Examines the homeland struggle of the Western Apaches, synthesizing historical and anthropological materials to provide new insights into the relationship of people and the land.

Analyzes the extent of predatory lending activity in Indian Country with regard to housing lending, payday lending, car title loans, loans against tax refunds, and pawn shop activity; provides recommendations on how Native nations might limit the activities of predatory lenders in their communities, including assisting borrowers who are already engaged with such lenders, educating consumers on how to avoid predatory lenders, and shutting down predatory lending through regulation and legislation.

Provides an in-depth look, using the Jump$tart survey instrument, at the personal financial knowledge of Native youth in three states with high Native populations - Montana, New Mexico, and South Dakota; examines the largest sample of Native high school students ever surveyed regarding financial literacy skills. The research for this report was conducted under the auspices of NNI's partner organization, the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at Harvard University.

Summarizes the elements of success for Native nation building, based on more than two decades' research by the Harvard Project and Native Nations Institute.

Concludes from interviews with 18 tribal officials and employees, federal officials, and academics knowledgeable about health care delivery to Native nations, that where funds and capacity permit, tribal-managed health care improves access.

Reviews ways that the Native arts sector might cultivate and sustain leaders.

Describes the history and organization of contemporary Indian gaming operations, showing that while gaming's effects are unevenly distributed across tribes, its political, economic, and social impacts on many Indian reservations have been significant and positive and that gaming has had positive economic effects on many non-Native communities as well, particularly in distressed areas.

Chronicles three cases (Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council, Red Lake Walleye Recovery Project, and Tulalip Tribes/Snohomish Basin BioGas Project); reviews the current state of Indigenous-led fisheries management in the United States; summarizes major trends and presents common keys and challenges to the success of these efforts.

Reviews the key requirements of the Endangered Species Act, pertinent executive orders, and Department of the Interior Secretarial Order 3206; discusses the differences tribes can make by creating and implementing their own habitat management plans, as alternatives to designation of critical habitat on Indian lands, and by actively partnering with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Conservation Service.

Provides guidelines for creating new governance structures, rewriting constitutions, building justice systems, launching nation-owned enterprises, encouraging citizen entrepreneurs, developing new relationships with non-Native governments, and confronting the crippling legacies of colonialism.

Assesses the U.S. Department of Justice's Comprehensive Indian Resources for Community and Law Enforcement (CIRCLE) Project, which aimed to help participating tribes implement strategies for making the individual components of their justice systems work better together in addressing crime and related social problems.

The research for this report was conducted under the auspices of NNI's partner organization, the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at Harvard University.

Defines what economic development means and how it applies in Indian Country; looks at the changing patterns of Indian Country economic development; debunks some of the myths and misconceptions about economic development in Native nations; suggests policy options for both Indigenous nations and the federal government; and calls for better ways to measure socioeconomic change in Indigenous communities.

Argues that there is strong evidence from the United States that effective solutions to indigenous poverty depend on, among other things, Indigenous self-determination; summarizes the U.S. evidence and considers its applicability to the situations of Indigenous peoples in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

CITE AS:
Cornell, Stephen. 2005. Indigenous Peoples, Poverty, and Self-Determination in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. In Indigenous peoples and poverty: An international perspective, ed. Robyn Eversole, John-Andrew McNeish and Alberto D. Cimadamore, 199-225. London: Zed Books.

Provides critical information to the leaders of Indian nations, students in tribal colleges and other educational institutions, and other interested individuals about what’s working and what’s not among Native nations as they engage in the difficult and daunting challenge of nation building.

Provides a 20-page review about economic development, the elements to successful economic development in Indian Country, and the implications for federal policy-making.

The research for this report was conducted under the auspices of NNI's partner organization, the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at Harvard University.

Examines how the actions of Native nations themselves can either undermine or strengthen their own enterprises, focusing on five factors that Indigenous nations can control but that sometimes are ignored in the effort to build successful, nation-owned businesses: clarity about enterprise goals; effective management of the politics-business connection; the purpose, power, and composition of enterprise boards of directors; independent and reliable resolution of disputes; and the need to educate the community about enterprise goals and activity.

CITE AS: Cornell, Stephen. 2005. What makes First Nations enterprises successful? Lessons from the Harvard Project. In Legal Aspects of Aboriginal Business Development, ed. Dwight Dorey and Joseph Magnet, 51-65. Toronto: LexisNexis Canada.

Summarizes the findings of a study of the amounts, sources, and targets of large private foundations’ investments in Native America.

The research for this report was conducted under the auspices of NNI's partner organization, the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at Harvard University.

Offers an analytical summary of results form a national survey of Native-controlled cultural arts organizations to gain a better understanding of the entities comprised in the sector and their needs.

Examines the question of why is it that some Native nations seize upon the nation building strategy and take effective control of their futures while others do not; finds that foundational change in a community arises when the external and internal conditions a people face interact with their interpretations of their situation, producing a new, shared "story" of what is possible, and how it can be achieved.

CITE AS: Cornell, Stephen, Miriam Jorgensen, Joseph P. Kalt, and Katherine A. Spilde. 2007. Seizing the Future: Why Some Native Nations Do and Others Don't. In Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development, ed. Miriam Jorgensen. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Compares the "standard approach," long supported by the U.S. government and by some Indian nations, to the "nation-building approach"; defines the characteristics of these two approaches; shows why the latter approach has begun to produce significant improvements in reservation socioeconomic conditions. CITE AS: Cornell, Stephen, and Joseph P. Kalt. 2007. Two approaches to economic development on American Indian reservations: One works, the other doesn't. In Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development, ed. Miriam Jorgensen. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Analyzes the differential success of the Indian Housing Authority and provides important information about the conditions under which the new tribal efforts will be successful; finds that unless the new approach addresses core issues of tribal governance, it will be inadequate for real reform of Indian housing.

Explores legal and economic dimensions of current perceptions of (and debates over) the nature and extent of tribal self-rule in the United States, with the objective of distinguishing between myth and reality; addresses key threads of thought and assumptions that pervade, accurately or inaccurately, discussions in the public policy arena.

Describes the critical role both governance and government play in human communities; examines what effective self-governance involves and how self-governing systems can be built, and draws distinctions between self-administration - sometimes mistaken for self-government - and genuine self-government.

Reviews examples of innovative Native self-governance initiatives underway in Alaska, examines the applicability to Alaska of research on indigenous self-governance in the lower forty-eight states and Canada, and considers implications for policymakers.

Contains edited presentations from the conference, "Building Native Nations: Environment, Natural Resources, and Governance," held in Tucson, Ariz., December 2001, and organized by the Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy and Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at The University of Arizona, and the Morris K. Udall Foundation.

Finds that tribal governments in Oklahoma are translating revenues and employment opportunities from gaming into positive social investment.

Examines two different approaches to reservation development: the "jobs and income" approach and the "nation building" approach; explores the institutional components of the second approach, arguing that the key to this approach is tribal sovereignty.

CITE AS:
Cornell, Stephen, and Joseph P. Kalt. 1998. Sovereignty and nation-building: The development challenge in Indian Country today, American Indian Culture and Research Journal 22(3): 187-214.

Contains edited presentations from the conference, "Native American Health Issues and Welfare Policy in an Era of Devolution," held in Tucson, Ariz., November 1998, and organized by the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at The University of Arizona, the Morris K. Udall Foundation, and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundations.

Reviews key features of the welfare reform legislation as it applies to American Indians and Indian Country, assesses the impact on Indian nations, and identifies key issues that demand attention.

Based on a presentation before the National Congress of American Indians mid-year session in Juneau, Alaska, June 2000.

Provides a 30-page workbook designed to serve as an analytical tool for use by Indian nations, Indian-owned or operated corporations or companies, Indian entrepreneurs, and other Native entities seeking to promote economic development in Native communities.