Indigenous Community Digital Sovereignty

Background

For decades, the Coastal Salish community relied on external telecommunications providers who failed to understand their unique needs—particularly around cultural preservation, language revitalization, and data sovereignty.

The Vision

Using Citinet, the community built a network that respects Indigenous data sovereignty principles: data about the community belongs to the community, stored locally, governed by traditional protocols.

Implementation

• Cultural Archive: Oral histories, language recordings, and traditional knowledge stored on community-controlled nodes
• Multilingual Platform: All interfaces available in Lushootseed and English
• Elders Council Oversight: Network governance aligned with traditional decision-making structures
• Youth Engagement: Young community members learn network maintenance, bridging traditional knowledge with technical skills

Outcomes

The network now serves 300+ community members across multiple locations. Language learning resources are accessible offline. Cultural knowledge remains under community control, with access determined by traditional protocols rather than corporate terms of service.

“Our stories, our language, our knowledge—it all stays here, with us. No corporation can buy it, sell it, or lose it. This is what digital sovereignty looks like.”
— Tanya Wisniewski, Coastal Salish Digital Collective elder

Broader Impact

The model is being adapted by 6 other Indigenous communities across North America, each tailoring Citinet to their specific cultural and governance frameworks.

Technical Notes

• Hybrid connectivity: Satellite uplink for external Internet, local mesh for internal services
• Redundant storage across trusted community members’ devices
• Access control system respects traditional knowledge-sharing protocols (e.g., certain stories only for specific age groups or genders)