nation rebuilding

'We are getting stronger'

Author
Year

An economic, political and cultural renaissance is underway throughout Indian Country in the United States. It’s been going on for nearly a quarter-century. Whereas in the 1980s, economic growth on Indian reservations lagged far behind the rate of the U.S. economy, through the booming 1990s and the stagnant 2000s, per capita income growth on Indian reservations outstripped the U.S. as a whole fivefold.

While U.S. poverty rates held steady (at 10 percent), in Indian Country they fell from 48 percent to 32 percent between 1990 and 2010. As U.S. unemployment increased from 8 percent to 10 percent, Indian unemployment fell from 26 percent to 19 percent over the same period. Incomes and life expectancy are still far below the U.S. average, but the gap is closing fast.

“The economic growth has been so rapid, and it has applied to both tribes with and without casinos,” says Joseph P. Kalt of the Harvard University Project on American Indian Economic Development, which compiled the data. “There’s a renaissance going on across Indian America and it’s not about casinos.”

The reason it’s happening, Kalt says, is the greatly increased control Indians have over their own affairs, including economic development efforts and the management of federally funded programs...

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Woodard, Colin. "'We are getting stronger'."  Portland Press Herald. July 27, 2014. Article. (http://www.pressherald.com/2014/07/27/we-are-getting-stronger/, accessed February 22, 2023)

Rebuilding Our Nations: Tips and Tools for Getting Started

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LEARN ABOUT THE INHERENT RIGHT TO SELF GOVERNANCE. First Nations citizens and all Canadians should learn about our shared history. There is an important booklet on our website called A Brief History of our Right to Self Governance. It demonstrates how we possess the inherent right to rebuild our own systems of governance, to make our own laws and to extend those laws to our traditional territories...

Resource Type
Citation

National Centre for First Nations Governance. "Rebuilding Our Nations: Tips and Tools for Getting Started." National Centre for First Nations Governance. January, 2013. Article. (http://fngovernance.org/news/news_article/rebuilding_our_nations_tips_an..., accessed April 19, 2013)

Rebuilding Native Nations Builds Leadership

Producer
Indian Country Today
Year

The late Hopi leader Thomas Banyacya once said, “Do not look outside yourself for a leader.” That’s good advice for those with inherent leadership qualities. Now the Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy at the University of Arizona is offering an in-depth program to help people develop their inner leaders.

Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development is a comprehensive distance-learning course series that provides students with the opportunity to learn about all the various components of Native nation building from people who are actually doing the on-the-ground work of building their nations. The series examines the critical governance and development challenges facing Native nations and surveys the breadth and diversity of Native nation-building efforts across Indian country...

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Toensing, Gale. "Rebuilding Native Nations Builds Leadership." Indian Country Today Media Network. June 7, 2013. Article. (https://ictnews.org/archive/rebuilding-native-nations-builds-leadership, accessed October 18, 2023)

Indian Act: Time for a New Memory

Year

Canadians recently discovered the crushing poverty in Attawapiskat. This is not the first time Attawapiskat has struggled; and Attawapiskat is not alone. Every three years or so, these problems are discovered and agonized over. There is often a quick fix – new homes, an emergency relocation, a temporary water supply. And two or three years later, another set of headlines starts the cycle again...

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Herb George, Satsan. "Indian Act: Time for a New Memory." National Centre for First Nations Governance. January 25, 2012. Article. (http://fngovernance.org/news/news_article/indian_act_time_for_a_new_memory accessed October 5, 2012)

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)

The Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe

Producer
Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe
Year

For ten thousand years, a Nation of people lived and prospered on the lands now known as the Olympic Peninsula in the State of Washington. These strong people of the S'Klallam Tribes had a system of governance, engaged in commerce, managed natural and human resources, and exercised power over their homelands. The S'Klallams created a rich culture of art, song, spirituality, traditional knowledge and social structure. The S'Klallam culture promoted leadership, self-sufficiency, self reliance, and a code of conduct within their community that served as a basis for strength, pride and survival. This was a Nation, a government and a community...independent and interdependent. It still is. In this video, longtime tribal chairman W. Ron Allen provides an overview of the history of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe and how it has become the strong Native nation it is today.

Native Nations
Citation

Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe. "The Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe." Sequim, Washington. 2010. Video Presentation. (http://www.jamestowntribe.org/facts/facts_video1/facts_video.htm, accessed November 13, 2012).

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)

New Book Provides a Guide for Understanding Native Nation Building

Year

Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development explores the quiet revolution that is underway among the Indigenous nations in North America. Native peoples are reclaiming their right to govern themselves and shape their future according to their own diverse and innovative designs...

Topics
Citation

University Communications. "New Book Provides a Guide for Understanding Native Nation Building." UA News. Office of University Communications, The University of Arizona, Arizona Board of Regents. Tucson, Arizona. December 21, 2007. Article.