Indigenous Governance Database
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Honoring Nations: Michael Thomas: Sovereignty Today
Former Mashantucket Pequot Chairman Michael Thomas provides his definition of what tribal sovereignty means in the 21st century, and stresses the importance of Native nations examining and reconnecting with their traditional governance principles as they work to exercise sovereignty effectively.
Honoring Nations: Allen Pemberton: The Red Lake Walleye Recovery Project
Red Lake Chippewa Natural Resources Director Allen Pemberton provides an overview of the Honoring Nations award-winning Red Lake Walleye Recovery Project, and illustrates how the program reflects the benefits of Native nations taking over control of their own affairs from the federal government.
Suzan Shown Harjo: Nobody Gives Us Sovereignty: Busting Stereotypes and Walking the Walk
The first-ever speaker in the Vine Deloria, Jr. Distinguished Indigenous Scholars Series, Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne/Hodulgee Muscogee) shares her personal perspective on the life and legacy of the late Vine Deloria, Jr., and provides an overview of her work protecting sacred places and…
Honoring Nations: Kristi Coker-Bias: The Citizen Potawatomi Community Development Corporation
Former Executive Director Kristi Coker-Bias provides on overview of the Citizen Potowatomi Community Development Corporation and discusses how it is working to cultivate private sector development in her community, which she says is essential to Native nations' efforts to develop sustainable…
NNI Forum: Tribal Sovereign Immunity
Tribal sovereign immunity has far-reaching implications, impacting a wide range of critical governance issues from the protection and exertion of legal jurisdiction to the creation of a business environment that can stimulate and sustain economic development. Native Nations Institute (NNI) Radio…
Milton Bluehouse, Jr.: Introduction to Managing Environmental Conflict
U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution Program Manager Milton Bluehouse, Jr. discusses the challenges to environmental conflict resolution specifically and dispute resolution generally, and offers some proven strategies for Native nations and other governments to overcome…
Return of the Red Lake Walleye (trailer)
The Native Nations Institute film Return of the Red Lake Walleye chronicles the extraordinary effort of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians working together with the State of Minnesota and the federal government to bring back the culturally vital walleye from the brink of extinction and restore…
NNI Forum: Asset Building for Indian Country
The Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy (NNI) at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona convened a panel of leading experts to discuss the fundamental obstacles standing in the way of asset building in Native communities, and the innovative strategies that Native…
Joseph P. Kalt: Sovereign Immunity: Walking the Walk of a Sovereign Nation
Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development Co-Director Joseph Kalt discusses what sovereign immunity is and what it means to waive it, and share some smart strategies that real governments and nations use to waive sovereign immunity for the purposes of facilitating community and…
Native Nation Building TV: "Introduction to Nation Building"
Guests Manley Begay and Stephen Cornell present the key research findings of the Native Nations Institute and the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. They explain the five keys to successful community and economic development for Native nations (sovereignty or practical self-…
Julia Coates: The Process of Constitutional Reform: What the Cherokee Nation Did and Why
Cherokee Nation Councilor Julia Coates presents an overview of the constitutional history of the Cherokee Nation, and chronicles the process the Cherokee Nation followed to reform its constitution in 1999.
Todd Hembree: A Key Constitutional Issue: Separations of Powers (Q&A)
Cherokee Nation Attorney General fields questions about the critical role of separations of powers in effective Native nation governance and how the Cherokee Nation instituted an array of separations of powers in the development of their new constitution
Frank Ettawageshik: Reforming the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Constitution: What We Did and Why
Frank Ettawageshik, Former Chairman of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians (LTBBO), discusses how LTBBO came to develop a new constitution and system of government, the key components of the LTBBO constitution, and how the new LTBBO constitution differs in fundamental ways from the old…
Native Nation Building TV: FOX News Segment on Native Nation Building
Joan Timeche, Stephen Cornell and Ian Record with the Native Nations Institute at The University of Arizona discuss the "Native Nation Building" television and radio series and the research findings at heart of the series in a televised interview in January 2007.This video resource is featured on…
Ned Norris, Jr.: Perspectives on Leadership and Nation Building
Tohono O'odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris, Jr. speaks to aspiring and current Native nation leaders about the keys to being an effective leader and shares his personal experiences in preparing to become the leader of his nation.
Frank Ettawageshik and Gwen Phillips: Reforming Our Nations' Constitutions: What We Did and Why (Q&A)
Frank Ettawageshik, former Chairman of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, and Gwen Phillips, Ktunaxa Nation Director of Corporate Services and Governance Transition, field questions from the audience about their presentations detailing how their nations either reformed or are in…
Native Nation Building TV: "Promoting Tribal Citizen Entrepreneurs"
Guests Joan Timeche and Elsie Meeks examine the pivotal role that citizen entrepreneurs can play in a Native nation's overarching effort to achieve sustainable community and economic development. It looks at the many different ways that Native nation governments actively and passively hinder…
Gwen Phillips: Reforming the Ktunaxa Nation Constitution: What We're Doing and Why
Gwen Phillips, Director of Corporate Services and Governance Transition for the Ktunaxa Nation, discusses how Ktunaxa is using the British Columbia treaty process to reconceive and restructure its governance system from the ground up in order to revitalize Ktunaxa culture, language and core values…
Native Nation Building TV: "Constitutions and Constitutional Reform"
Guests Joseph P. Kalt and Sophie Pierre explore the evidence that strong Native nations require strong foundations, which necessarily require the development of effective, internally created constitutions (whether written or unwritten). It examines the impacts a constitution has on the people it…
Sophie Pierre: What I Wish I Knew Before I Took Office
Former Ktunaxa Nation Chief Sophie Pierre discusses the Ktunaxa Nation's nation-building struggle, and offers her thoughts on what sustainable leadership is and what it requires of leaders.