CELEBRATE WITH US!
HOW DO YOU KNOW US?!
Community is everything so we want to hear from you! Share a short quip via text, photo or video that we can share during our Anniversary Party or online or not at all (you decide)!
JOIN US for our 7 GENERATIONS MIXER ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
TUESDAY JAN. 12, 2027 | 6PM - 8PM
James E. Rogers College of Law lobby & courtyard
REGISTRATION COMING SOON
EXPLORE our 25 YEARS!
NOTE: Timeline is not comprehensive. Many events, organizations, and activities have been omitted.
Please contact nni@arizona.edu with questions.
EDUCATE YOURSELF!
We've published our first-ever video series "Native Nation Building TV", originally aired in 2006, hosted by journalists Mary Kim Titla (San Carlos Apache) and Mark St. Pierre. Each episode is a ~20 minute interview with Tribal leaders & scholars and filled with tidbits of wisdom and lived experience!
Produced by former NNI Education & Digital Resources Coordinator, Ian Record
EP1: Introduction to Native Nation Building
Original NNI Director Manley Begay (Navajo) and Udall Center Founding Director Stephen Cornell
EP2: Constitutions and Constitutional Reform
Former Director of the Harvard Project on Indigenous Governance and Development, economist Joe Kalt, and former Chief of the Ktunaxa Nation (26 years) and former Commissioner of the British Columbia Treaty Commission (2009-2015)
EP3: Why the Rule of Law and Tribal Justice Systems Matter
Navajo Nation Supreme Court Chief Justice Emeritus Robert Yazzie (also a long-time member of NNI’s International Advisory Council) and U of A Regents Professor and E. Thomas Sullivan Professor of Law Robert A. Williams, Jr. (Lumbee Tribe)
EP4: Building and Sustaining Tribal Enterprises
Former Harvard Project on Indigenous Governance and Development Research Fellow Kenneth Grant and Lance Morgan, President and CEO of Ho-Chunk, Inc.
EP5: Promoting Tribal Citizen Entrepreneurs
Former NNI executive director Joan Timeche (Hopi) and Elsie Meeks (Oglala Lakota), former executive director of the First Nations Oweesta Corporation
EP6: A Capable Bureaucracy: The Key to Good Government
Former NNI executive director Joan Timeche (Hopi) and former long-time community manager for the Gila River Indian Community Urban Giff
EP7: Tribal Service Delivery: Meeting Citizen’s Needs
Former director of special projects for the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians Karen Diver (now senior advisor to the president for Native American affairs at the University of Minnesota) and then-director of the American Indian Studies program at Arizona State University Dr. Eddie Brown
EP8: Intergovernmental and Intertribal Relations
Former Watershed Program Manager of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and Inter-Tribal Fisheries Organization Jamie Pinkham (Nez Perce) and former Director of Policy Research for the National Congress of American Indians Sarah Hicks (Alaska Native Village of Ouzinke)
EP9: Leadership and Strategic Thinking: The Path to Self-Determination
Former Navajo Nation Chairman and President Peterson Zah and former Chief Tribal Judge for the Crow Nation of Montana and Montana State Legislator Angela Russell
EP10: Moving Towards Nation Building
Udall Center Director Emeritus Stephen Cornell, former NNI Director Manley Begay (Navajo)