MNN Extended Interview: Amber Annis of Native Governance Center

Transcript

Amber Annis: My name is Amber Annis. I am a citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. I'm in Miniconjou Lakota. I was born and raised in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, which is on the Cheyne River Reservation. But I've lived here in St Paul for the past 12 years now, I would say. And I have just stepped into the position of the executive director of the Native Governance Center.

Travis Zimmerman: Well, thank you. So yeah, Native Governance Center, how long has the organization been around? What's its mission? Tell us more about that, please.

Amber Annis: Native Governance Center, we have been around since 2015. At the time, we did have a physical space, so we did open our doors in 2015. And the Native Governance Center really emerged in response to a need that was being identified by tribal leaders, the 23 Native nations that shared geography with Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, but also beyond. And a need that we were hearing was having a structure or a system in place that was dedicated to assisting Native nations, Native citizens, and strengthening, you know, tribal governance systems and but also our capacity, how to exercise sovereignty. We're a grassroots organization, and what we really do is serve those Native change makers—Native change makers and elected tribal leaders.

Travis Zimmerman: Great. Well, thank you. What interested you in the position? What drew you to jump from what you were doing with the Historical Society into the executive director position at the Governance Center?

Amber Annis: Well, you know, I have been familiar with Native Governance Center since its very beginning. So its inception. Because it was a pretty unique sort of concept, I would say, an organization solely dedicated to helping Native people and Native nations thrive within their own terms, looking very specifically at working with tribal leaders. So I've been familiar with it for a long time, and I am a part of the Cohort 11 Native Nation Rebuilders. That's one of our main programs out of Native Governance Center, the Native Nation Rebuilders, a leadership program. When I joined that program, I was really able to see the profound work that Native Governance Center was doing. I was able to spend two years with amazing folks, you know, across Indian Country, learning from tribal elected leaders, amazing, you know, Native elders, but also my cohort itself. You know these amazing Native folks across Indian Country that we all kind of came together with this same purpose, which was, how am I as a Native citizen? How are we, wherever we may be, right in our place in life, what are we doing? How are we standing with our nations where we're at, whether that's: you're living back home in your community, whether that is you're living in an urban area? How are we going back to our own traditional kind of forms of self-governance? But also at the same time, how are we doing that in a contemporary way?

Travis Zimmerman: What are some of your goals, working with the governance center and working with the existing programs, or maybe developing new programs?

Amber Annis: In terms of vision and thinking about the future, Native Governance Center is at a really pivotal moment right now, I would say. We are at a moment where we are well-funded, well-supported. But we have to also think about what sustainability means for us. As a Native-led organization, a nonprofit, we really have to think, how are we sustaining ourselves in the future? So a hope and a goal of mine is to really try to think of how we can become a little bit more independent from those larger, amazing funders, right, those donors and the funds that we have that we steward. How are we actually engaging, when we say engaging with Native nations? How are we looking to Native nations to really, truly support and commit to the work that their own citizens, our citizens of Native nations, like, how are we investing in our own people? And so I look forward to that. I look forward to those conversations. We are always looking for those folks that, you know, see the value in the work that we're doing, and would like to be a part of our mission, and would like to be a part of this larger network of change makers within Indian Country.

Travis Zimmerman: Well, thanks a lot, Amber. I really appreciate you taking the time today.

Amber Annis: I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Travis, Pidamaya and pidamaya to all the listeners. And, again, visit NativeGov.org.