The Harvard Kennedy School Project on Indigenous Governance and Development

Harvard Project: COVID-19 Resources for Indian Country Toolbox

Year

As the country responds to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the task before tribal nations is complicated by many unknowns. The Harvard Project recognizes the challenges you're up against and we want to help. We are not experts in the health consequences of the pandemic, but we are monitoring tribal governments' response to the crisis. Across Indian Country, we are witnessing tribal leaders and national Native organizations taking action to protect and position Native nations to see a better tomorrow. These examples and many more make up the contents of this COVID-19 Resources for Indian Country toolbox. We've pulled together resources that demonstrate ways to build governance capacity, illustrate best practices by tribes, provide trusted information about the virus itself, and supply tribal health ordinances intended to meet your immediate needs. Native nation building begins with strong governance, and we hope the examples in this toolbox spark ideas for action that strengthens your community.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

The Harvard Kennedy School Project on Indigenous Governance and Development. "COVID-19 Resources for Indian Country." November 2021. Online Toolkit. (https://sites.google.com/g.harvard.edu/covid-19-resources/..., accessed May 31, 2023.)

Treaty Rights/National Forest Memorandum of Understanding, Tribes of the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission

Year

The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, a tribally chartered intertribal organization, negotiated a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Forest Service that recognizes and implements treaty guaranteed hunting, fishing and gathering rights under tribal regulations and establishes a consultation process for management decisions that affect treaty rights in four National Forests located within areas ceded by the Chippewa in the Treaties of 1836, 1837 and 1842. 

Resource Type
Citation

"Treaty Rights/National Forest Memorandum of Understanding". Honoring Nations: 2000 Honoree. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2001. Report. 

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

Mille Lacs Ojibwe Language Program

Year

Created in 1995, this tribally funded program serves 350 students (from toddlers to teenagers) and uses elder-youth interaction, song books, and comic books to teach the Ojibwe language. In addition, the Program broadcasts language classes to local public schools in an effort to teach the Ojibwe language, history, and culture to non-Indian children. Teaching the Band's children their traditional language has allowed Mille Lacs Band members to pass on tribal values more effectively. At the same time, it has served as an important tool in both preserving the Band's culture and strengthening bonds between Band members.

 

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

"Ojibwe Language Program". Honoring Nations: 1999 Honoree. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2000. Report. 

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. 

Fond du Lac's Pharmacy On-Line Billing Initiative

Year

In 1995, faced with rising pharmaceutical costs, limited Indian Health Service (IHS) funds, and an inability to bill and collect from third party insurers, the Human Services Division contracted with a private sector firm to design and implement a computerized pharmacy billing system. The first of its kind for Indian Country, Fond du Lac’s on-line system not only increases the Division’s revenue stream, but also updates prices automatically, interfaces with the Indian Health Service’s Resource Patient Management System for health record-keeping, and warns of drug interactions. This initiative and its spin-offs at Fond du Lac (in dentistry, for example) demonstrate the Tribe’s capacity to direct complicated technological innovations that significantly improve existing management information systems. The initiative is also noteworthy for the changes it augured in IHS policy and for the partnership it created between the Band, the IHS, and the private sector in searching for monetary support that went beyond the sources of tribal health care funds.

Resource Type
Citation

"Pharmacy On-Line Billing Initiative". Honoring Nations: 2000 Honoree. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2001. Report.

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

Fond du Lac Off-Reservation Indian Foster Care

Year

By creatively reacting to state laws regarding foster home licensing, the Band established a foster care agency that dramatically reduced the number of Indian children in non-Indian foster care while simultaneously increasing the number of Indian children in Indian foster care. The agency has successfully channeled nearly $2 million for foster care reimbursement to Indian families in northeastern Minnesota. While the Fond du Lac Government had been able to license homes within the boundaries of the reservation, this was the first time an all-Indian board sponsored by a tribal government had been able to recruit and license homes outside of reservation boundaries.

Resource Type
Citation

"Fond du Lac Off-Reservation Indian Foster Care." Honoring Nations: 1999 Honoree. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2000. Report. 

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

Navajo Studies Department

Year

Created in 1966 as the first contract school in the country, Rough Rock is a Navajo-run institution that combines traditional Navajo learning with Western education. Its Navajo Studies curriculum, which addresses such subjects as culture, history, and language, was named by the Tribal Council as the only "Navajo Studies" program on the reservation. Today, students from any of the Nation's chapters are eligible to attend. As the first school to be controlled entirely by a local Indian community, Rough Rock Community School paved the way for the approximately 200 contract/grant schools that have subsequently opened on Indian reservations across the United States.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

"Navajo Studies Department". Honoring Nations: 1999 Honoree. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2000. Report.

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. 

Navajo Methamphetamine Task Force

Year

Taking a proactive stance on policy issues, options, and recommendations in the areas of prevention, treatment, and/or enforcement, the Methamphetamine Task Forces actively combat a tidal wave of destruction within their communities. Drawing upon education, community involvement, cultural philosophies, and collaborations to address the burgeoning crisis, the Task Forces incorporate participation from elders, youth, recovered addicts and current users, law enforcement, health officials, and policy makers to embrace "The Beauty Way of Life," and systematically combat what many view as the most dire crisis in recent history.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

"Navajo Methamphetamine Task Forces". Honoring Nations: 2006 Honoree. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2007. Report.  

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. 

Navajo Nation Archaeology Department Training Programs

Year

The Navajo Nation Archaeology Department was created in 1977 to facilitate historic preservation on Navajo Nation lands as mandated by both US and tribal government legislation. In 1988 and again in 1993, the Department expanded to include training programs, undertaken in partnership with Northern Arizona University and Ft. Lewis College, which are designed to give Navajo students the professional skills needed to conduct these important historic preservation activities. The training programs provide field and laboratory experience to Navajo graduate and undergraduate students concentrating in anthropology or archaeology. By combining academic training with practical application on the Navajo Reservation and western technical skills with traditional Navajo knowledge and oral history, the programs are preparing a pool of qualified Native professionals to assume cultural resource positions that historically have been filled by non-Navajos.

 

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

"Navajo Nation Archaeology Department — Training Programs". Honoring Nations: 2000 Honoree. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2001. Report.  

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. 

Chilkoot Tlingit "Nation Building"

Year

Excluded by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the Chilkoot Tlingit are engaged in a process of nation-building. The process began in 1990 with the revival of their dormant tribal government, the Chilkoot Indian Association (CIA). From this institutional foundation, the 480-member CIA successfully negotiated the acquisition of a land base and began developing self-determined programs and initiatives. Today, the CIA administers almost $1 million of programs and contracts in the areas of education, health, housing, and economic development and participates in government-to-government relationships with local, state, federal, and international governmental entities.

Resource Type
Topics
Citation

"'Nation Building' Among the Chilkoot Tlingit". Honoring Nations: 2002 Honoree. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2003. Report.

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. 

Navajo Nation's Na'Nizhoozhi Center, Inc.

Year

Responding to the distressing rates of accidents, deaths, and other alcohol-related problems in Gallup, NM, the Navajo Nation partnered with Zuni Pueblo, the City of Gallup, McKinley County, and the State of New Mexico to establish the Na’Nizhoozhi Center in 1992. The Center has been an effective force in promoting wellness and safety by providing protective custody, shelter, referral services, and culturally based in-patient and out-patient substance abuse treatment services to meet the needs of its Indian clients.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

"Na'Nizhoozhi Center, Inc.". Honoring Nations: 2003 Honoree. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2004. Report. 

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.