Indigenous Governance Database
Cultural Affairs
Tribe fights to keep language alive
Tribal members living in the Pendleton Round-Up’s teepee village stopped, listened and peeked their heads west when Carina Vasquez-Minthorn sang the national anthem at last week’s Happy Canyon Night Show. Vasquez-Minthorn, 20, a Happy Canyon princess, sang in the Umatilla language for the first…
Keeping Language Alive: Cherokee Letters Being Translated for Yale
Century-old journals, political messages and medicinal formulas handwritten in Cherokee and archived at Yale University are being translated for the first time. The Cherokee Nation is among a small few, if not the only tribe, that has a language translation department who contracts with Apple,…
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…
8 Tribes That Are Way Ahead of the Climate-Adaptation Curve
Much has been made of the need to develop climate-change-adaptation plans, especially in light of increasingly alarming findings about how swiftly the environment that sustains life as we know it is deteriorating, and how the changes compound one another to quicken the pace overall. Studies, and…
Revival of nearly extinct Yurok language is a success story
Carole Lewis throws herself into her work as if something big is at stake. "Pa'-ah," she tells her Eureka High School class, gesturing at a bottle of water. She whips around and doodles a crooked little fish on the blackboard, hinting at the dip she's prepared with "ney-puy" – salmon, key to the…
Klallam dictionary opens window into tribal heritage
It weighs in at nearly six pounds, fills more than 1,000 pages, and represents the work of many hands and hearts. The Klallam people’s first dictionary for what was always an unwritten language was built syllable-by-syllable, from tapes and spoken words transcribed into a phonetic alphabet. The…
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…
Youth Council Addresses Serious Problems in Michigan
Sarah Schilling, of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, is one of five 2013 Champions for Change chosen by the Center for Native American Youth. The 18-year-old is a recent high school graduate from Charlevoix, Michigan who was inspired by her participation and the youth-based efforts…
Addressing the crisis in the Lakota language
With only 2 to 5 percent of children currently speaking Lakota, Thomas Short Bull, president of the Oglala Lakota College, said the time has come to raise the alarm. As the day begins at the Lakota Language Immersion School, a young boy passes an abalone bowl of sage to each child sitting on the…
20 Pounds? Not Too Bad, for an Extinct Fish
For most fishermen, a 20-pound trout is a trophy, but for Paiute tribe members and fish biologists here the one Matt Ceccarelli caught was a victory. That Lahontan cutthroat trout he caught last year, a remnant of a strain that is possibly the largest native trout in North America, is the first…
Two Possible Paths Forward for Native Disenrollees and the Federal Government?
Disenrollment, a seemingly innocuous term when used outside Indian country, has become a loaded word that rivals, if it does not surpass, “termination” as a concept that invokes fear and trembling in those natives who suffer its consequences. While the federal policy of termination in the 1950s was…
Investing in Fish, Preserving Red Cliff Culture
Small fingerlings roiled the water in the translucent plastic tubs placed before ready volunteers in the Red Cliff tribal fish hatchery at Wisconsin’s northern edge. The agitated three- to six-inch coaster brook trout–known as fry–made the water appear to be boiling. A mild anesthetic was added and…
Speaking a culture: How efforts to revitalize a language can have a ripple effect
Carla Osawamick stands in front of a class of students with a wide range of life experiences, from one still in high school to a great-grandmother. The students all have one thing in common: they are dedicated to learning and speaking Anishinaabemowin, the language spoken by many Native Americans…
Harbor Springs restaurant becomes first to embrace Odawa tribal language
Aanii Biindigen. Miigwech baamaapii. Hello, come in. Thank you, until later. Those traditional greetings in Anishinaabemowin, the language of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, were lettered on the front door Tuesday at Out to Lunch, a breakfast and lunch restaurant on State Street in…
Elderly Protection Teams Work to Stop Abuse
While more than 30 tribal governments across the country have implemented elder abuse codes, some Indian communities and concerned citizens have taken a more proactive role to ensure these laws are enforced. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council started the first Elderly Protection Team in Indian…
Preserving the Navajo Language, One Interpreter at a Time
A group of 33 students were competively selected to earn free certification from the UA's Navajo Interpreter Training Institute to gain eligibility to serve as interpreters in New Mexico and Arizona state courts. Many...have similar backgrounds - they began their unofficial role as English-to-…
South Dakota maker of bison snack bar expects big growth with Whole Foods partnership
A South Dakota company created to provide a healthy snack for American Indians expects its sales to grow by a third this year after seeing its product picked up by national grocery chain Whole Foods Markets. The development also could lead to more hiring at Native American Natural Foods in Kyle,…
Immersion School is Saving a Native American Language
The White Clay Immersion School on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Harlem, Montana is trying to save the A’ani language. Thanks to the school’s efforts 26 students, a record for the school, are currently studying the Native American language...
Ore. tribal courts deliver 'restorative justice'
For years, Judge Donald Costello sentenced offenders to jail and prison terms, only to see them back in his courtroom with nothing to show for their time served. Costello doesn't work that way anymore. Instead, he practices an innovative spin on the judicial system that has become an effective…
A New Shoreline Tribal Park
The 87 acres at Frog Bay in Wisconsin recently designated as a park offer views of five Apostle Islands, pristine sandy beaches at the top of Bayfield Peninsula and a rare opportunity for the public to visit tribally owned and protected lands. Frog Bay Tribal National Park was created when the Red…