Indigenous Governance Database
News and Opinion
A new Native American village based on tradition helps a Tribe reclaim its sustainable roots
The Ohkay Owingeh Tribe and Pueblo in New Mexico has returned to its roots with an award-winning, mixed-income housing project based on traditional Native forms. It's an exciting and inspiring project. Built by the Ohkay Owingeh Housing Authority explicitly as an alternative to sprawl-type housing…
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…
Successful Tribes Are Reshaping Governance
American Indian communities are often offered up as the gold standard of dysfunction in America. With our high rates of entrenched poverty, we top the lists of addiction, suicide and other social ills. It’s platitude that, frankly, gets tiring to hear. We in the media like to describe the best and…
Mashantuckets end payments to tribal members
Tribal payments aimed at helping members of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe adjust to the cancellation of per-capita distributions of gaming revenue end this month. The final "transitional" payments are to be made today, according to tribal sources. Per-capita, or "incentive," distributions that came…
The Private Sector: More Than a Job Creator
Jobs, jobs, jobs. They’re on everyone’s mind these days, and Creator knows our reservations are in dire need of jobs. While America has experienced a lingering unemployment rate around the 9th percentile for the past couple of years, our reservations have been enduring unemployment rates much…
Ho-Chunk, Inc. has grown into global enterprise
The Winnebago Tribe's reservation in Northeast Nebraska is home to about 2,800 enrolled members. The tribe, a federally recognized, sovereign nation, is governed by a council of nine-elected tribal members. The tribe owns a number of enterprises, including gaming operations in Iowa and Nebraska,…
Tribal Governments: What Price 'Democracy'?
A puzzling aspect of the term tribe is its lack of a clear definition. Even the Department of the Interior, the last word on federal recognition, doesn’t have one. Most tribal communities do have an expression in their own language of what their community means to them and to their people. Take…
Blackfeet: Stocking the Aisles
...Although Glacier Family Foods adds 56 new employees to the Blackfeet Reservation’s year-round workforce, the people behind the store’s creation hope it will do much more than create immediate jobs. For the last 20 years, members of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council and the community bounced…
Oklahoma City University Study Reveals Substantial Economic Impact of the Chickasaw Nation on Oklahoma's Economy
The contribution and impact of the Chickasaw Nation on the economy of Oklahoma exceeds $2.4 billion dollars according to an economic impact analysis released today by the Steven C. Agee Economic Research & Policy Institute at Oklahoma City University. The report, "Estimating the Oklahoma…
A clear and present danger to our tribal sovereignty
Indian law, sovereignty and jurisdiction are not “one size fits all” issues in Indian country. There are too many variations in how different states view the Indian nations within their borders and even in how the federal government treats issues of Indian sovereignty. With the surge in Indian…
A Leader Emerges: Hopi Tribe Adopts New Criminal Code According to Tribal Law and Order Act Standards
The Hopi Tribal Council voted to adopt a new criminal code on August 28, thereby scrapping a 1970s version that all but failed to punish sex crimes and limited tribal prosecutors to one-year terms, even for murder. In doing so, the small Arizona tribe emerged as a leader in Indian country when it…
Ho-Chunk Plans to rename Terra Centre
Ho-Chunk Inc. has acquired a majority stake in the Terra Centre and plans to rename it for the Winnebago Tribe's economic development division. "We just bought the largest building in Sioux City," Ho-Chunk CEO Lance Morgan told an audience in Lincoln, Neb., on Wednesday. "Basically, that's going to…
Indian Act: Time for a New Memory
Canadians recently discovered the crushing poverty in Attawapiskat. This is not the first time Attawapiskat has struggled; and Attawapiskat is not alone. Every three years or so, these problems are discovered and agonized over. There is often a quick fix – new homes, an emergency relocation, a…
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…
New Online Database Showcases Tribal Governance Resources
A new database developed at the University of Arizona is serving as an online resource center for Indigenous people across the nation — and beyond — who are in search of information on Native Nation governance and leadership. The Indigenous Governance Database, recently launched by the UA’s Native…
Indian Identity, Choice and Change: What Do You Choose?
Indigenous individuals and nations are faced with choices about identity, change and cultural continuity. The choices are not just mere faddish expressions but are deep decisions about culture, community, philosophy and personal and national futures. Many indigenous communities are divided over…
White Earth and Tsleil-Waututh Nations Partner on Community Wind Power
Two tribes, from different sides of the 49th Parallel, are reuniting Turtle Island with a business deal. A First Nations—owned company in British Columbia will supply wind power to the White Earth Community Service Center in Naytahwaush and to the Ojibwa Building Supplies facility in Waubun, the U.…
Hatching Success: Ak-Chin Indian Community's Industrial Park Home to Only Egg Producer in Arizona
Finally, an answer to that age-old question: “Why did the chicken cross the road?” To get to the Ak-Chin Indian Community’s Industrial Park–the site of Hickman’s Family Farms with enough hens to generate 4.3 million eggs per day. In 2002, the egg producer built a ranch at the Ak-Chin Industrial…
Advancing the State-Tribal Consultation Mandate
This summer, in the face of an impending private land sale of Pe’Sla, a Lakota/Dakota/Nakota Indian sacred site in the Black Hills, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, S. James Anaya, directed that authorities in South Dakota “engage in a process of…
A Place Called Poarch PCI: all about diversifying
The Poarch Band of Creek Indians didn’t coin the phrase “economic development,” but they are certainly taking it to new heights. With revenue from successful gaming venues in the state and the drive to diversify their economic interests, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians is working on several…