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We employed sharing circles as an Indigenous research methodology approach to understand the stories of Native American students as they transitioned into college. We found recognition, responsibility, and relationships as anchors in incorporating Tribal cultural protocol in research. Through trust and vulnerability, Native students shared in-depth personal stories. Attempting to decolonize methodological space is complex, and we provide an accounting of how we maneuvered through this process while offering examples of the rich stories that students shared. As Native scholars, we conclude by considering our cultural and ethical responsibilities as well as the complex tensions that surface as an “insider” and “outsider” when researching and using sharing circles as an Indigenous methodological approach.

In this article, we explore the concept of Indigenous scholar sisterhood practices and its powerful role in affirming Indigenous women to survive and thrive in the act of research and the larger academic landscape. We address how we, as Indigenous women scholars, extend beyond transactional validity practices in qualitative research and engage in a collective form of validity that is holistic and grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing. We explore what it means to live our research and reclaim academic spaces among a collective sisterhood, as we grapple with questions of what valid and rigorous research looks like from an Indigenous perspective. Recognizing that attempts to decolonize methodological spaces can be complex and tempered with struggles, we provide personal accounts of Indigenous scholar sisterhood practices of love, prayer, vulnerability, and resistance and protection used to maneuver through this space together. As Indigenous women scholars, we conclude by reimagining the value of collective work as a means to not only survive academia but lift up our communities.

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