College.
We aim to:
- Expand access to environmental data and tools for Tribal-led research.
- Build local skills in data analysis, mapping, and interpretation.
- Support learning across classes, internships, and research projects.
- Develop workflows that respect Tribal Knowledges and governance.
- Support environmental decisions guided by community priorities.
Tribal Data Sovereignty
Tribal sovereignty and community leadership guide this work. Respect for Tribal Knowledges includes respecting decisions about whether, how, and with whom knowledge is shared.
When working with these resources, review the source documentation, permissions, attribution requirements, and limitations of each dataset. Questions about appropriate data use or sharing should be discussed with the project team and relevant data stewards.
Team Members
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| J. Foster Sawyer, PhD | Faculty, Oglala Lakota College |
| Elisha Yellow Thunder | Adjunct Faculty, Oglala Lakota College |
| Camille Griffith, PhD | Faculty, Oglala Lakota College |
| James Sanovia | Tribal Data Scientist, CIRES ESIIL Lab, CU Boulder |
| Lilly Jones, PhD | Data Scientist, Daear Consulting, LLC; CIRES Earth Lab, CU Boulder |
| Ty Tuff | Data Scientist, CIRES ESIIL Lab, CU Boulder |
Connect With Us
We welcome questions from students, educators, researchers, community members, and prospective collaborators.
James (Jim) Sanovia
Tribal Data Scientist, CIRES ESIIL Lab, CU Boulder
James.Sanovia@colorado.edu
Acknowledgment
This project is supported by USDA-NIFA and guided by Tribal data sovereignty, respect for Tribal Knowledges, and community-led research.
We honor the Oglala Lakota Nation, the Oceti Sakowin, and the lands that sustain this work.