First Nations Launches Native Asset-Building Partnership Project
Released
on: June 10, 2009, 4:13 am
Author: First Nations
Development Institute
Industry: Non
Profit
Longmont,
Colorado- First Nations Development Institute (First Nations)
released the names of the advisory committee members for its new
Native Asset-Building Partnership. Members include Anita Fineday,
Chief Judge of the White Earth Tribal Nation; Tadd Johnson, Special
Counsel for Government Affairs for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe;
Susan White, Director of the Oneida Trust Department; former Senior
Vice President and board member of First Nations, Sherry Salway
Black; Elsie Meeks, Director of the USDA Rural Development Office;
attorney Margaret Schaff, partner at Schaff & Clark-Deschene;
Tracy Fischer, Interim President of the First Nations Oweesta
Cooperation; and Michael E. Roberts, President of First Nations
Development Institute.
The
goal of the Native Asset-Building Partnership Project is to strengthen
tribal and Native institutions in Minnesota, Wisconsin and North
Dakota through tribal nation-to-nation peer learning and model
development that will lead to improved control and management
of assets for the benefit of Native communities and individuals.
Advisory committee member Susan White said, "Peer mentoring
will provide ideas and processes on how Indians as the true stakeholders
can gain greater control over their own assets. Applying mentoring
objectives will elevate a tribe's ability to be more self-determined
and therefore gain greater control over their own assets."
First
Nations' goal is to partner tribes around specified assets and
allow them to share best practices for asset stewardship and management.
"Through this project we will be able to continue to ask
questions from our brothers and sisters at other tribal nations
and create long-term enduring benefit to Indian Country,"
notes advisory committee member Anita Fineday who is Chief Judge
of the White Earth Tribal Nation located in White Earth, Minnesota.
Sherry
Salway Black said "assets are incredibly important for individuals,
families, communities, and nations - including tribal nations.
The ownership, control, management and development of current
assets and creation and acquisition of new assets taken together
are wealth and assure a better future."
The
Native Asset-Building Project advisory committee is composed of
national and regional leaders familiar with asset-building in
Native American communities. "First Nations is grateful to
have the participation of such well respected national and regional
leaders in Indian Country," said Michael E. Roberts. The
project advisory committee will assist in engaging tribes and
Native organizations in the targeted states to determine asset-building
needs and regionally-relevant models and assist in the planning
and hosting of an asset-building conference that will take place
in Minneapolis, Minnesota this fall.
The
Native American Asset Building Project is a two-year project funded
by the Otto Bremer Foundation, based in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
For more information about First Nations' Native Asset Building
Project, contact Raymond Foxworth, Research Officer for First
Nations at 303-774-7836 or rfoxworth@firstnations.org.
About
First Nations Development Institute
Founded in 1980, First Nations Development Institute is a national
Native American-led nonprofit organization. Through a three-pronged
strategy of Educating Grassroots Practitioners, Advocating for
Systemic Change, and Capitalizing Indian Communities, First Nations
Development Institute is working to restore Native control and
culturally-compatible stewardship of the assets they own - be
they land, human potential, cultural heritage, or natural resources
- and to establish new assets for ensuring the long-term vitality
of Native communities. To learn more about First Nations, visit:
www.firstnations.org.
Contact Details: Raymond Foxworth
703 3rd Ave, Suite B
Longmont, CO 80501
rfoxworth@firstnations.org
www.firstnations.org
303-774-7836 x 20
303-774-7841 fax
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