In 2021, the cultural heritage nonprofit organization Archaeology Southwest received a Human Networks and Data Science grant from the US National Science Foundation to update its long-running archaeological research database, cyberSW. Central to this process was the creation of a Tribal Working Group (TWG) to advise the cyberSW team on how to make the database more relevant/useful to Native American communities in the region. Over the next three years, the TWG collaboration led to new approaches to database management and the hiring of a Native American fellow, as well as an expansion of the project to engage with traditional knowledge about plants and animals. This article recounts the history of the cyberSW 2.0 database project and TWG’s role within this process, with the goal of sharing lessons learned for others interested in developing similar collaborative programs with Native American communities.
