Indigenous Governance Database
Laws and Codes
Tribal Child Welfare Codes as Sovereignty in Action. 2016 NICWA conference edition
With passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA), Congress formally recognized Native nations’ inherent authority to govern child welfare matters and provided support for tribal self-determination over child welfare. Because ICWA “assumes that a tribal code is the governance mechanism by…
Protecting Our Children: A Review of 100+ Tribal Welfare Codes
NNI researchers Mary Beth Jäger (Citizen Potawatomi), Rachel Starks (Zuni/Navajo), and National Indian Child Welfare Association governmental affairs staff attorney, Adrian Smith shared the results of an ongoing study on culture, removal, termination of parental rights, and adoption in tribal child…
Implicit Divestiture, Judicial Activism and the Rehnquist Court: A Cautionary Tale for Tribal Advocates
Many tribal advocates have likened the legal corpus known as Federal Indian Law to a pendulum that swings back and forth under the forceful hand of the United States government and its political inclinations at any given moment. While this swinging pendulum has brought great uncertainity and…
Project Pueblo: Economic Development Revitalization Project
A strong economy is one of the foundations of a healthy community. Native nations use business profits and tax revenues to invest in areas such as health, education, culture, and public safety programs to meet the needs of tribal citizens. At the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, a sudden economic decline in…
Remaking Constitutions: International Challenges
U.S. District Court Judge John R. Tunheim, whose work in Kosovo helped the United Nations re-establish and improve Kosovo's legal system and ultimately restructure its entire judiciary, discusses his observations as the principal outside advisor to the process that developed the Kosovo Constitution…
Protecting Our Children Through Tribal Law: Part II
This graphic presentation highlights key findings from 4 of these topics: jurisdiction, tribal-state relationships, child abuse reporting, and paternity. For highlights of the other topics please see Protecting Our Children Through Tribal Law (Part I).
Why beggar thy Indian neighbor? The case for tribal primacy in taxation in Indian country
The law governing taxation in Indian country is a mess. The accretion of common law precedents and the general tendency of states to assert primacy over the taxation of non-Indians create absurd outcomes. This article makes the case three ways. The argument based on the law shows that…
Rosebud Sioux Tribal Education Department and Code
Responding to disproportionately low academic attendance, achievement, and attainment levels, the Tribe created an education department (TED) in 1990 and developed a Code that regulates and coordinates various aspects of the tribal schools, public schools, and federally-funded Indian education…
Umatilla Cultural Resources Protection Program
Frustrated by how tribal cultural resources were managed on tribal, federal, state, and private lands, the Tribes developed their own cultural resources protection program. The 15-year-old program is a leader in educating non-Indian agencies about pertinent laws and treaties, strengthening cultural…
Minnesota 1837 Ceded Territory Conservation Code (Mille Lacs)
In 1997, the Band successfully developed a conservation code that enables the Tribe to exercise its treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather. The Code sets out detailed hunting and fishing regulations for Band members that protect the natural resources while allowing for the continuation of…
Walls and Waivers: Expedited Construction of the Southern Border Wall and Collateral Impacts to Communities and the Environment
Joint Oversight Field Hearing before the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Joint with the Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans of the Committee on Natural Resources U.S. House of Representatives. Ned Norris, Jr., chairman of the Tohono O'odham Nation, provided a…
Making First Nation Law: The Listuguj Mi'gmaq Fishery
This is a case study that explores Listuguj Mi'gmaq law, an assertion and manifestation of the nation's right to fish and to govern its people, lands, and waters in its own ways. It discusses the genesis, application, and effects of the law and how a First Nation not only reclaimed their inherent…
Devon Lomayesva: Making Constitution Reform and Tribal Law Work
Devon Lomayesva, a citizen of the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel in California, offers her perspectives on asserting tribal law in a P.L. 280 state. The Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel underwent a constitutional reform process, and Devon shares her experiences with and perspectives of that…
Rudy Ortega, Jr.: Asserting Sovereignty and Self-Governance
Rudy Ortega, Jr., then Vice President and citizen of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, shares his experiences leading his community and engaging in Fernandeño Tataviam self-governance in spite of his nation not yet being a state or federally recognized tribal…
Patricia Riggs: The Role of Citizen Engagement in Nation Building: The Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Story
Patricia Riggs, Director of Economic Development for Ysleta del Sur Pueblo (YDSP), discusses how YDSP has spent the past decade developing and fine-tuning its comprehensive approach to engaging its citizens in order to identify and then achieve its nation-building priorities. This video resource is…
Rebuilding the Tigua Nation
The Tigua Indians of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo in Ysleta, Texas produced this 16-minute film in 2013 to demonstrate how a Native American tribe can work hard with business skills and tribal customs to shape a prosperous future through education for all levels of the Tigua Nation.
Good Native Governance Break Out 2: Indian Gaming in California
UCLA School of Law "Good Native Governance" conference presenters, panelists and participants Jonathan Taylor, Victor Rocha, and Alexander Tallchief Skibine discuss gaming and its impact for Native nations in California. Mr. Taylor provides a summary of data collection illustrating change in…
John Borrows: Revitalizing Indigenous Constitutionalism in the 21st Century
In this thoughtful conversation with NNI's Ian Record, scholar John Borrows (Anishinaabe) discusses Indigenous constitutionalism in its most fundamental sense, and provides some critical food for thought to Native nations who are wrestling with constitutional development and change in the 21st…
Joseph Flies-Away: Knowing, Living and Defending the Rule of Law
Joseph Flies-Away (Hualapai), Associate Justice of the Hualapai Nation Court of Appeals, discusses the importance of Native nations building and living a sound, culturally sensible rule of law -- through constitutions, codes, common law and in other ways -- that everyone in those nations knows,…
Miriam Jorgensen: Considering People-Made Law in Your Constitution (Presentation Highlight)
In this highlight from the presentation "Key Things a Constitution Should Address: 'How Do We Make Law?'," Miriam Jorgensen lays out some of the different ways that Native nations can provide mechanisms for citizens of those nations to make laws or change laws governing those nations.