Leadership

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Todd Hembree: A Key Constitutional Issue: Separations of Powers

Cherokee Nation Attorney General Todd Hembree discusses the critical role of separations of powers in effective Native nation governance, and provides an overview of how the Cherokee Nation instituted an array of separations of powers in the development of their new constitution, which was ratified…

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Frank Pommersheim: A Key Constitutional Issue: Dispute Resolution

University of South Dakota Professor of Law Frank Pommersheim discusses the key constitutional issue of dispute resolution and presents three cases demonstrating how tribes are endowing their constitutions with legitimacy through the careful, thoughtful resolution of disputes.

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Joan Timeche and Joseph P. Kalt: The Process of Constitutional Reform: Key Issues and Cases to Consider

Joan Timeche and Joseph P. Kalt share two stories of constitutional reform processes undertaken by Native nations and discuss what factors spurred or impeded the ultimate success of those efforts. 

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Regis Pecos: The Why of Making and Remaking Governing Systems

Former Cochiti Pueblo Governor Regis Pecos shares his thoughts about the ultimate purpose of constitutions, governments and governance from a Pueblo perspective, and argues that constitutional reform presents Native nations with a precious opportunity to reclaim and reinvigorate their cultures and…

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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.

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Kuskokwim Inter-Tribal Fish Commission Comes Together In Bethel

Kuskokwim Inter-Tribal Fish Commission Meets

Just a few weeks before the king salmon run begins in earnest, Kuskokwim tribal leaders came together in the first-ever meeting of Kuskokwim River Inter Tribal Fisheries Commission. The group is pushing to create a system in which tribes have a direct management role in the river’s salmon...

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Meet The Woman Helping Native American Communities Get Ready For Climate Change

Meet The Woman Helping Native American Communities Get Ready For Climate Change

The effects of climate change are already being felt across America. In Alaska, rising sea levels and eroding coastlines have forced a dozen different communities to relocate. In the Southwest, the risk of forest fires is increasing, water supplies are dwindling and native animal species are coming…

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Indigenous Youth Help USFWS Restore Fish Passage on Cochiti Pueblo

Indigenous Youth Help USFWS Restore Fish Passage on Cochiti Pueblo

Ask a group of teenagers their idea of fun and you might get answers like hanging out with friends, dodging opponents during a game of laser tag or playing their favorite video games. But for a group of Native American youth from several of New Mexico’s pueblos, fun meant working outside on a warm…

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Northwest Indian College builds Lummi workforce, values tradition

Northwest Indian College builds Lummi workforce, values tradition

For thousands of years, along the shorelines of the Salish Sea, the Lummi people have dug deep into the earth to harvest clams, oysters and mussels. We have set our reef nets between our canoes to catch salmon from the Salish Sea. For many of us, our most important education has been alongside our…

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Political Autonomy and Sustainable Economy

Political Autonomy and Sustainable Economy

A unique attribute of Indian political ways was noted early on by colonial observers. Indians, Indigenous Peoples more generally, were engaged in everyday political action as full participating community members. Every person had the right to be heard. Decisions were made through discussion and…

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As old ways faded on reservations, tribal power shifted

As old ways faded on reservations, tribal power shifted

Long before the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act transformed tribal government, before nepotism and retaliation became plagues upon reservation life, there were nacas. Headsmen, the Lakota and Dakota called them. Men designated from their tiospayes, or extended families, to represent their clans when…

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Red Lake Constitution Reform Initiative Community Engagement Meeting held in Redby

Red Lake Constitution Reform Initiative Community Engagement Meeting held in Redby

The second of six scheduled Red Lake Constitution Reform Initiative Community Engagement Meetings was held at the Redby Community Center on March 24, 2014 from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM. The first meeting was held at the Minneapolis American Indian Center on March 22, 2014 with about 60 people in…

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Billy Frank Jr.: A World Treasure (1931- 2014)

Billy Frank Jr.: A World Treasure (1931- 2014)

“I was the go-to-jail guy.” That’s how Billy Frank, Jr., (Nisqually) often described his role during the treaty fishing rights struggle in the Pacific Northwest of the 1960s and ‘70s. Beginning as a teenager of 14, he went to jail more than 50 times and was arrested more than three times that. His…

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Indian Country Today Article

Harvard Project Names Three Honoring Nations Leaders

Sharing outstanding programs in tribal self-governance and helping to expand the capacities of Tribal leaders through learning from each others’ successes is the mission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development’s Honoring Nations program. Recently the Honoring Nations program…

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Teach youth about forms of government

Teach youth about forms of government

Why aren’t the schools teaching about the IRA form of government? Why aren’t they teaching about the traditional tiospaye form of government? The disenchantment and what appears to be apathy or even seditiousness toward the Indian Reorganization Act system of government have become “normal” among…

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The wisdom of our tribal elders

The wisdom of our tribal elders

A centerpiece of our Chumash culture is that tribal elders should be admired and honored for the knowledge and experiences they've gathered over their lifetimes. Our elders, and the ones before them, have endured so much for us to stay together as a tribe. For example, our reservation in the valley…

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Winona LaDuke: Keep USDA Out of Our Kitchens

Winona LaDuke: Keep USDA Out of Our Kitchens

Native American author, educator, activist, mother and grandmother Winona LaDuke, Anishinaabekwe, is calling on tribes to relocalize food and energy production as a means of both reducing CO2 emissions and of asserting tribes' inherent right to live in accordance with their own precepts of the…

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Indian Country Today Article

5 More Native American Visionaries in Washington State

As the holidays kick in and people start looking ahead to the coming year, it is only fitting to acknowledge the leaders who will take Indian country into the future. Last month we brought you five Native leaders who are protecting rights, exercising sovereignty, building intercultural bridges and…

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Robert F. Kennedy’s Legacy with First Americans

Robert F. Kennedy's Legacy with First Americans

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s address to the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) in Bismarck, North Dakota. I was in high school then. My memories are that of tribal leaders who came together from throughout the nation to discuss key issues of…

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Students Get Hands-On Learning with Gila River Close Up Program

Students Get Hands-On Learning with Gila River Close Up Program

A group of young Community members from various local high schools participated in the Close Up program and received an in-depth view into the world of tribal government. The Close Up program is a yearly endeavor that is designed to give students a thorough lesson on the inner mechanics and…