New Harvard Program to Identify Excellence in American Indian Tribal Governance

In an effort to recognize innovations supporting the nation-building efforts of American Indian tribal governments and to recognize tribes' place and importance in the larger discourse on governance, the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at the Kennedy School of Government has launched a new program -- Best Practices in American Indian Nation Building.

Funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation, "Best Practices" will seek to identify, honor, document, and disseminate examples of excellence in tribal governance throughout Indian country. The executive director for programs at the Harvard Project, Andrew Lee (MPP '96), will have primary responsibility for administration of "Best Practices."

The program will seek applications by American Indian tribes outlining their outstanding examples of creative problem solving in tribal governance. The Project's advisory board -- made up of former tribal leaders, scholars, local activists, policymakers, and the media -- will judge the applications and choose the first round of winners.

Professor Joseph Kalt, co-director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, says: "It isn't widely known, but many American Indian tribes are breaking new ground in the development of effective innovations in self-government -- from new constitutions to incredibly effective administrations. The "Best Practices" program will enable these innovations to be spread beyond individual Indian nations."

The Harvard Project's research and fieldwork on more than 70 reservations finds that regardless of resource endowments, access to capital and markets, education levels, and the like, only those tribes with capable reservation governments are consistently seizing opportunities for advancement and are sustaining success against poverty and its related social ills.

The Harvard Project -- directed by Joe Kalt and Manley Begay at the Kennedy School and Steve Cornell at the University of Arizona's Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy -- created "Best Practices" as a communication network between tribal governments, giving the tribes greater exposure and access to culturally appropriate and effective solutions to shared social and economic problems. Each year, the "Best Practices" winning programs will be disseminated to tribes throughout the nation as a way of facilitating even more innovative and successful practices.

As the largest and longest standing university-based research and service program dedicated to the problems of self-government and economic development on American Indian reservations, the Harvard Project is uniquely qualified to administer the "Best Practices" program. Over the last decade, The Harvard Project has become a primary source of research, field service, and executive education in Indian country. Its work brings requests from tribal leaders, Native American organizations, Congress, and educational institutions.

Best Practices in American Indian Nation Building will join the growing international family of governmental awards and recognition programs sponsored by the Ford Foundation's Peace and Social Justice Program.