Tribes are shifting to investing in renewable energy projects. Technological appropriateness is fundamental to knowing which renewable energy project is a viable investment for tribes. Because tribes have limited resources, they need to know two primary aspects of technological appropriateness: mechanical efficiency and economic efficiency. Both are based on the geography of the reservation. Using GIS, I have evaluated the mechanical and economic efficiency of solar, biodiesel and wind renewable energy systems for every reservation in the United States. In addition, I have examined in more depth the Yakama, Standing Rock Sioux, and the St. Regis Mohawk reservations to determine what mix of these technologies to create an effective renewable energy portfolio based on several factors that could affect tribes’ investment decisions. The second chapter focuses on the cultural elements that can impact a technology’s appropriateness for a reservation using linguistic analysis and GIS to demonstrate the relationship between culture, technology and the land. The third chapter examines opportunities for tribes to create stronger collaborations with policy makers and academics by using linguistic analysis to highlight the highest frequency of words that each group uses in their documents concerning energy. The fourth chapter analyses the resource availability for each technology for each reservation using GIS to determine the environmental and economic factors that can impact a technology’s appropriateness. The fifth chapter highlights the best practices that researchers can use when collaborating with Indigenous communities to conduct research as a means to strengthen those collaborations to increase the likelihood that a renewable energy project on a reservation will be successful. The goal of this research is to provide tribes with a tool that will help them to partner with government and academic institutions to build renewable energy systems to strengthen the tribe’s sovereignty