RESEARCH
American
Indians face enormous economic, social, and political
challenges. When compared to the US non-Indian population,
American Indians suffer from lower incomes, lower
wealth, lower educational attainment, greater unemployment,
higher death rates, and greater family disintegration;
indeed, it is telling that four of the five poorest
counties in the US are located on Indian reservations.
At the same time, however, a growing number of America
's 560-plus tribes are ending cycles of poverty,
dependence, and their related socioeconomic ills.
These emerging nations are crafting futures that
look refreshingly different than those of decades
and centuries' past. What explains why some tribes
are breaking away while others remain impoverished?
And, critically, what can the American Indian experience
teach us about poverty reduction and socioeconomic
development in other contexts?
For
the past eighteen years, the Harvard Project on
American Indian Economic Development (Harvard Project)
has been investigating the conditions under which
sustained, self-determined socioeconomic development
is achieved among American Indian nations.
CURRENT
RESEARCH EFFORTS
Reviews
of Foundation Grantmaking in Support of American
Indians
In efforts to assist the Ford Foundation
and W.K. Kellogg Foundation understand and maximize
the impact of their grantmaking to American Indian
causes and concerns, the Harvard Project undertook
two, separate proprietary efforts to (1) analyze
the foundations' grantmaking over the past two decades;
(2) assess the foundations' institutional capacity
to pursue American Indian-related grantmaking; and
(3) provide guidance for how the foundations could
further strengthen their ability to assist and learn
from Native America through grantmaking. Final reports
were submitted to the Ford Foundation and W.K. Kellogg
Foundation in 2002 and 2005, respectively. Critically,
these projects provided the Harvard Project with
public data that can be a resource to the broad
philanthropic community and to Indian Country. The
first public document is the pamphlet "Large
Foundations' Grantmaking to Native America,"
which provides data and analysis on the philanthropic
sector's involvement in American Indian affairs.
The Harvard Project, in collaboration with Native
Americans in Philanthropy, plans to release a related
document, tentatively titled "The Case for
Native Grantmaking," in 2006.
Review
of the Longitudinal Regional Health Survey
The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic
Development was selected by the First Nations Centre
at the National Aboriginal Health Organization and
the First Nations Information Governance Committee
to conduct a review of the Longitudinal Regional
Health Survey (LRHS). The LRHS was designed and
fielded by representatives of First Nations to assess
the health needs of adults and children living in
First Nations communities. The survey, the first
of its kind in Canada, is being conducted under
the First Nations’ principles of ownership,
control, access, and possession of health data.
The LRHS was fielded between August of 2002 and
November of 2003 and preliminary findings (please
see press
release) were published earlier this year. At
the request of the Canadian government, the First
Nations Information Governance Committee and the
National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO) asked
that the Harvard Project conduct an independent
review of the LRHS. The purpose of the review is
to 1) conduct a comparative analysis of the LRHS
relative to other surveys of indigenous populations,
2) assess the consistency of the LRHS with self-determination
principles, and 3) identify likely barriers (e.g.,
funding, administration) to the implementation of
future waves of the survey.
Review
of the First Nations Regional Longitudinal Health
Survey (RHS) 2002/2003
Cabazon
, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, and the
Socioeconomic Consequences of American Indian Governmental
Gaming
Funded
by the member governments of the National Indian
Gaming Association and the Harvard Project on American
Indian Economic Development, the Cabazon… research
investigates the social and economic impacts of
Indian governmental gaming across the United States.
The research includes American
Indians on Reservations: A Databook of Socioeconomic
Change Between the 1990 and 2000 Censuses ,
which examines fifteen measures of socioeconomic
status including employment, income, housing, and
education, and compares levels of these indicators
for gaming and non-gaming Indian areas against the
US average over the 1990s. An Annotated
Bibliography: The Social and Economic Impacts of
Indian and Other Gaming summarizes more
than 130 studies of the impacts of Indian and other
gaming.
Case
Studies:
-
Cultivating New Opportunities:
Tribal Government Gaming on the Pechanga Reservation
-
Indian Gaming and Community Building: A Hisotry
of the Intergovermental Relations of the Mohegan
Tribe of Connecticut
-
Harnessing Resources, Creating Partnerships: Indian
Gaming & Diversification by the Tulalip Tribes
of Washington
The
Databook's data
files are available in Microsoft Excel
and may be downloaded free of charge. Hard copies
of the Databook and the Annotated Bibliography
are available on request for $7.00 each plus
shipping. Submit requests to hpaied@harvard.edu.
Initiative on American Indian Constitutional Reform
For more information, visit: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/reform/
To assist the efforts of the many American
Indian nations undertaking or planning constitutional
reform, in October 2001 the Harvard Project launched
The Initiative on American Indian Constitutional
Reform. Supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation,
the Initiative serves as a forum where tribal reform
leaders and researchers work together to develop
shared strategies for strengthening tribal constitutions
and constitution-making processes. From 2001 to
2003 the Initiative conducted field research, hosted
an international symposium of constitutional reformers,
formed an executive session roundtable series, and
developed a book that addresses the substance and
process of constitutional reform. In 2003, the Harvard
Project and the Initiative’s tribal participants
made a strategic decision to intensify the Initiative’s
dissemination efforts. The Initiative is now engaged
in three sets of activities: (1) developing
civic education manuals for distribution throughout
Indian Country; (2) working with the Native Nations
Institute to craft curriculum and host two executive
education sessions; and (3) developing a planning
meeting of relevant stakeholders to design possible
organizational alternatives for embedding the Initiative
in Indian Country as a tribally controlled institution.
Family Strengthening in Indian Country
In an effort to investigate the role that
families play in improving child and community welfare
among American Indian communities and to deepen
and raise the dialogue about family strengthening
in Indian Country, the Harvard Project recently
completed a research project focused on Family Strengthening
in Indian Country. The project was sponsored by
the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The project consisted
of three sets of activities: (1) a series of mini-case
studies on family strengthening efforts among tribal
programs that have won an Honoring Nations award
(e.g., Ya Ne Dah Ah School, Menominee Community
Center of Chicago, Gila River Youth Council, Fond
du Lac Off-Reservation Foster Care); (2) a two-day
consultative session held in May 2003 that brought
together leading scholars and practitioners to discuss
strategies for improving child and family welfare;
and (3) a “white paper” that frames
the challenges of family strengthening in Indian
Country and discusses strategies for effective intervention.
In the summer of 2004, the Annie E. Casey Foundation
will publish and disseminate the paper and case
studies.
The
Context and Meaning of Family Strengthening in Indian
America
Honoring Nations Case Studies
Consistent with the Honoring Nations program’s
mission to identify, celebrate, and share outstanding
examples of tribal governance, the Harvard Project
is developing numerous case studies on tribal government
success stories. The case studies, which are selected
from the pool of 64 award-winning programs that
have won Honoring Nations awards, describe how some
tribal governments have solved compelling public
problems such as economic stagnation, declining
language use, youth substance abuse, and poor school
and student performance. The cases provide practical
guidance for Native and non-Native governments and
are useful teaching tools. Among the case studies
under development: The Whirling Thunder Wellness
Program (Winnebago Tribe), Healing Lodge of the
Seven Nations (a tribal government consortium),
and Hopi Two-Plus-Two-Plus-Two Program (Hopi Tribe).
Case studies are posted under the publications section
and under Honoring Nations as they become available.
Completed
Case Studies:
Ojibwe
Language Program (Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe)
Menominee
Community Center of Chicago (Menominee Tribe)
Ya
Ne Dah Ah School (Chickaloon Village)
Native America at the New Millennium
In April 2002, the Harvard Project, First
Nations Development Institute, and the Native Nations
Institute jointly submitted to the Ford Foundation’s
Committee on Indigenous Peoples a report titled,
Native America at the New Millennium (NANM). NANM
provides an overview of twenty topic areas of relevance
to American Indian tribes and Native communities
such as education, health, intergovernmental relations,
economic development, resource management, state-tribal
relations, etc. NANM presents facts, figures, trends,
and analyses of activities taking place throughout
Native America, with a focus on the last two decades.
Although it was never published nor widely distributed,
NANM became instantly popular among tribal leaders,
non-Native policymakers, academics, students, and
other executives and became known as the source
for pertinent and reliable information about the
state of Indian Country. Given the overwhelming
demand for NANM, the Harvard Project is now transforming
NANM into a general distribution book. The “new”
NANM will be updated with 2000 Census data and will
include essays from leading Native thinkers and
doers. The Harvard Project expects to complete NANM
in the late fall of 2005.
Resources for Nation Building: Governance, Development,
and the Future of American Indian Nations
Research work of the Harvard Project and
its sister program, the Native Nations Institute
has led to the emergence of a new approach to economic
development in Indian Country. We call this approach
nation building, or the process by which indigenous
nations themselves put in place the institutional
frameworks and strategic environments necessary
for sustained development. The book, Resources for
Nation Building is intended to be a handbook for
such change. It is designed to help tribal leaders
build effective governing institutions and develop
appropriate economic and business strategies; to
help tribal leaders and managers run more successful
programs and business enterprises; to provide tribal
colleges with curricular materials that are grounded
in actual research in Indian Country and that can
speak to the very real need for training future
tribal leadership; and to help those who work with
and for Native nations think through appropriate
strategies for business and societal development.
The first chapter introduces the ideas of nation
building and the core results of the research on
which the book is based; the last chapter highlights
the role of leaders in the process of change. Intervening
chapters address the major topics that we believe
are integral to nation building-based community
and economic development, including constitutional
reform, judicial development, tribal and private
sector economic strategies, and institution building
for effective bureaucracies and service delivery.
Throughout, chapter authors use research evidence
and stories (many drawn from the Harvard Projects’
“Honoring Nations” program) to justify
a nation-building approach to community and economic
development, and provide lessons of tools to assist
in the implementation and problem-solving process.
What Can Tribes Do? Volume II
A follow-up to the widely distributed and
frequently cited first volume, What Can Tribes Do?,
Volume II highlights successful examples of self-governance
in Native America. The book is a collection of policy
analyses and research conducted by Harvard University’s
John F. Kennedy School of Government in cooperation
with the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic
Development. Intended to be a practical resource
for tribal leaders and policymakers, chapters in
this volume address topics such as creating a department
of justice, intergovernmental relations, and adopting
commercial codes. Book chapters: Sovereignty and
Nation Building: The Development Challenge in Indian
Country Today by Stephen Cornell & Joseph P.
Kalt; Adopting Commercial Codes: Overcoming Lending
Barriers on Reservations by Eric Henson & Luxman
Nathan; Jiway Gwavo: Building a Hualapai Department
of Justice by Carrie E. Garrow & Mark A. Jones;
Building Tribal and Local Intergovernmental Relations
by Kathryn E. Crewe; A How-To-Guide for the Creation
of A Keetoowah Cultural Center by Michelle Los Banos
& Veronica Villasen; An Economic Development
Policy for the Oglala Nation by Andrew Aoki &
Daniel G. Chatman; Reclaiming Jurisprudential Sovereignty:
A Tribal Judiciary Analysis by Gavin Clarkson. The
book’s editors are Amy L. Besaw, Stephen Cornell,
and Joseph P. Kalt. A release date will be announced
soon.
