capable governing institutions

Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development

Year

Based on two decades of research, the Native Nations Institute (NNI) at the University of Arizona has worked hard to develop a curriculum for tribal leaders that can assist tribes in achieving true economic self-determination. The essays in Rebuilding Native Nations, published in 2007, are the basis for much of the curriculum that NNI now offers to tribal colleges and universities and other postsecondary institutions...

Resource Type
Citation

Disselhorst, Thomas M. "Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development." Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education. February 2, 2013. Review. (http://tribalcollegejournal.org/rebuilding-native-nations-strategies-governance-development-2/, accessed March 1, 2013)

Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development - An Online Course Series

Producer
Liz Hill and Justin Severson
Year

Martha Fast Horse of the Martha Fast Horse Show in Minneapolis interviews Ian Record of the Native Nations Institute (NNI) and Jaime Pinkham (Nez Perce) of the Bush Foundation about NNI's recent launch of its groundbreaking online course series, "Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development." Their conversation touches on the governance challenges facing Native nations, the solutions they are developing to overcome those challenges, and the findings from the ongoing research by NNI and the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development about the keys to successful nation building.

Resource Type
Citation

Hill, Liz and Justin Severson. "Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development - An Online Course Series." The Martha Fast Horse Show. Minneapolis, Minnesota. May 26, 2013. Radio interview. (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/marthafasthorse/2013/05/27/jaime-pinkham-bu..., accessed May 28, 2013)

Membertou: Accountable to the Community

Producer
Centre for First Nations Governance
Year

Leaders of Membertou First nation explain how a high level of accountability to citizens and partners has been key to its success in both governance and business.

Native Nations
Citation

Centre for First Nations Governance. "Membertou: Accountable to the Community." Centre for First Nations Governance. Canada. 2011. Film. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuHc-sONf4g&list=UU6Kmkt3MUlLgGT4vN4NVKWQ, accessed May 6, 2014)

The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and its Application to Canadian Aboriginal Business

Producer
Simon Fraser University Beedie School of Business
Year

This lecture is part of a course Stephen Cornell is teaching in Simon Fraser University's Executive MBA in Aboriginal Business and Leadership program. A panel of three joined Dr. Cornell in a discussion about the building of First Nation economies and the role citizen entrepreneurship can play in that process: Dr. Sophie Pierre, Chief Commissioner of the B.C. Treaty Commission; Lori Simcox, Senior Manager, Tsleil Waututh Nation Economic Development; and Dr. Doug McArthur, Simon Fraser University School of Public Policy.

Resource Type
Citation

Cornell, Stephen, Doug McArthur, Sophie Pierre, and Lori Simcox. "The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and its Application to Canadian Aboriginal Business." Executive MBA in Aboriginal Business and Leadership program. Burnaby, British Columbia. Presentation. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b11QeZqizK4, accessed October 18, 2013)

Rebuilding The Tigua Nation

Producer
Patricia Riggs
Year

The Tigua Indians of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo in Ysleta, Texas produced this 16-minute film in 2013 to demonstrate how a Native American tribe can work hard with business skills and tribal customs to shape a prosperous future through education for all levels of the Tigua Nation.

Native Nations
Citation

Riggs, Patricia. "Rebuilding The Tigua Nation." Ysleta del Sur Pueblo (funding provided by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development's Honoring Nations program). February 27, 2013. Video. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeolxGMrl0Q&feature=youtu.be, accessed October 16, 2013)

Stephen Cornell: Two Approaches to Building Strong Native Nations

Producer
Bush Foundation
Year

Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development Co-Director Stephen Cornell presents the research findings of the Harvard Project and the Native Nations Institute, specifically the two general approaches that Native nations pursue in an effort to achieve sustainable community and economic development in their communities (and why one works so much better than the other).

Resource Type
Citation

Cornell, Stephen. "Two Approaches to Building Strong Native Nations." Tribal Leaders Summit. Bush Foundation. Prior Lake, Minnesota. October 2, 2009. Presentation. (https://vimeo.com/14858529, accessed January 22, 2024)

Joseph P. Kalt: The Nation-Building Renaissance in Indian Country: Keys to Success

Producer
Bush Foundation
Year

Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development Co-Director Joseph P. Kalt presents on the Native nation-building renaissance taking root across in Indian Country, and shares some stories of success.

Resource Type
Citation

Kalt, Joseph P. "The Nation-Building Renaissance in Indian Country: Keys to Success." Tribal Leaders Summit. Bush Foundation. Prior Lake, Minnesota. October 2, 2009. Presentation. (https://vimeo.com/14858844, accessed August 1, 2023)

A Guide to Community Engagement

Producer
British Columbia Assembly of First Nations Governance
Year

In this third part of the BCAFN Governance Toolkit: A Guide to Nation Building, we explore the complex and often controversial subject of governance reform in our communities and ways to approach community engagement. The Governance Toolkit is intended as a resource for First Nations leadership. It provides a conceptual framework for engaging the citizens of First Nations on governance and the challenges of decolonization and moving through the metaphorical "post-colonial door."

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Wilson-Raybould, Jody and Tim Raybould. "A Guide to Community Engagement." Part 3. British Columbia Assembly of First Nations Governance Toolkit: A Guide to Nation Building. West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. 2011. Tools. (https://www.bcafn.ca/sites/default/files/docs/BCAFN-Governance-Toolkit-Part-3-A-Guide-to-Community-Engagement.pdf, accessed, April 3, 2023)

Managing Land, Governing for the Future: Finding the Path Forward for Membertou

Year

This in-depth, interview-based study was commissioned by Membertou Chief and Council and the Membertou Governance Committee, and funded by the Atlantic Aboriginal Economic Development Integrated Research Program to investigate methods by which Membertou First Nation can further increase its decision-making power over economic development. Membertou has made significant economic strides but increasingly struggles against the limits of Canada's Indian Act, especially in terms of land management. Without a well-understood, reliable, and transactionally efficient land regime, the First Nation cannot achieve its community development goals. In fact, recent experiences with commercial and residential development have underscored the insufficiency of Indian Act protocols and the limits on "work-arounds" Membertou has used to avoid those protocols. A wholly new approach is needed.

Membertou's leadership has made the decision to participate in the Framework Agreement on First Nation Land Management as a means of opting out of the lands-relevant portions of the Indian Act. This project emerges from that decision and addresses the following questions: What more does the nation need to do at the level of band governance to implement the Framework Agreement? What institutional and legal infrastructure is needed to support First Nation-led land management? What might Membertou learn from other First Nations that are managing their own lands (under the Land Management Act or other arrangements such as self-governance agreements, treaty settlements, and comprehensive land claims)? What are the preferences of the Membertou community in terms of land management arrangements?

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Starks, Rachel. "Managing Land, Governing for the Future: Finding the Path Forward for Membertou." The Atlantic Aboriginal Economic Development Integrated Research Program. Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. September 2013. Case Study. (https://www.cbu.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/FINAL-ManagingLandGoverningfortheFuture-FindingthePathForwardforMembertouMarch2014.pdf, accessed June 7, 2023)

Navajo Nation Constitutional Feasibility and Government Reform Project

Author
Year

This paper will review three important elements related to the constitutional feasibility and government reform of the Navajo Nation. The first section will outline the foundational principles related to constitutionalism and ask whether constitionalism and the nation-state are appropriate functions for the Navajo Nation to pursue, given its historical norms, values, principles, and given the passage of the Foundational Laws.

The second section will specifically look at historic notions of governance and power and how that relates to the doctrine of the separation of powers in the Navajo Nation. The section describes how the separation of powers currently enshrined in the Navajo Nation Code is different from the actual practice of the separation of political powers. It suggests that the compartmentalization of powers into agencies will actually hinder the interests of the people, and will be less culturally valid.

The third section is a treatise on the practice of judicial review in the Navajo Nation and suggests that it paramount to government reform. The de facto separation of powers within judicial review is highly respected.

The last section details recommendations for government reform.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Yazzie, Robert, Moroni Benally, Andrew Curley, Nikke Alex, James Singer, & Amber Crotty. "Navajo Nation Constitutional Feasibility and Government Reform Project." Diné Policy Institute. Diné College. Tsaile, Arizona. September 2, 2008. Paper. (http://www.navajo-nsn.gov/News%20Releases/Joshua%20Lavar%20Butler/Oct08/..., accessed March 4, 2014)