In recent decades, tribes have witnessed the negative impact of a lack of both judicial diversity and knowledge of federal Indian law on tribal sovereignty and the ability of tribes to self-govern. Recent federal-court decisions have undermined longstanding Indian policy in crucial areas, including tribal adjudicative authority over non-Indians; the power of tribal governments to tax certain activities by non-Indians on tribal lands; the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to take land into trust for tribes; and the scope of the federal government’s trust responsibility to Indians. Whether done consciously or not, the federal judiciary has succeeded in dismantling favorable precedent and creating new law that disregards tribal sovereignty and will harm tribal interests if applied in future cases.

In response to disastrous court opinions and legislative attacks on the status of tribal governments, tribal leaders formed the Tribal Sovereignty Protection Initiative (TSPI) in September, 2001. Tribal leaders structured the TSPI as four separate components: the Legislative Committee, the Tribal Supreme Court Project, the Federal Judicial Selection Project, and the Education and Public Outreach Committee—all working together toward the common goal to protect tribal sovereignty. Under this framework, tribal leaders, attorneys, and other experts have coordinated and developed an array of educational, legal, political, and grassroots strategies.

One of TSPI’s key components, on which NCAI continues to work daily, is the NCAI Project on the Judiciary. The Project is a comprehensive effort that has primarily focused on ensuring that the federal judiciary is composed of judges that understand federal Indian law and the contours of tribal sovereignty. The Project has hosted several groundbreaking meetings between tribal leaders and federal appellate judges. However, with the current dearth of Native judges on the federal bench, the Project recently expanded its outreach and education campaign in tribal communities and judicial circles in hopes of getting more Native attorneys involved in the judicial selection process.

NCAI will continue to work toward fulfillment of the Project’s goals by expanding its outreach and educational efforts and ensuring that qualified Native American candidates are given fair consideration during the federal judicial selection process.

For more information on the NCAI Project on the Judiciary, please visit 

Project on the Judiciary

Tribal Leaders Program, Harvard Business School, June 2023

NCAI is committed to building and protecting tribal sovereignty, supporting healthy tribal governments, and fostering vibrant tribal communities. Central to that task is equipping tribal leaders with the knowledge, skills, tools, and strategies they need to advance those fundamental priorities on behalf of their Tribal Nations.

In 2023, NCAI developed and administered two interconnected initiatives to provide intensive professional development and leadership training to Indian Country. Learn more about these two programs below. Join the Empowering Leaders movement and apply for one of our programs today!

Leading Tribal Nations Executive 
Education Program at Harvard Business School

In collaboration with Harvard Business School, NCAI offers the Leading Tribal Nation Program, designed to equip tribal leaders with the knowledge and skills needed to advance their capacity for strategic governance. During the 5-day program, tribal leaders will engage in collaborative learning and problem solving through the case-study model facilitated on the Harvard Business School campus.

Strategic mindset and leading senior teams

Principles of environmental and resource management

Negotiations and systems thinking for social change

Corporate governance and inclusive governance systems

June 23-28, 2024 on the Harvard Business School Campus

Cost is $2,500 per participant; a limited number of scholarships are available upon inquiry. Price includes lodging and meals on all participant days.

All participants will receive a certificate of completion from Harvard Business School.

The program is designed for elected tribal leaders. Non-elected leaders and tribal professionals may apply, but elected tribal leaders will receive preference.

Media Training and Communication Fellowship

Hosted at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication., this fellowship will provide targeted learning and hands-on practice to tribal leaders and professionals who wish to increase their communication skills and expand their media presence to meet their community needs. Curriculum will be tailored to, and facilitated by, Native voices with knowledge of the unique media landscape of Indian Country.

This program is open to tribal leaders, aspiring leaders and communications professionals. Elected tribal leaders will be granted first priority. 

Building public speaking strategies and confidence

Effective storytelling to advance policy and community initiatives

Navigating diverse interview environments

Identifying how to address challenges facing communities

Developing and delivering effective messages across multiple platforms

Creating and maintaining relationships with news media

Understanding how to tailor messages to particular audiences

After learning each new skill, fellows will have the chance to practice public speaking in a professional audio-visual studio. All fellows will be provided with recordings from the learning experience to review their progress.

May 13-15, 2024 at the Arizona State University Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Cost is $1,000 per participant; a limited number of scholarships are available upon inquiry.

Price includes four nights of lodging and breakfast, lunch and snack on all participant days.

The application for the 2024 Media Training and Communications Fellowship is now live!

The Empowering Leaders Series is made possible through the generous support of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. NCAI deeply appreciates San Manuel’s essential role in establishing and sustaining the endowment that supports the growth and empowerment of tribal leaders across Indian Country.

Empowering Leaders

Ending the Era of Harmful Native “Themed” Mascots

NCAI's Longstanding Opposition to Harmful Native "Themed" Sports Mascots

As the nation's oldest, largest, and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native advocacy organization, NCAI has long held a clear position against derogatory and harmful stereotypes of Native people—including sports mascots—in media and popular culture. Since NCAI launched its campaign to address stereotypes of Native people in popular culture, media, and sports in 1968, 

 in pursuit of ending the era of unsanctioned Native “themed” mascots.

NCAI's position is clear, longstanding, and deeply rooted in our 78 years as a leading voice for Indian Country — we advocate for and protect the civil rights, social justice, and racial equity of all Native people in all parts of American society.

NCAI's Work to Retire Unsanctioned Native "Themed" Mascots

NCAI is the oldest, largest, and most representative national organization sharing the unified voice of hundreds of Tribal Nations representing millions of Native people, and that voice has been consistent and clear for decades: unsanctioned sports mascots are symbols of disrespect that degrade, mock, and harm Native people, particularly Native youth. NCAI’s work to retire “Indian” or Native “themed” mascots, used interchangeably, is guided by our numerous resolutions pertaining to cultural appropriation and the harmful effects of these mascots. These resolutions—passed via consensus among NCAI membership—emphasize the importance of education by means of tribally-informed curriculum, such that stereotypical appropriation gives way to sanctioned representation. For decades, NCAI largely focused its efforts on ending Native “themed” mascots at the professional level, directing specific attention to the former mascot of the NFL’s Washington "Commanders". In 2020, NCAI formally expanded the initiative to include work at the K-12 level, which included the development of the 

. In 2021, NCAI further expanded the initiative to include work at the state level, developing a State Activity Tracker and engaging directly with state legislatures pursuing mascot bans through legislation.

NCAI’s Ending “Indian” Mascots initiative currently focuses on three primary levels: the K-12 school level, the state level, and the professional sports level.

To request NCAI’s help at the K-12 or state levels, please email


For additional resources, please visit the archived 'Proud To Be' Webpage at 

Proud To Be

The Tribal/Interior Budget Council (previously the Bureau of Indian Affairs/Tribal Budget Advisory Council) was established in 1999 to facilitate tribal government participation in the planning of the BIA budget and includes two tribal representatives from each of the 12 BIA regions.

The mission of the TIBC is: to provide an advisory government-to-government forum and process for Tribes and the Department to develop budgets that allow for the fulfillment of tribes' self-determination, self-governance, sovereignty, and treaty rights, as well as sufficient levels of funding to address the needs of Tribes and their tribal citizens.

Below is information about the upcoming TIBC meeting:


175 L St NE
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: (202) 972-9800

 to reserve discounted rooms at the TIBC rate--reservations must be made by February 17, 2024, to receive the discounted rate.


The March 18-22, 2024 TIBC meeting will be conducted in-person only and there will be no virtual attendance option. To register for the March 2024 TIBC meeting, please fill out this 

26 IAM 3 – Distribution of Resources Signed

The Indian Affairs Manual (IAM) for distribution of resources (26 IAM 3 – Distribution of Resources) has been finalized and signed. The IAM provides guidance to all Indian Affairs staff on fund distribution processes, including standard timelines for fund processing for direct appropriations to Indian Affairs for Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), and Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs (AS-IA) programs. The Manual establishes a consistent process throughout Indian Affairs for distributing funds to tribal nations. There is a link within the IAM that takes you to several attachments that show examples of various forms used in the distribution processes, flow charts of the overall processes, and templates for individual programs that describe the methodology and calculations used for all funding that is distributed to tribal nations. This effort was completed to ensure standard approaches at all levels within Indian Affairs that will lead to improved efficiency and timeliness in the distribution of funds to tribal nations. All offices and programs are expected to use the processes outlined and to strive towards meeting the timelines outlined within the IAM and templates.

The IAM can be found here: 

 once you get to this page, scroll down to Part 26 Budget and then scroll up to Chapter 3 (the PART title appears under the chapters). Once you have the manual open, you will see the link that takes you to the attachments within Section 1.1 Purpose. You can also find those attachments hosted on the OBPM webpage 

View the latest TIBC meeting materials here.

 of TIBC Representatives, Revised April 2023

TIBC Member Orientation Webinar: The Federal Budget Process & TIBC

 to reserve discounted rooms at the TIBC rate--reservations must be made by February 17, 2024, to receive the discounted rate.

Land, Water, and Natural Resources Subcommittee

Tribal Historic Preservation Officers Presentation

The Report of the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission

BIE Testing Mythologies and ESSA Flexibilities

Click on the date below to view materials from that meeting or scroll below to view all meetings in reverse chronological order:

Budget Update (Indian Affairs) - November 2023

Trust Funds Administration Update - November 2023

Language Asking for the move to Mandatory Funding

BLS American Indian and Labor Force Report

Alaska Inter-Tribal Federal Subsistence Collaborative Management Program

TIBC Executive Summary of Tribal Budget Submission

Meeting Materials


Created at the November 2015 TIBC meeting

Public Safety and Justice Workgroup Documents

TIBC Workgroups

Tribal Interior Budget Council


In response to disastrous court opinions and legislative attacks on the status of tribal governments, tribal leaders formed the Tribal Sovereignty Protection Initiative (TSPI) in September, 2001. Tribal leaders structured the TSPI as four separate components: the Legislative Committee, the Tribal Supreme Court Project, the Federal Judicial Selection Project, and the Education and Public Outreach Committee—all working together toward the common goal of protecting tribal sovereignty. Under this framework, tribal leaders, attorneys, and other experts have coordinated and developed an array of educational, legal, political, and grassroots strategies.

A key component of the TSPI on which NCAI continues to work daily is the Tribal Supreme Court Project. The Tribal Supreme Court Project—a collaboration between NCAI and the Native American Rights Fund— monitors litigation in which Native people have a significant stake and coordinates strategy among a network of over 250 tribal leaders, attorneys, and law professors. That strategy includes the preparation and submission, where appropriate, of amicus briefs on behalf of tribes or tribal organizations. Efforts like these have succeeded in slowing and, in some instances, reversing the detrimental impacts of federal court decisions.

Protection of tribal sovereignty in US courts is fundamental to the continued existence of tribes as distinct peoples and cultures. NCAI is dedicated to protecting tribal sovereignty and treaty rights through the courts.

For additional information on the Tribal Supreme Court Project, please visit 

Tribal Supreme Court Project

NCAI’s partnerships and initiatives blend together the knowledge of our members and our organization with the power of direct and on-the-ground efforts in tribal communities, coalition efforts, and national education and information campaigns.

As a unifying entity, NCAI has the ability to bring government, private, and public sector partners together to take on some of Indian Country’s greatest challenges

Project on the Judiciary

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