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Programs > Tribal Governance Support

Tribal Civics

Overview

The goal of our Tribal Civics Project is to empower and inspire Indigenous people to be civically engaged with their Native nations and governments. Strengthening civic engagement is important because it leads to strong leadership, governance, and the ability to create a self-determined future. Civic engagement can look like:

  • Getting involved with the community
  • Holding elected leaders accountable
  • Attending Tribal council meetings
  • Helping identify solutions to address challenges
  • Supporting voter engagement
  • Sharing historical and cultural knowledge

We created the project based on feedback from elected Tribal leaders. We recently carried out a Native Nations Listening Tour to gather information on Native nations’ needs, and many elected leaders mentioned the need to strengthen civic engagement among their Tribal citizens.

Contact Us

Do you have questions about Tribal Civics? Connect with Michelle!

Click the button below to request our services.

Michelle Red Day

Program Manager - Tribal Governance [email protected]

Ashleigh Thompson

Program Coordinator - Tribal Governance Support [email protected]
Service Request Form

Taking Action

The feedback we received during our tour aligned well with an action plan carried out by one of our Native Nation Rebuilders: Cohort 9 Rebuilder Levi Brown developed a Tribal civics course. While originally tailored specifically to his Native nation, our team worked with him and other leaders to create a Tribal civics model available to all interested Native nations. We hope this initiative will lead to more informed Tribal citizens who are empowered to participate in and contribute to their nations and governments.

What's Next

We successfully launched our virtual workshop series in 2022! We will continue to recruit Tribal citizens, Native changemakers, educators, and grassroots community leaders from various Native nations to participate in this program.

If you’re interested, use the Request link on this page!

Request our Services

Related Resources

Tribal Civics: A Guide for Fostering Engagement

A Tribal civics initiative is a formal or informal learning opportunity for Tribal citizens to learn about their people’s history, cultural values and practices, traditional forms of governance, and current governmental structure and administration. This guide is for anyone who aspires to create and implement a Tribal civics engagement plan for their nation.

Read

Native Civics

Native nations are building a future for their communities with a foundation of tribal knowledge and alliances. Civic engagement is both an individual and collective effort. Produced in partnership with Twin Cities PBS and producer/director Missy Whiteman.

Watch

Principles of Native Nation Rebuilding

Native nation rebuilding is about using Indigenous knowledge and values to solve modern-day problems in a way that makes sense to the nation.

Read
All Resources