RiverBot: Reimagining AI, Technology, and Leadership via Indigenous Co-Leadership and Relational AI

Contemporary chatbot development is often led by teams with highly specialized technical training, leaving little space for imaginative and community-centered approaches to technology. This can limit the ability of AI systems to reflect community priorities, place-based knowledge, and diverse ways of knowing. Using RiverBot as a case study, we examine how Indigenous scholars, students, and community partners co-led the development of Relational AI by carrying Indigenous epistemologies into chatbot design, evaluation, and implementation. We argue that Indigenous leadership fundamentally transformed what the technology became, demonstrating how collaboration across epistemologies can reshape AI development. Finally, we discuss how this collaborative process cultivates student leadership, expands interdisciplinary participation in emerging technologies, and strengthens Tribal communities through culturally grounded approaches to water education, stewardship, and decision-making.