Indigenous Governance Database
Governance
How Tribal Nations Need to Be Understood Around the World
The word “nation” is one of those words that gets thrown around haphazardly by academics, laypeople and politicians alike; it has become synonymous with “nation-state” and “state” to describe what we understand today as the global polities we refer to as countries. But there are distinctions to be…
Indian Nations Are Still Fighting the U.S. Cavalry
Throughout the 19th Century the U.S. Cavalry perpetrated the genocide of Indian People. Today’s Cavalry–federal, state and local police–are no longer committed to extermination. But American cops’ flagrant disregard for tribal self-governance when carrying out law enforcement activities on Indian…
Face Time: Video Conferencing App Improves Business Relations for Eastern Band of Cherokees
Many employees of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians who tote tribal issued mobile devices are–or will be soon–getting more face time in with a video conferencing application. The Eastern Band, which employs about 1,100 workers, began its deployment of ClearSea, a high-definition video…
White Earth Nation Adopts New Constitution
In a historic vote, on November 19, 2013, the White Earth Nation in northwestern Minnesota became the first member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (MCT) to adopt a new constitution. Of the 3,492 ballots counted, the vote was 2,780 in favor and 712 opposed, a 79 percent approval. Since the ballots…
Wisdom From Mel: It's Okay to Not Know Everything
Mel Tonasket was not formally educated but he had lobbied and negotiated with Congressman and Senators. When Mel was in Washington D.C. he heard the fancy words from the Solicitors office. He was determined to fight for tribes and not let the “Suyapees” (Anglos) get the best of us — so when he…
Blood Quantum: A complicated system that determines tribal membership threatens the future of American Indians
Ryan Padraza Comes Last is a full-blooded Indian, Sioux and Cheyenne on his father's side and Assiniboine on his mother's. He will soon receive his Lakota name: "A Rope." (Comes Last raises rodeo horses and always has a rope in his right hand. He likes to call Ryan his "right-hand man.") But…
Red Cliff Chippewa Band Re-Dredges 55-Gallon Drums of Live World War 2 Ammo From Lake Superior
The Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is having another go at the munitions barrels dumped into their waters by the Army Corps of Engineers during the Cold War years. Nearly 1,500 55-gallon drums were interred beneath the lake on orders of the U.S. Department of Defense from 1959 to 1962.…
How Tribes Can Prepare for Tribal Sovereignty Blow From Supreme Court
In the first part of this two-part series, we provided a short history of the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case State of Michigan v. Bay Mills Indian Community, discussed its relevance to the sustainability of the legal doctrine of tribal sovereign immunity, and detailed two potential outcomes of…
Kin-Based Governments Can Be Successful and Profitable
A key to understanding American Indian nations, and Indigenous Peoples in general, is local community organization. Local groups, as basic building blocks of indigenous nations, play a powerful role in tribal or national consensus building and decision-making. The ways that local indigenous groups…
Educating Indian Country's Future Leaders
To grapple with the concept of good leaders and how to become one, 100 attendees–newly-elected and aspiring leaders from Native Nations–gathered in Tucson, Arizona November 6-7 for a specifically-developed Executive Education Seminar titled, "Emerging Leaders." Developed by the Native Nations…
Tribes Recondition Steelhead to Bring Back Endangered Trout
The notion of “reconditioning steelhead” might sound outlandish, even a bit ominous, at least when applied to an animal. Reconditioning is what’s done to prepare discarded electronics for resale, and the word carries connotations of recycling. How does one recycle a fish? It turns out, though, to…
Economy, distrust complicate allocation of tribal settlement money
When the Obama administration announced in April that it would pay 41 tribes some $1 billion to settle a lawsuit over federal mismanagement of trust funds, many saw it as a sort of stimulus package for Indian Country -- a chance to invest in long-term development and infrastructure, such as schools…
Rebuilding Native Nations Builds Leadership
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…
Navigating VAWA's New Tribal Court Jurisdictional Provision
President Obama signed into law the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), a federal statute that addresses domestic violence and other crimes against women. As initially conceived in 1994, VAWA created new federal crimes and sanctions to fill in gaps, provided training for…
Tribal Strength Through Economic Diversification
The potential impacts of Internet gaming legalization was a major topic at last month’s National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA) convention. Another critical topic, not surprisingly, was economic diversification and Tribes’ ability to pursue and manage the process of planning for change.…
Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development
Based on two decades of research, the Native Nations Institute (NNI) at the University of Arizona has worked hard to develop a curriculum for tribal leaders that can assist tribes in achieving true economic self-determination. The essays in Rebuilding Native Nations, published in 2007, are the…
Unlikely Alliances
In the 2010s, new “unlikely alliances” of Native peoples and their rural white neighbors are standing strong against fossil fuel and mining projects. In the Great Plains, grassroots coalitions of Native peoples and white ranchers and farmers (including the aptly named “Cowboy and Indian Alliance”)…
A 'historic day' at pueblo
Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar called it a “historic day” as he signed regulations at Sandia Pueblo on Thursday morning that will allow the tribe to lease land without federal approval. The pueblo is only the second tribe in the country to take advantage of a law, called the HEARTH Act (Helping…
Mohawk Council of Akwesasne and Federal Bridge Corporation Limited Sign Memorandum of Understanding for North Channel Bridge
The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne (MCA) announced that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Federal Bridge Corporation Limited (FBCL) for a new bridge that will cross the North Channel of the St. Lawrence River between Kawehnoke (Cornwall Island) and the City of Cornwall.…
Dayton signs tribal consultation executive order
With the White Earth Nation flag and tribal and state representatives standing behind him, Gov. Mark Dayton signed an executive order Thursday directing state agencies to develop policies to guide them when working with tribal nations...