Indigenous Governance Database
Environment and Natural Resources
Asatiwisipe Aki Management Plan
The Asatiwisipe Aki Management Plan arises from several earlier initiatives by Poplar River First Nation. Poplar River has completed a variety of studies for the planning area, including traditional knowledge and community history interviews with Elders, traditional land use studies, archaeological…
Back to the Bison Case Study Part II
After the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) made the decision to work towards signing a management agreement, they began discussions with United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in 1994 to pursue the co-management and joint operation of the National Bison Range Complex (NBRC) which…
Why Treaties Matter: Relations: Dakota & Ojibwe Treaties
Ojibwe and Dakota people in what is now Minnesota signed dozens of treaties with the United States. Among these treaties are famous land cession agreements in which sovereign American Indian groups retained ownership or use of natural resources — land, water, timber, minerals — or transferred these…
The Last Stand: the Quinault Indian Nation's Path to Sovereignty and the Case of Tribal Forestry
This case tells a story of forestry management policies on the Quinault Reservation. In the early years, the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) and later the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) acted like a landlord, allocating large timber sales to non-Indian timber companies. The Dawes Act fragmented the…
Best Practices Case Study (Inter-Governmental Relations): Squamish & Lil'wat First Nations
The Squamish First Nation and the Lil'wat First Nation are both located in southwestern B.C. and have an area of overlapping traditional territory that extends into the lands around the resort community of Whistler. Although they are two distinct First Nations with different cultures and social…
Best Practices Case Study (Respect the Spirit in the Land): Champagne and Aishihik First Nations
Located in far north-western British Columbia, Tatshenshini-Alsek Park was one of the last areas of B.C. to be mapped. The area's earliest residents were the Tlingit and Tuchone First Nations. Today, with the park in the traditional territory of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations (CAFN),…
Native American Lands and Natural Resource Development
The rules that govern oil, gas and mining on American Indian tribal lands are complex, and the tribes that seek economic development through natural resources face a range of challenges. In this report, Revenue Watch gives an overview of the issues and describes current approaches to natural…