Indigenous Governance Database
Harvard Project on Indigenous Governance and Development
The More Indigenous Nations Self Govern, The More They Succeed
Harvard Kennedy School Professor Joseph Kalt and senior director Director Megan Minoka Hill say the evidence is in: When Native nations make their own decisions about what development approaches to take, studies show they consistently out-perform external decision makers like the U.S. Department of…
HPAIED Letter to the Treasury: Allocation of COVID-19 Response Funds to American Indian Nations
Dear Secretary Mnuchin, We write to respectfully comment on the impact of the current COVID-19 crisis on American Indian tribal economies, tribes’ responses to the crisis, and on implications for the allocation of federal COVID-19 response funds to federally recognized tribes under the CARES Act…
Transcending Borders in Tribal Nation-Building
Dr. Stephen Cornell addressed the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, House of Commons, in Ottawa, Canada. The following is the excerpted transcript from his address, which, among other things, discusses what really does and should matter to Indigenous peoples--…
NNI Indigenous Leadership Fellow: John Petoskey (Part 1)
In the first of two interviews conducted in conjunction with his tenure as NNI Indigenous Leadership Fellow, John Petoskey, citizen and long-time General Counsel of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB), discusses how GTB has worked and continues to work to build and maintain…
Honoring Nations: Manley Begay: So You Have a Great Program...Now What?!
"Forward-thinking" is often used to describe innovative programs. In remarks designed to frame the symposium session "So You Have a Great Program...Now What?!", Manley A. Begay, Jr. talks about strategic orientation, planning, and implementation as critical to sustaining the success of tribal…
Patricia Riggs: Educating and Engaging the Community: What Works?
Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Economic Development Director Patricia Riggs shares the citizen education and engagement strategies her nation employed in strengthening its governance system. This video resource is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Bush Foundation.
Priscilla Iba: Osage Government Reform
Osage Government Reform Commission Member Priscilla Iba discusses the historical factors that prompted the Osage Nation to create an entirely new constitution and governance system, and how the Nation went to great lengths to cultivate the participation and ownership of Osage citizens in the reform…
Harvard Project Names Three Honoring Nations Leaders
Sharing outstanding programs in tribal self-governance and helping to expand the capacities of Tribal leaders through learning from each others’ successes is the mission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development’s Honoring Nations program. Recently the Honoring Nations program…
Harvard Project Names 18 Semifinalists for Honoring Nations Awards
The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development recognizes exemplary tribal government initiatives and facilitates the sharing of best practices through its Honoring Nations awards program. On March 3, the Harvard Project announced its selection of 18 semi-finalists for the 2014…
Tribes across the country are re-examining their constitutions
Erma Vizenor is not exactly a revolutionary. But like America’s founders, she’s on a mission to ratify a new constitution in her homeland – the White Earth tribal nation. Most Americans don’t realize that tribes have their own constitutions, which set down rules for everything from tribal…
Successful Tribes Are Reshaping Governance
American Indian communities are often offered up as the gold standard of dysfunction in America. With our high rates of entrenched poverty, we top the lists of addiction, suicide and other social ills. It’s platitude that, frankly, gets tiring to hear. We in the media like to describe the best and…
The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and its Application to Canadian Aboriginal Business
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…