Submitted by Van Butsic on
The UC Berkeley Cannabis Research Center is conducting research on cannabis permitting on ancestral tribal lands. The long-term benefits of this project are to increase sovereignty of Native American Tribes over cannabis permitting on their reservation, allotment, and unceded ancestral lands, as well as assist local governments in making this possible.
One goal of this project is to assess the extent to which the policies and procedures being carried out by regulatory agencies, tasked with implementing and enforcing cannabis permitting, are consistent with tribal sovereignty and self-determination.
There are several objectives associated with this research including; using participatory mapping techniques to develop spatial databases of cannabis licensing and Tribal Cultural Resources (TCRs), maintaining the confidentiality of TCR locations in counties where tribes have expressed concerns about cannabis permitting, and providing tools for Tribes to evaluate and respond to potential impact on cultural sites.
The results of the mapping component will lead to the co-development of written best practices guidelines for local and state agencies regarding permitting of cannabis sites on or near culturally important areas or TCRs.
Undergraduate researchers will contribute to the mapping portion of this project by analyzing and digitizing geospatial data (satellite imagery) using ArcGIS Pro and Google Earth Pro under the direction of a graduate student researcher (GSR). Access to the Geospatial Innovation Facility (GIF) in Mulford Hall will be granted for in-person work, as well as the opportunity to obtain an ArcGIS Pro license to work remotely.
The ability to work independently is a must. Coursework related to Native American Studies and Environmental Science is a plus. Experience with ArcGIS, Q-GIS, or any GIS software is valuable but not necessary. Access to a computer that runs Windows will be beneficial for remote work. Ideal applicants will be motivated and excited to learn GIS techniques and to contribute to ongoing research on cannabis policy and tribal sovereignty.