WHO WE ARE

International Advisory Council

The NNI International Advisory Council (IAC) is composed of current and past Native leaders, scholars, community leaders, administrators, and nonprofit and nongovernmental organization executives. The IAC provides counsel and advice to help ensure that NNI's programs are having the maximum beneficial effect for Native nations. The IAC meets with NNI twice a year, with less formal consultation occuring on a continuing basis.

Co-Chairs

Denny Hurtado (Skokomish)
Program Supervisor, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, State of Washington; Past Chairman, Skokomish Indian Tribe

Hon. Sophie Pierre (Kootenay)
Chief, St. Mary's First Nation; Tribal Administrator, Ktunaxa/Kinbasket Tribal Council

Members

Hon. John A. ‘Rocky' Barrett (Potawatomi)
Rocky Barrett has served as Citizen Potawatomi Nation Chairman since 1985. He has served the tribe as an elected official for over 25 years, beginning with his first elected position as Vice Chairman in 1971. He is also president of Barrett Drilling Company, an independent oil and gas production company, and Barrett Land and Cattle Company, a registered Angus cattle ranch. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business at Oklahoma City University, attended the Graduate School of Business at OCU, and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Commercial Sciences from St. Gregory’s University.

Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda (Round Valley Indian Tribe) Attorney, Williams, Kastner, and Gibbs, Washington, D.C.

Gregory Cajete (Santa Clara Pueblo)
Greg Cajete is a Tewa Indian from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. Currently, he is Director of Native American Studies and an Associate Professor in the Division of Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies in the College of Education at the University of New Mexico. He holds a Ph.D. from International College – Los Angeles New Philosophy Program in Social Science Education with an emphasis in Native American Studies. He has served as a New Mexico Humanities scholar in ethnobotany of Northern New Mexico and as a member of the New Mexico Arts Commission. Dr. Cajete has authored five books, including Ignite the Sparkle: An Indigenous Science Education Curriculum Model and The Spirit of the Game: Wellspring for Indigenous Renewal.

Duane Champagne (Turtle Mountain Chippewa)
Duane Champagne is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa from North Dakota. He is a Professor of Sociology and American Indian Studies, a member of the Faculty Advisory Committee for the UCLA Native Nations Law and Policy Center, and is Acting Director of the Tribal Learning Community and Educational Exchange (TLCEE) . Professor Champagne was Director of the UCLA American Indian Studies Center from 1991-2002 and editor of the American Indian Culture and Research Journal from 1986-2003. He has authored and edited over ninety publications including Native America: Portraits of the Peoples, The Native North American Almanac, and Social Order and Political Change: Constitutional Governments Among the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Creek.

Hon. Herminia "Minnie" Frias (Yaqui)
Chairwoman, Pascua Yaqui Tribal Council

David Gipp (Lakota)
David Gipp is the president of the United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota. He is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (his Indian name is Lone Star). He was educated at the University of North Dakota and holds a Doctorate in Laws, Honoris Causa, from North Dakota State University for his contributions in developing tribal higher education. His professional work since 1972 has been principally in the development of tribal colleges. Among other posts, Dr. Gipp is a former executive director and president of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium and current chair of the American Indian College Fund (AICF). He was the 1995 Indian Educator of the Year of the National Indian Education Association, and recipient of the 1997 North Dakota Multicultural Educator of the year.

Vernon James (Apache)
Vernon James is Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of the San Carlos Apache Telecommunications Utility, Inc., an independent telephone company incorporated by the San Carlos Apache Nation. Mr. James previously served as the Executive Director of Health and Human Services for the San Carlos Apache Nation, and as Tribal Operations/Indian Self Determination Officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, San Carlos Agency. Mr. James currently serves on the Consumer Advisory Committee, Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau, Federal Communications Commission; National Tribal Telecommunications Association; and Board of Trustees, Cobre Valley Community Hospital, Globe-Miami, Arizona. He is an enrolled member of the San Carlos Apache Nation and a graduate of Arizona State University.

Hon. Vivian Juan-Saunders (Tohono O'odham)
Vivian Juan-Saunders is from the New Fields Community in the Chukut Kuk District  and relocated to the community of North Komelik in the Sif Oidak district.  Ms. Juan-Saunders was elected to the position of Chairwoman of the Tohono O'odham Nation in 2003, becoming the first woman elected to this position. In 2004, she was elected President of the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona, whose membership includes elected leaders from nineteen tribes in Arizona. Ms. Juan-Saunders previously worked for the Tohono O'odham Community College as Vice President for Education, was employed in the Tohono O'odham Nation's Executive office serving as Executive Assistant for Chairmen Josiah Moore and Sylvester Listo, and was hired by the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community to head their newly established Office of Intergovernmental Relations. 

Elsie Meeks (Lakota)
Executive Director, First Nations Oweesta Corporation

Michael Mitchell (Mohawk)
Michael Kanetakeron Mitchell is a Wolf-clan member from the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne. For over twenty years Michael has served in a political capacity in his community, one of the most volatile and progressive communities in Canada. During his tenure as Grand Chief he gave his people not only pride in their culture, but the confidence to begin to act and think as a self-governing nation by opting out of the Indian Act in elections, membership, and education. Mitchell's vision is to help restore the independence of the Mohawk people of Akwesasne through a combination of an aggressive economical campaign and the development of a strong government based on the best of both the Haudenosaunee traditional government and the governments of the world at large.

Regis Pecos (Cochiti Pueblo)
Councilor and Past Governor, Cochiti Pueblo; Co-Director, New Mexico Leadership Institute; Senior Policy and Legislative Analyst to the Speaker, New Mexico House of Representatives

Jaime A. Pinkham (Nez Perce)

Gerald Sherman (Lakota)
Project Coordinator, Indian Land Tenure Foundation

Karen Gayton Swisher (Standing Rock Sioux)
President, Haskell Indian Nations University

Robert Yazzie (Navajo)
Chief Justice Emeritus, Navajo Nation Supreme Court

Peterson Zah (Navajo)
Peterson Zah is a Diné from the Navajo Nation. Mr. Zah was elected Chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council from 1983-1987. In 1998 he became Director of the Western Regional Office of the Save the Children Federation and established an office in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1990, under a new tribal government organization, Mr. Zah was elected again—this time as President of the Navajo Nation—and served a four-year term. This makes Peterson Zah the last Tribal Chairman and the first elected President of the Navajo Nation. Since 1995, Mr. Zah has been serving Arizona State University as Advisor to the President on American Indian Affairs, helping with recruitment and retention of American Indian students.

Patricia Zell (Arapaho/Navajo)
Former Democratic Staff Director/Chief Counsel, Senate Committee on Indian Affairs