Wilma Mankiller Fellowship Application, Harvard Honoring Nations Highlight, and More!

On March 19, 2019 the Supreme Court of the United States announced its decision in Washington State Department of Licensing v. Cougar Den, Inc. upholding long-standing treaty rights held by the Yakama Nation. In Cougar Den, the Supreme Court considered whether a Washington State tax on motor vehicle fuel importers who bring fuel into the state via ground transportation violated the right to travel provision of the 1855 treaty between the United States and the Yakama Nation.

Five Justices agreed with the Washington Supreme Court that the 1855 treaty pre-empts the state of Washington’s fuel tax.

For the Supreme Court’s opinion, please click here.

For the NCAI Amicus Brief, please click here.

NCAI Contact Info: Derrick Beetso, General Counsel, dbeetso@ncai.org

The General Services Administration (GSA) seeks feedback from Indian Country on two major initiatives of the MOBILE NOW Act (Title VI of Division P of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 (P.L. 115-141): (1) Identifying incentives for tribal, state, and local governments to voluntarily provide information about real property that could support a communications facility installation (e.g. broadband installation); and (2) determining the feasibility of compiling that information into a database.

The Act requires GSA to provide a report to Congress on its findings and GSA has developed a survey to gather responses from stakeholders throughout Indian Country. Your feedback will help shape the final report and recommendations from GSA to Congress. The survey takes about six minutes to complete, and can be accessed here.

NCAI Contact Info: Tyler Scribner, Policy Analyst, tscribner@NCAI.org

The NCAI Wilma Mankiller Fellowship Program for Tribal Policy and Governance provides an exceptional opportunity for emerging young professionals from across Indian Country to work side by side with national leaders in tribal policy and governance.

Fellows serve 11-month tenures with NCAI at the Embassy of Tribal Nations in Washington, D.C., and are full-time, paid members of the NCAI staff. Applicants must have a college degree or equivalent experience.

Deadline to apply: 12:00 p.m. EST on March 31, 2019

Notifications of selections: April 30, 2019

For more information about the Fellowship Program or to apply, please click here.

NCAI Contact Info: Ahniwake Rose, Deputy Director, arose@ncai.org

At NCAI’s 2018 Annual Convention in October, Harvard Honoring Nations – which identifies and celebrates outstanding programs in tribal self-governance – bestowed its 2018 Honoring Nations Awards on six worthy recipients for their difference-making approaches in critical areas of tribal governance.

Each week for the next few weeks, NCAI’s Partnership for Tribal Governance (PTG) will release a new video featuring one of the 2018 Honoring Nations Award recipients. This week, PTG shares the story of the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma’s Agriculture Programs.

The Quapaw Agriculture Programs comprise a farm-to-table initiative that houses the first USDA-certified meat processing plant in Indian Country. Promoting healthy diets and job creation, the Programs focus on sustainable and humane methods of breeding, raising, and processing livestock as well as planting and harvesting crops for the community.

Sharing the Quapaw Tribe’s story of governance success in this video is Chairman John Berrey of the Quapaw Tribe.

To watch Quapaw share its tribal governance success story, please click here.

Other 2018 Honoring Nations Award Videos:

Sitka Tribe of Alaska’s Indian Child Welfare Act Partnership

Miami Tribe of Oklahoma’s Myaamiaki

Eemamwiciki Program

Yurok Tribe Wellness Programming

Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s Health Aide Training Programs

To learn more about the Harvard Honoring Nations program, please click here.

NCAI Contact: Ian Record, Director, Partnership for Tribal Governance, irecord@ncai.org

The Tribal Law and Policy Institute (TLPI) recently launched a national initiative – Strengthening Tribal Response to Violence Against Native Women – to provide tribal resources to end violence against Native women. This intiative will also provide training, technical assistance and resources designed to help individual tribal governments and tribal communities – that are not currently receiving Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) grant funding – enhance victim safety and more effectively address offender accountability.

Initiative partners provide individualized training, technical assistance and resources to strengthen the response of tribal governments to effectively address sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking. Initiative training, technical assistance, and resources will focus on:

·     Legal Response Focusing on Tribal Protection Orders

·     Coordinated Community Response

·     Shelter and Safe Housing

View the website here.

NCAI Contact Info: Esther Labrado, Project Attorney – Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction, elabrado@ncai.org

This program is to encourage American Indians and Alaska Natives to enter health professions and to assure the availability of Indian health professionals to serve Indians. The online application submission deadline for new applicants is, March 28, 2019, 7:00 p.m. Eastern

Applicants must go online here to apply for an IHS scholarship and access the Application Handbook instructions and forms for submitting a properly completed application for review and funding consideration. Applicants are strongly encouraged to seek consultation from their Area Scholarship Coordinator (ASC) in preparing their scholarship application for award consideration. The ASCs are listed on the IHS website here.

View the website here.

FR Document: 2019-04249

NCAI Contact Info: Nicholas Courtney, Policy Analyst, ncourtney@ncai.org

Description:

Tribal health systems may undergo reorganization of their health departments for various reasons related to growth such as contracting or compacting services from the Indian Health Service, intending to increase efficiencies, improving service delivery or simply adapting to the changing needs of their Tribal Nations. Please join NIHB and health officials from three Tribal health departments who have recently reorganized all or part of their health systems and hear:

·     Why and how their Tribe approached reorganization

·     What the opportunities are to build capacity to provide public health services

·     How their department performance will improve

·     How the new structure will affect the health of their Tribal Nation

Date and Time: Tuesday, April 2, 2019 from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. EDT

Register for the webinar and get more info here

NCAI Contact Info: Nicholas Courtney, Policy Analyst, ncourtney@ncai.org