Peery White

Tribes were receiving COVID-19 data 2 weeks or more after a case investigation occurred. Two weeks is far beyond the time that leadership can effectively respond and protect their residents and visitors... For the county, honoring Tribal sovereignty and Tribal data sovereignty helped open up lines of communication and trust. We have increased Tribes’ access to data, and we have also increased the depth and breadth of data the Tribes are willing to share with the county.

Peery White

Tribal Liaison
San Diego County

As the Tribal Liaison for San Diego County, Peery White understands the critical role counties can play in supporting Tribal sovereignty and Tribal data sovereignty. By collaborating with county leadership, Tribal contacts, and federal agencies, Peery and her partners removed barriers to Tribes receiving important COVID-19 data. Impressively, the processes they established decreased the lag time in notifying Tribes of COVID-related infections and exposures from 2 weeks to just 24 hours.

During a pandemic, like COVID-19, time is of the essence, and effectively stopping the spread of disease relies on authorities acting quickly. As sovereign nations responsible for the health and safety of their citizens, Tribal leadership need to know the status of COVID-19 infections and exposures on Tribal lands. However, according to Peery, at the onset of the pandemic, the 18 Tribes in San Diego County were not getting useful data. In several cases, says Peery “Tribes were receiving COVID-19 data 2 weeks or more after a case investigation occurred. Two weeks is far beyond the time that leadership can effectively respond and protect their residents and visitors.”

Tribal sovereignty is the right of Tribes as sovereign nations to govern their land, peoples, and resources. Without good data though, effective governance is nearly impossible. According to Peery, in order to exercise their Tribal sovereignty, “Tribes need quality health information, and in the beginning of the pandemic it simply wasn’t happening here. We could have been providing Tribes’ data more directly, and we weren’t. Tribes were being cut out of the information loop.” According to Peery, this severely limited Tribes’ ability to track the impact of the virus on their lands and implement appropriate public health measures to mitigate the spread of the disease.  

To turn the tide Peery and her partners:

  1. Worked to educate county leaders about Tribal sovereignty and Tribes’ public health authority status
    Peery credits educating county leadership on Tribal sovereignty, Tribal public health authority, and Tribal data sovereignty  as being key to their success. Specifically, what Peery and her partners communicated was that Tribes and Tribal Epidemiology Centers (TECs), inherently and by law, are public health authorities. This gives Tribes and TECs the ability to easily access certain kinds of protected health information. “Just as county and state Public Health Officers are respected and provided the needed data to accomplish their jobs,” Peery told her county colleagues, “it is equally as important that those designated as the public health authorities in Tribal jurisdictions are respected and provided with accurate and timely health information.”

    Peery and her partners’ effectiveness in educating county leadership resulted in the sharing of COVID-19 data directly with Tribal nations from the county without requiring any data sharing agreement. “Why?” said Peery, “because this data is the Tribes’ data. Not ours. We as the county do not have the right to require sovereign nations to sign a data sharing agreement  to receive data about happenings on Tribal lands.” According to Peery, “this respects Tribal sovereignty.”

  2. Building relationships
    Building partnerships is another key component Peery credits to their success. According to Peery, “strong relationships with Tribal leaders and Tribal points of contact are vital to cooperation and collaboration. Knowing the points of contacts in each Tribal community, having open lines of communication, and building trust are vital for rapid data sharing.”

    When asked for advice she would provide to those interesting in building relationships with Tribes, Peery suggested, “Listening to Tribal leadership and speaking to them about your role… Don’t go in with an agenda. Ask Tribal leadership what their priorities are. Be willing to spend time listening and just supporting them with their wants and needs. Take time to build relationships and educate yourself.”

From Peery’s perspective, this advice is critical to take to heart for local, state, and federal employees, who may not have experience working with Tribal communities. Of this she said, “Diseases, like COVID-19, don’t know borders. For all of us to stay safe, we need to work together. Remember, if nothing else, Tribal leadership needs access to health data without jumping through unnecessary hoops. For the county, honoring Tribal sovereignty and Tribal data sovereignty helped open up lines of communication and trust. As a consequence, while we have increased Tribes’ access to data, we have also increased the depth and breadth of data the Tribes are willing to share with the county. Open communication and strong relationships cannot be underestimated. They can help protect all of us.”

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