Native Governance Center

Leadership development:native governance center provides leadership development opportunities for indigenous changemakers through the native nation rebuilders (nnr) program. This two-year, cohort based program was built to strengthen leadership in our region by equipping indigenous changemakers with tools and frameworks they can use to help rebuild their nations. Over 225 native changemakers from across the region have participated in the program. In 2024, ngc engaged 21 rebuilders for cohort 13. The rebuilders participated in five module sessions, totaling 101 hours, including two virtual sessions and three multi-day, in-person sessions held at three different native nations in our service region. Each session focused on enhancing skills in nation rebuilding, including facilitation techniques and practical strategies for seventh-generation planning. Throughout the program, 16 community leaders interacted with the rebuilders during both online and in-person sessions. All 21 rebuilders completed the native nation rebuilding curriculum, presented their community action plans, and are on track to implement those plans within the next 12 months. The rebuilders concluded the first year of the program with a deep understanding of native nation rebuilding, strengthened relationships, and enhanced leadership skills to serve their respective communities.

Community engagement:native governance center educates, engages, and shares information with the broader community around topics related to sovereignty, native nation rebuilding, and current events in indian country. In 2024, we hosted 5 virtual community engagement events for the general public, reaching a combined live and recorded viewing audience of 5,257 people. Throughout our work, we made connections with 15 native speakers and artists. We presented at 4 conferences and had a booth at 3 events reaching over 800 people. We also delivered content by carrying out 23 external presentations totaling over 30 instruction hours and reaching over 900 participants. Online we released 5 original resources on topics related to our mission, collaborated with 4 rebuilder alumni to release 2 guest-written articles, and shared the final three episodes of a sovereignty-focused video series called wings with wayne that received approximately 4,462 views, all to raise awareness about governance and sovereignty on a broad scale. Our resources section received over 65,000 views from over 36,000 unique site visitors. Our top 5 most-viewed resources are about topics like: blood quantum & sovereignty, indigenous land acknowledgment, cultural appreciation vs. Appropriation, terminology and style, and going beyond land acknowledgment. Site-wide visitors downloaded our resources over 3,900 times.

Tribal governance support: working side-by-side with tribes that have identified specific needs or issues, native governance center helps create and implement governance solutions through training, technical assistance, and consulting services. We listen to native nations' needs and provide them with a variety of indigenized tools and expertise for developing strong governance systems in support of their sovereignty. In 2024, we presented to several tribal councils about nation rebuilding and provided our indigenous leaders in governance program to 21 tribal leaders and staff from 1 native nation. We also hosted our first two-day indigenous leaders in governance for elected leaders workshop for 7 elected leaders from 5 native nations. We provided our tribal civics program to 5 grassroots community leaders from 1 native nation and convened 10 tribal civics project alumni at our annual cross-cohort gathering. We moderated 6 candidate forums for 2 native nations. We also conducted 2 listening sessions at community events.