Helicopter Researchers Posted on March 19, 2007 Think about your motives before embarking on research in Native American communities, suggests Teresa D. LaFromboise (bio).

I think something maybe to think about is if you are interested in doing research in Indian communities is really--and you are not an Indian person maybe to really question your motives. That I think there are what are called "helicopter researchers." You know, that's the--at least that's what we talk about, you know, where people kind of like fly in and gather the data and leave and never to be seen again.

And I think that comes through. There are many--if you look there are a lot of people that do a dissertation with an Indian community that never again study them, or do work with that population. One is that it's probably pretty difficult and so that may be the case.

But I think that communities are sensitive to that and that can be one of the reasons it's so difficult to actually form collaborations and to get involved in research in the community but I think that that becomes--it's easy for people to sense and see.

And so it's real important to think why am I really doing this and maybe if it's only for intellectual reasons, or for a project, or a convenience sample or something, then I think it comes through to the people that are involved. It doesn't help the whole research enterprise for others.

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