The Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy is excited to announce the appointment of Dave Beeksma as the new director of its Native Nations Institute.

Beeksma brings to the role more than 35 years of experience working for the United States federal government, including 15 years of uniformed service with the military, where he served in a number of positions in communications, intelligence and, ultimately, with U.S. Army Special Forces, commonly known as the “Green Berets.” Beeksma’s federal appointments also include years of experience in Tribal economic development, governance, and law. 

Beeksma’s storied career in federal service and international diplomacy included leadership roles in both the Department of the Interior and the Department of Defense (now the Department of War), helping him to develop his extensive understanding of strategic operations and communications, infrastructure development and management, and economic development. By the end of his term as international program manager for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency in 2020, Beeksma had spent more time on the ground in Afghanistan than any other American federal employee or armed services officer.

His most recent federal post was a four-year stint as the Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Tohono O’odham Agency, which serves as the liaison between the second largest Native American reservation in the United States, the Tohono O’odham Nation, and Congress. Early during this appointment, Beeksma was instrumental in persuading Congress and the Department of Interior to change the name of the agency from its original moniker, which employed a racist, colonial-era term for the Indigenous Peoples it served for more than 177 years.

Beeksma explains that the Tohono O’odham Tribal government had been working to change the name of its supporting federal agency since the adoption of their new constitution in 1986 but had been unsuccessful in those efforts for over 40 years. At the time, he remarked that helping the Nation remove the racist epithet from the agency name was a way “to demonstrate respect for the community so that they could see that BIA was listening to the things that they were saying…And it was my way of helping to communicate to the people on my team that, if you're committed, you can change things, even if it seems like it's an impossible thing, even if it's something like a name that's been around for 177 years.”

An enrolled citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Beeksma was born and raised on his Tribe’s reservation lands in northern Wisconsin along the banks of the Native nation’s eponymous Great Lake. His family has lived in Ga-Miskwaabikaang, the reservation’s main village, for 600 years, and all continue to live on or very near the reservation. 

The oldest of nine children in a family that includes many commercial fishermen, Beeksma’s paternal heritage comes from the Tribe’s Marten Clan, which he says “were the people that were the diplomats in Ojibwe culture.” Members of the Marten Clan – which is named for a small ferret-like animal that Beeksma calls “the cutest predator in nature” – were also traditionally responsible for managing the Tribe’s trade network, negotiating peace agreements with other governments, and acting as the Tribe’s warriors when negotiations failed, all of which are roles that fall squarely into Beeksma’s wheelhouse and feature prominently in his professional history. Beeksma also has Indigenous heritage from the Saami Peoples of the Scandinavian region in Europe on his mother’s side.

Beeksma has a Bachelor’s of Arts in history from the University of Maryland, a Master’s of Arts  in U.S. history from American Military University, and a Master’s of Arts in political science and international relations from American Public University. 

In addition to his appointment as NNI Director, Beeksma also serves as an adjunct professor at Tohono O’odham Community College; as the President of the Red Cliff Business Development Corporation; and as a Tribal Judge. He has also taught or guest lectured at La Courte Orielles Ojibwe University, Purdue, and Texas Christian University.

Having officially retired from his position at the Tohono O’odham Agency in the summer of 2025, Beeksma says he is eager to put his skills to work supporting the Native Nation Building efforts of Tribal governments in the U.S. and beyond as the new director of NNI. The University of Arizona, he adds, is an excellent headquarters from which to engage in that work.

“The University of Arizona is one of the best universities in the United States,” says Beeksma. “We've got a terrific range of STEM programs and opportunities. We've got great Indigenous studies opportunities. We have a law school that has one of the best Indigenous law programs anywhere in the world. We have brilliant folks that work in economics, agriculture, technology and business… we are collectively sitting on a mountain of knowledge and education and wisdom that can be used to solve a lot of problems in Indian Country.”

Beeksma says that maximizing those resources while nurturing the collaborative opportunities at the U of A in support of Native nations are at the top of his priority list, along with strengthening partnerships with tribes and Tribal colleges and universities.

“If we can bring people together, if we can get disparate groups together that normally haven't worked together and get them talking and working to cooperate and collaborate on different projects, it's going to be better for tribes,” Beeksma says.