Benny Shendo, Jr.:

It's not necessarily about nation building, but it's about rebuilding, because if you look at our communities historically, we were very powerful nations.

Robert A. Williams, Jr.:

Federal Indian law is not the reason that Indians are still here. The reason that Indians are still here is because tribal people and tribal leaders clung to their traditions and found ways to perpetuate them -- below ground.

Sophie Pierre:

We have a choice. We have a choice. We can continue, continue to go down that self-pitying kind of road, blaming everybody else for our problems, or we can take control of it. We chose to take control of it.

Anthony Pico:

Sovereignty is the right to govern ourselves, control our resources, follow our respective traditions and customs, and create our own visions for our own communities and our children's future.

Erma Vizenor:

And so we have to have structures and institutions that empower us so that we are never taken advantage of again.

Narrator #1:

"A revolution is underway among the Indigenous nations of North America. It is a quiet revolution, largely unnoticed in society at large. But it is profoundly important. From the High Plains states and Prairie Provinces to the southwestern deserts, from Mississippi and Oklahoma to the northwest coast of the continent, Native peoples are reclaiming their right to govern themselves and shape their futures in their own ways. Challenging more than a century of colonial controls, they are addressing severe social problems, building sustainable economies, and reinvigorating their cultures, languages, and ways of life. In effect, they are rebuilding their nations according to their own diverse and often innovative designs.

The Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development a distance-learning course series explores this growing movement. Sharing lessons learned from more than 25 years of community-based research by the Native Nations Institute and its partner organization the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, it examines what is working, what isn't, and why as Native nations work to regain control over their own affairs and create vibrant futures of their own design.

Rebuilding Native Nations provides participants a dynamic learning experience, weaving together video lectures by course instructors, the firsthand perspectives of more than 100 Native leaders and scholars, case studies of nation-building success stories, informative graphics, the Rebuilding Native Nations course textbook, and original readings drawn from Native Nations Institute and Harvard Project research.

Featuring eight different course options, the curriculum offers Native nation leaders, key decision-makers, administrators, employees, citizens, tribal colleges and universities, and others a variety of options to learn about the keys to successful nation building and how to -- once again -- develop healthy nations that work."

Narrator #2:

"The Native Nation Building Introductory Course."

Patricia Ninham-Hoeft:

Nation building to me is about building a place -- a place where my children and their children will live and play and work and raise their families forever and ever as Oneidas. And this place is important, I think, because we allow a collective group of people to become Oneida because they live in this place, and it becomes a way of life.

Narrator #2:

"The Administration Short Course."

Wilma Mankiller:

"When I think about developing communities in a real sense, not in an abstract sense, but taking a community and developing the economy, or developing water systems or community buildings or health care or whatever, what I think is that you have to have a strong enabling center to do that. The people who do community development and develop the economy can't go out and do good work unless they have a strong enabling center. And so, again, it's important to have a good accounting system, a good administrative system, and a strong tribal government in order to do that work."

Narrator #2:

"The Constitutions Short Course."

Gwen Phillips:

"And as you were speaking, I was getting this picture in my mind of a shield, that a constitution should be like a shield, and I'm the battle warrior -- we're back to the 'Star Trek' theme. Did you see that? I brought it back to the 'Star Trek' theme. But that shield, to me, shouldn't be a big shiny shield that's really pristine and looks like it's never been taken out of the case. To me, it should be all dented and it should show your battle scars, 'cause to me your constitution should live through all of those, to be able to take the sideways hits, to be able to stand up to the arrows and sometimes the bulldozers and whatever else, and live through all those things."

Narrator #2:

"The Economic Development Short Course."

Lance Morgan:

"When we started our company, we created two missions. We have two primary goals, and one is to create economic self-sufficiency and the other one is to create job opportunities. And I think that, before we started, we had a long history of kind of having businesses there, and we kept them open even if they weren't necessarily profitable because of the jobs issue. And I always kind of thought that was kind of a bit of a cop-out for poor management or poor decision-making or poor governmental structure. I think that if you don't have the profits, you're not really going to have the jobs for a long-term, sustainable period of time. And so, I think you really need to focus on developing a successful business. If you do that, the jobs will follow."

Narrator #2:

"The Intergovernmental Relations Short Course."

Jaime Pinkham:

"It is an exercise of sovereign powers. When we do these intergovernmental agreements, it is we -- it is a sovereign decision for us as a tribe to pick and choose who we want to be our governmental partner. And we get to identify and set the stage, the framework for the nature of those relationships. So it is...it's not an erosion of sovereignty, but in fact it's an expression of sovereignty in working out these sorts of agreements."

Narrator #2:

"The Justice Systems Short Course."

Theresa M. Pouley:

"Your tribal court system is part of your government every bit as much as any other department. And the fact that we have separation of powers, doesn't mean we have separation of problems. You and I all have the same problems. It doesn't mean that we have separation of solutions. Because I am a judge, I know a variety of things about promising practices. Because you're tribal council people, you know a variety of things. If we put our heads together, we can get it done."

Narrator #2:

"The Leadership Short Course."

Ned Norris, Jr.:

"People ask me today, How do you like what you're doing? And I tell them, I love it. I love this job. It's everything that a job needs to be. It's challenging, it's exciting, it's frustrating, it's disappointing.' All of those things that our jobs need to be in order for us to grow, in order for us to challenge ourselves, in order for us to be challenged. We have to have all of those experiences, all of those ingredients in order for us to be successful as tribal leaders."

Narrator #2:

"The Rebuilding Native Nations Full Course."

Ivan Makil:

"The things that we do today are not new. The challenges that we face today may be different than they were 100, 200 or 1,000 years ago, but the way in which we start to resolve these issues, the process is very similar as to what our ancestors had to do to resolve the issues and challenges that they faced as well. And so if we look back and we start to reacquaint ourselves and again understand the challenges of our ancestors, and the processes that they went through, that they developed to respond to these challenges, to make decisions, we'll find that there are some answers for us that will help us to make really good long-term decisions."

Narrator #1:

"To learn more about the Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development course series, please visit: rebuildingnativenations.com."

The Rebuilding Native Nations course series was developed by the Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy at The University of Arizona. The course series development team:

Course Series Director
IAN RECORD, MANAGER, EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES, NNI

Lead Developers
IAN RECORD, MANAGER, EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES, NNI
RYAN SEELAU, SENIOR RESEARCHER, EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES, NNI

Graphic Designer
ARIEL MACK, GRAPHIC DESIGNER, NNI

Course Contributors
JULIAN BILLY
CHERYL ELLENWOOD
CHARISSA DELMAR
BEN DICKEN
DEIDRA GOLDTOOTH
DANIELLE HIRALDO
VICTORIA HOBBS
EMILY MCGOVERN
RAYMOND NAITO
SHERYL POLING
TARISSA SPOONHUNTER
JENNINE STEBING
CARRIE STUSSE

REBUILDING NATIVE NATIONS COURSE SERIES DEO

Writer & Director
IAN RECORD

Producer
CHARISSA DELMAR

Narrators
IAN RECORD
CHARISSA DELMAR

Music
KEITH SECOLA

Artwork
Shaman by PABLO ANTONIO MILAN

Images courtesy of
ARIEL MACK
GWENDOLEN CATES
HARVARD PROJECT ON AMERICAN INDIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
HUU-AY-AHT FIRST NATIONS
KATE SPILDE
KERI PICKETT
JOHN RAE/NYC (RAEPHOTO.COM) and HONORING NATIONS
MOHAWK COUNCIL OF AKWESASNE
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN
PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
RED LAKE BAND OF CHIPPEWA
WINNEBAGO NEWS

Funding for the Rebuilding Native Nations course series provided by
BUSH FOUNDATION
MORRIS K. UDALL AND STEWART L. UDALL FOUNDATION
SALT RIVER PIMA-MARICOPA INDIAN COMMUNITY
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

This video is a production of The Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy at The University of Arizona. Copyright (c) 2013 Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.