Indigenous Governance Database
Health and Social Services
Keeping adoptions and foster care close to home
On March 29, officials from the Administration for Children and Family and the Department of Health and Human Services convened with me and other leaders from the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe to celerate a momentous achievement. PGST has become the first Tribe in the nation to receive federal…
Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project
The Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project is helping to increase understanding of Native foods and build community food security by exploring the Muckleshoot Tribe's food assets and access to local, healthy, and traditional foods.
SEEDocs - Owe'neh Bupingeh Preservation Plan and Rehabilitation Project
Re-creating a more vital Pueblo center and reinvigorating cultural heritage traditions through the rehabilitation of the historic Pueblo core was this project's focus. The Pueblo core is the spiritual, social and cultural center of the Pueblo. Community members were trained in traditional building…
Cherokee Nation's Kawi Café offers small business training
The Cherokee Nation’s Kawi Café is now serving up its signature Cherokee blend coffee in downtown Tahlequah, while giving budding entrepreneurs firsthand experience running their own business. A ribbon-cutting was held Thursday at the café, which the Cherokee Nation opened last month in a 1,…
Vice President Biden Speaks at the 2014 White House Tribal Nations Conference
On December 3, 2014, Vice President Joe Biden addressed the 2014 White House Tribal Nations Conference. At the conference, leaders from the 566 federally-recognized Native nations engaged with the President, Cabinet Officials, and the White House Council on Native American Affairs on key issues…
Stronger Ethics, Stronger Research: Tribal Governance as a Key Community Health Speaker
2015 CRCAIH Summit Keynote Address by Dr. Malia Villegas, National Congress of American Indians, Policy Research Center.
The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, a 21st century sovereign nation
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…
Legend Lake: A Talking Circle
The documentary video recounts the saga of Legend Lake, a beautiful 5,160 acre lake development, formed by joining 9 smaller lakes in the Menominee Indian Reservation (with the same boundaries as Menominee County) in northern Wisconsin whose shore land was subdivided and sold mostly to non-…
Bringing Our Children Home: An Introduction to the Indian Child Welfare Act
This six-minute trailer introduces viewers to a documentary film (currently in development) that examines the impact of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The documentary is the product of an ongoing collaboration between the Mississippi Courts, Child Welfare Agency, the Mississippi Band of…
Researchers Explore Roots of American Indian Resilience
Each week, inside the cafeteria of the New Directions enter, a Tucson behavioral health and substance abuse treatment facility, Tommy Begay channels heritage and history. He calls on the Navajo prayers and practices he learned from his great-grandmother to help others heal. “She taught me about…
Tohoho O'odham Nation Used as Model For Tribal Governance
The Tohono O'odham Nation, which is in Southern Arizona and northern Mexico, has a tribal governance structure that other Native nations can learn from, and that's why the Native Nations Institute at the University of Arizona is featuring the tribe in some of its courses about governance. The…
The Rez We Live On
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes produced this series of online videos in an effort to dispel untruths about life on the Flathead reservation in Montana. Consisting of 10 short, graphically based videos on topics ranging from Sovereignty to Taxes, "The Rez We Live On" site is geared…
Does more equitable governance lead to more equitable health care? A case study based on the implementation of health reform in Aboriginal health Australia
There is growing evidence that providing increased voice to vulnerable or disenfranchised populations is important to improving health equity. In this paper we will examine the engagement of Aboriginal community members and community controlled organisations in local governance reforms associated…
Wrapping Our Ways Around Them: Aboriginal Communities and the CFCSA Guidebook
This Guidebook is based on the belief that Aboriginal peoples need to know, and work with, the systems that impact children and families today such as the Child, Family and Community Service Act (CFCSA), Provincial Court (Child, Family and Community Service Act) Rules (Rules), Child, Family and…
Food Sovereignty Assessment Tool
There are many assets related to Native food systems. Increased consumption of healthy and traditional foods may lead to better health among community members, preserving one of the most important assets in any community, its people. Of course, healthy, productive people are a cornerstone of any…
Feeding Ourselves: Food Access, Health Disparities, and the Pathways to Healthy Native American Communities
Echo Hawk Consulting, headed by Crystal Echo Hawk, released today a comprehensive report on the state of food access in Native American communities, and the resulting health disparities in Native Americans. The report--commissioned by the American Heart Association (AHA) and its Voices for Healthy…
How Does Household Income Affect Child Personality Traits and Behaviors?
Existing research has investigated the effect of early childhood educational interventions on the child's later-life outcomes. These studies have found limited impact of supplementary programs on children's cognitive skills, but sustained effects on personality traits. We examine how a positive…
Culture and Law: Preliminary Findings in a Review of 100+ Tribal Welfare Codes
Over the last 35 years numerous tribes have created their own child welfare standards. By crafting child welfare codes that balance traditional culture and contemporary needs, tribes both protect member children (and their families) in culturally appropriate ways and reaffirm their sovereign…
Rebuilding Family Life in Alice Springs and Central Australia: the social and community dimensions of change for our people
This paper has been released by the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress as a constructive contribution to the debate on the social crisis facing Alice Springs and Central Australia. It presents powerful ideas as well as concrete strategies for change that we believe can make a real difference…
Diné Food Sovereignty: A Report on the Navajo Nation Food System and the Case to Rebuild a Self Sufficient Food System for the Diné People
In the most basic analysis, food is an essential component of human life. Food nourishes and sustains us; without adequate access to food, human beings cannot survive. As a basic necessity for life, food is interconnected with every sector of life and wellbeing including health (physical, mental,…