A group of leaders from Minnesota’s tribal communities have the opportunity to hone and develop their leadership skills as part the Native Nations Rebuilders program.
Transcript
HOST: This week on Minnesota Native News: A group of leaders from Minnesota’s tribal communities get the opportunity to hone and develop their leadership skills as part the Native Nations Rebuilders program. This is Minnesota Native News, I’m Marie Rock.
The Native Governance Center, in Saint Paul, is a Native-led Non-profit, and is home to the Native Nations Rebuilders program, a leadership development program where participants learn the principles of Nation Building… and then apply their knowledge to the real world and in their tribal communities.
This year marks the ninth cohort of program participants, known as Rebuilders. The 25 new Rebuilders bring the total number participants to 165, including a total of 51 from Minnesota. Here’s Leah Lemm with the story.
REPORTER INTRO: The Native Nations Rebuilders program originated with the Bush Foundation in 2008… serving the 23 tribal communities overlapping Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Twelve of these communities are represented in the ninth cohort – a group that includes five participants from four Minnesota tribal communities: Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, and the Red Lake Nation.
The basis of the program is to boost leadership skills necessary for Nation Building.
Rebecca Crooks-Stratton is the Program Director of the Native Governance Center.
Crooks-Stratton: The essence of Nation Building is tribes taking control and exercising their sovereignty under strong leadership with strong governance foundation. (:11)
REPORTER NARRATING: Crooks-Stratton explains the reasoning behind the program.
Crooks-Stratton: In an effort to address that lack of attention that Indian Country was getting in the Bush region, they went out and talked to tribal leaders about what their needs were. And out of those conversation came the need to focus on governance, and building those strong foundations, but also to have leaders in the community that can work in conjunction with elected tribal leaders to really further the agendas of the nation. (:29)
REPORTER NARRATING: The Native Nations Rebuilders program was designed around the findings that came out of research done by The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.
Crooks-Stratton: Tribal nations that were successful, some of the things that they found, that all these nations had in common, regardless of resource and location, was an element of strong leadership, they had an element of cultural match that really tied those traditions and cultures into their form of governance. And also those strong governance foundation that really helped them be successful in all other arenas. (:33)
REPORTER NARRATING: Crooks-Stratton was a Rebuilder in 2010 and has since noticed how the language and values around nation building has spread in the region.
Crooks-Stratton: The Nation Building language was very new to me at the time. Since the Rebuilders program started, I feel like when I go places in the region I hear that language so much more. People are starting to grasp what Nation Building is and how it applies to their tribal nation. (:19)
REPORTER NARRATING: Back in August of 2015, the Native Governance Center took over running the program, continuing the work in the same three-state region as the Bush Foundation.
Currently, the Native Nations Rebuilders program consists of four structured sessions, where the participants create an action plan to share knowledge gained with each Rebuilder’s tribal nation. They also gain much more throughout the time spent with their cohort.
Wayne Ducheneaux is the Executive Director of the Native Governance Center.
Ducheneaux: You also come out of the Rebuilders program with a sense of strength. You are connected with around 25 people who are highly motivated, highly educated in Indian Country who want to change things. (:12)
REPORTER NARRATING: Ducheneaux notes this change toward nation-building in tribal governance is unfolding.
Ducheneaux: Tribal nations have to get to a place where they’re no longer defending sovereignty, and they’re getting to a place where they’re exercising sovereignty. (:11)
REPORTER NARRATING: And he is particularly excited about this cohort and what it means for the future of tribes exercising sovereignty.
Ducheneaux: We’re reaching that critical mass where we’re going to have enough people on the grounds within our tribal nations who know what good governance looks like… actually exercising sovereignty and using the nation-building principles. Once we reach this critical mass, you’re going to see changes in this region and then hopefully as we look to grow this program nation-wide, you’ll see these changes nationally. (:35)
ENDING: More about Native Governance Center can be found at NativeGov Dot Org.
For Minnesota Native News, I’m Leah Lemm.