Glossary of Key Terms

This glossary provides plain-language definitions for terms used throughout the Playbook. Each definition includes context for how the term applies in Indian Country and tribal governance settings. The glossary was identified at the 2026 Tribal Innovation Summit as the single most important foundational resource: establishing a common language is the prerequisite for every conversation about AI, data, and sovereignty.

This is a living document. Terms will be added and refined as the Playbook develops. To suggest additions or corrections, see the Contributing Guide or contact the Open Sovereignty Lab.

Sovereignty and Governance Terms

Data Sovereignty. The right of a people or government to control the collection, use, ownership, and access to data about their citizens, territory, and resources. For tribal nations, data sovereignty is an extension of inherent political sovereignty into the digital domain. See Data Sovereignty for the full treatment.

Digital Colonization. The extraction, use, or commercialization of Indigenous data, knowledge, or cultural materials by outside entities without the consent or meaningful participation of the affected Indigenous community. Mirrors historical patterns of resource extraction applied to the digital domain. See Digital Colonization and Consent.

FPIC (Free, Prior, and Informed Consent). An international human rights standard recognizing that Indigenous peoples must give consent before any activity that affects their lands, resources, cultures, or communities. Consent must be free from coercion, given before the activity begins, based on full information disclosure, and grounded in meaningful participation. In the Playbook, FPIC is treated as a minimum standard for all AI and data engagements, not a one-time checkbox.

Government-to-Government Relationship. The constitutional and legal framework under which tribal nations engage with the United States as sovereign political entities, not as subordinate administrative units or racial groups. Established through the Commerce Clause and affirmed in over two centuries of Supreme Court case law.

Inherent Sovereignty. The principle that tribal nations possessed self-governing authority before the formation of the United States and retain that authority today. Sovereignty is not granted by Congress, the courts, or the Constitution; it is recognized by them.

OCAP (Ownership, Control, Access, Possession). A set of principles for Indigenous data governance developed by the First Nations Information Governance Centre in Canada. See OCAP Analysis for a detailed comparative analysis.

Tribal Law. The laws, codes, ordinances, and governance structures established by individual tribal nations under their sovereign authority. In the context of AI and data governance, tribal law is the appropriate governing framework because no federal or state regulations currently address AI in relation to Indigenous communities.

UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples). An international framework recognizing the rights of Indigenous peoples to self-determination, cultural preservation, and control over their traditional knowledge and resources. Articles 3, 4, and 31 are particularly relevant to digital self-determination.

AI and Technology Terms

Algorithm. A set of rules or instructions that a computer follows to perform a task or make a decision. AI systems use algorithms to process data and generate outputs. The rules are often not visible or understandable to the people affected by the decisions.

API (Application Programming Interface). A structured way for software systems to communicate with each other. In the Playbook, API architecture is discussed in the context of controlling how tribal data moves between systems, particularly the principle of inbound-only data flows.

Artificial Intelligence (AI). A broad term for computer systems that perform tasks typically associated with human cognition, such as summarization, pattern recognition, language translation, and prediction. AI systems are not thinking entities. They are sophisticated statistical engines that identify patterns in training data and generate outputs based on those patterns. See the AI Literacy section for a deeper treatment.

CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker). A security tool that sits between an organization’s on-premises infrastructure and a cloud provider, enforcing security policies, monitoring data movement, and providing visibility into how cloud services are being used.

Cloud Computing. The delivery of computing resources (storage, processing, software) over the internet, hosted on servers owned by a third-party provider rather than on the organization’s own hardware. Cloud computing raises specific sovereignty concerns because data may be stored in locations and jurisdictions outside tribal control.

Data Classification. The process of categorizing data according to its sensitivity and governance requirements. The Playbook uses a four-tier model: public, internal, sensitive, and sovereign. See Data Classification for the framework.

Data Localization. The practice of requiring that data about a community’s citizens or operations be stored on physical servers within a defined geographic or jurisdictional boundary. Data localization is one mechanism for ensuring that tribal data remains under tribal control.

Encryption. The process of converting data into a coded format that can only be read by someone with the correct key. Encryption at rest protects stored data; encryption in transit protects data as it moves between systems. In the Playbook, tribal control of encryption keys is treated as a core requirement for cloud sovereignty.

Generative AI. A category of AI systems that produce new content (text, images, code, audio) based on patterns learned from training data. Examples include ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Midjourney. Generative AI raises particular concerns for tribal communities because these models may have been trained on Indigenous data without consent.

Hallucination. When an AI system generates information that is false, fabricated, or unsupported by its training data, but presents it as if it were factual. AI systems cannot tell you why they hallucinated, and asking them to explain a wrong answer produces a prediction of what an apology should look like rather than a genuine correction.

LLM (Large Language Model). The technical architecture behind most modern generative AI systems. LLMs are trained on massive datasets of text and learn statistical patterns for predicting what words should come next. They do not understand meaning, context, or culture in the way humans do.

Model Training. The process of feeding data into an AI system so that it learns patterns and can generate outputs. Training data shapes everything an AI system produces. If the training data reflects particular biases, assumptions, or knowledge gaps, the model’s outputs will reflect those same limitations.

On-Premises (On-Prem). Computing infrastructure that is owned and operated by the organization itself, housed in physical facilities under the organization’s direct control. On-prem systems offer maximum data sovereignty but require significant capital investment and technical capacity.

Open Source. Software whose source code is publicly available, allowing anyone to inspect, modify, and distribute it. Open-source AI models offer tribes the ability to host and control their own AI systems without depending on a commercial vendor, though they require technical capacity to operate.

RBAC (Role-Based Access Control). A security approach that restricts system access based on the roles assigned to individual users within an organization. In the Playbook, RBAC is recommended as a core component of data classification and sovereignty mapping.

SLA (Service Level Agreement). A contractual commitment from a vendor specifying the performance standards they will meet, including uptime, response times, and defect resolution. The Playbook includes SLA templates with tribal-specific requirements. See Templates.

Shadow AI. The use of AI tools by employees or community members without organizational knowledge or approval. Shadow AI creates sovereignty risks because data may be shared with outside systems without the tribe’s consent or awareness.

Vendor Lock-In. A situation in which switching from one technology vendor to another becomes prohibitively expensive or technically difficult, typically because the vendor uses proprietary data formats, limited export capabilities, or contract terms that penalize departure.

This glossary will continue to expand as additional Playbook modules are published. The target is 30 to 50 terms covering AI, data sovereignty, governance, and technology concepts in plain language with tribal-specific context.