intergovernmental collaboration

McGirt and Rebuilding Tribal Nations Toolbox

Year

The McGirt decision has changed the legal landscape and created new opportunities for tribal nations starting with the Five Tribes in Eastern Oklahoma and potentially for tribal nations across Indian Country. It also has been the source of confusion, hyperbole, and alarm among some commentators.

The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and University of Oklahoma Native Nations Center McGirt Colloquium Toolbox contains a series of briefing papers that explain the ramifications of McGirt in various areas important to tribes and clarify what is and what is not at issue. These briefing papers help affected tribes chart a pathway toward the effective exercise of post-McGirt tribal powers and productive collaboration with state governments. The briefing papers offer ideas and examples of what these processes and outcomes might look like. In particular, they consider at least eight areas through the lens of a tribal government’s responsibilities to its citizens, to other Indians, and to non-Indians on trust lands and fee lands within the external borders of recognized reservations.

We hope these papers will be shared, and the ideas disseminated, in ways that tribal governments and other partners identify as useful for creating dispassionate, helpful guidance to tribes and states in the post-McGirt era.

Resource Type
Citation

McGirt Colloquium Toolbox. 2021. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and University of Oklahoma Native Nations Center. https://sites.google.com/g.harvard.edu/mcgirt-rebuilding-nations/home. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. Retrieved on March 2, 2021.

Newtok Relocation Effort

Year

Scientists and politicians spend hours debating the facts of climate change, but in many places damaging changes to the local environment are already a reality. In the past decade, more and more human settlements have been threatened by catastrophic flooding, wildfires, or drought caused by variations in usual climate patterns. Climate change is already having devastating effects on Alaska; a 2003 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that flooding and erosion affect 86% of Alaska Native villages. Faced with deteriorating environmental conditions, residents of the traditional Yup’ik village of Newtok, Alaska decided to relocate and move the village to the site of the community’s summer camp, nine miles away from Newtok’s current location. Rather than wait for the United States or the state of Alaska to develop strategies to assist communities affected by climate change, Newtok took its future into its own hands. In doing so, they have become a model for others.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

"Newtok Relocation Effort." Honoring Nations: 2010 Honoree. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2011. Report.

Leech Lake Joint Tribal-State Jurisdiction

Year

Across Indian Country tribes are strengthening and better defining their governments in order to meet the unique needs of their communities. As Native nations work to expand their sovereign powers, tribal justice departments can play a critical role in achieving those goals. In the early 2000s, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe faced a rising crime rate. Because Minnesota is subject to Public Law 280, county and state agencies controlled the primary resources for law enforcement and judicial processing. But recidivism statistics for its tribal citizens showed that the state system was not addressing the problem. Despite its limited judicial infrastructure, the nation had a strong desire to intercede, and a strong commitment to holistic care rooted in traditional values. It was with this determination that Leech Lake set aside a history of interracial tension to work with neighboring counties to create a Wellness Court that helps people overcome their drug and alcohol addictions.

 

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

"Leech Lake Joint Tribal-State Jurisdiction." Honoring Nations: 2010 Honoree. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2011. Report.

Coquille: Southwest Oregon Research Project (SWORP)

Year

Driven by the belief that possessing historical documents and archival collections is essential for cultural self-determination, the Coquille Indian Tribe partnered with the University of Oregon and the Smithsonian Institution to launch the Southwest Oregon Research Project (SWORP) in 1995. Through SWORP, over 110,000 pages of cultural, linguistic, and historical documents have been collected and placed in a central archive. In 1997 and again in 2001, SWORP held potlatches in which 44 tribes were given copies of the collection. Today, these documents help tribal scholars develop and present a culturally sensitive and historically accurate body of knowledge about northwest tribes.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

"Southwest Oregon Research Project (SWORP)". Honoring Nations: 2002 Honoree. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2003. Report. 

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. 

Fond du Lac's Pharmacy On-Line Billing Initiative

Year

In 1995, faced with rising pharmaceutical costs, limited Indian Health Service (IHS) funds, and an inability to bill and collect from third party insurers, the Human Services Division contracted with a private sector firm to design and implement a computerized pharmacy billing system. The first of its kind for Indian Country, Fond du Lac’s on-line system not only increases the Division’s revenue stream, but also updates prices automatically, interfaces with the Indian Health Service’s Resource Patient Management System for health record-keeping, and warns of drug interactions. This initiative and its spin-offs at Fond du Lac (in dentistry, for example) demonstrate the Tribe’s capacity to direct complicated technological innovations that significantly improve existing management information systems. The initiative is also noteworthy for the changes it augured in IHS policy and for the partnership it created between the Band, the IHS, and the private sector in searching for monetary support that went beyond the sources of tribal health care funds.

Resource Type
Citation

"Pharmacy On-Line Billing Initiative". Honoring Nations: 2000 Honoree. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2001. Report.

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

Umatilla Basin Salmon Recovery Project

Year

The Umatilla Basin Salmon Recovery Project has successfully restored salmon to the Umatilla River, where they had been absent for nearly 70 years, while also protecting the local irrigated agriculture economy. Partnering with local irrigators and community leaders, the tribe undertook a comprehensive effort that included fish passage improvements, stream habitat enhancement, hatchery stations, research, and a federally funded project that allowed irrigators to access water from other sources. In addition to bringing a thriving salmon population back to the River — a cultural and economic imperative for the tribe — the Project has fostered cooperative relationships among stakeholders with divergent interests.

Resource Type
Citation

"Umatilla Basin Salmon Recovery Project." Honoring Nations: 2002 Honoree. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2003. Report.

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

Navajo Nation Archaeology Department Training Programs

Year

The Navajo Nation Archaeology Department was created in 1977 to facilitate historic preservation on Navajo Nation lands as mandated by both US and tribal government legislation. In 1988 and again in 1993, the Department expanded to include training programs, undertaken in partnership with Northern Arizona University and Ft. Lewis College, which are designed to give Navajo students the professional skills needed to conduct these important historic preservation activities. The training programs provide field and laboratory experience to Navajo graduate and undergraduate students concentrating in anthropology or archaeology. By combining academic training with practical application on the Navajo Reservation and western technical skills with traditional Navajo knowledge and oral history, the programs are preparing a pool of qualified Native professionals to assume cultural resource positions that historically have been filled by non-Navajos.

 

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

"Navajo Nation Archaeology Department — Training Programs". Honoring Nations: 2000 Honoree. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2001. Report.  

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. 

Coeur d'Alene Tribal Wellness Center

Year

Created in 1998, the Wellness Center aims to promote healthy lifestyles by offering programs in fitness, aquatics, rehabilitation, childcare, and community health to 3,000 Indian and non-Indian clients. By employing the medicine wheel, or whole-life, approach to health and by focusing on preventative care, the Center complements the acute and chronic illness care provided by the Benewah Medical Center, which was created in 1990 through a joint venture between the Tribe and the City of Plummer, Idaho. Together with the Medical Center, the multi-purpose Wellness Center is the culmination of the Tribe’s goal to provide affordable health care services for all residents on the Reservation. Program participation is growing, tribal citizens are enthusiastic, and the Center is positively impacting members’ health–evidence that the Coeur d’Alene Tribe has successfully integrated primary health care, prevention, and wellness care.

Resource Type
Citation

"Coeur d’Alene Tribal Wellness Center". Honoring Nations: 2000 Honoree. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2001. Report.

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

Idaho Gray Wolf Recovery Program (Nez Perce)

Year

By developing a plan that includes monitoring, outreach, species management/control, and research, the Tribe is now leading the statewide recovery of the endangered Gray Wolf. The recovery program, which meets the guidelines developed by the US Fish and Wildlife Services, has resulted in a wolf population that is three times larger than it was five years ago. The Idaho Gray Wolf Recovery Program has brought recognition to the Tribe's ability to manage a complex and often controversial project. By asserting treaty rights as co-managers of fish and wildlife resources, the Tribe has forged solid working relationships with federal and state governments.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

"Idaho Gray Wolf Recovery Program". Honoring Nations: 1999 Honoree. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2000. Report. 

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. 

The Chippewa Flowage Joint Agency Management Plan

Year

The Joint Agency Management Plan brings together three governments — the Lac Courte Oreilles Band, the State of Wisconsin, and the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service — to co-manage the Chippewa Flowage, a 15,300-acre reservoir created in 1923 that inundated a tribal village. Taking into account the cultural, aesthetic, and economic value of the Flowage, the plan provides a framework for the three parties to coordinate management activities and decisions through a consensus-based approach.

Resource Type
Citation

"Honoring Our Ancestors: The Chippewa Flowage Joint Agency Management Plan." Honoring Nations: 2003 Honoree. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2004. Report.

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.