Tribal Government Leadership Forum

The Tribal Government Leadership Forum provides experience-based lessons designed for all elected and appointed tribal leaders and key tribal government staff.

Presented from a uniquely Native worldview, this program brings together outstanding respected leaders who share their experience, stories and wisdom with new and current generations of tribal government leaders.

Participants gain a better understanding of the complex world of roles and responsibilities unique to leadership of tribal governments. The program also explores how to make traditional cultural values a more effective part of the decision-making process to determine the future of Tribal Nations in a contemporary world. During this forum, presenters and participants will share strategies that can enrich their own lives and the lives of their people and communities.

The Tribal Government Leadership Forum is offered in partnership with Arizona State University Office of Public Affairs.

History

In 2005, Ivan Makil, former President of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, proposed the development of a program that would provide newly elected tribal officials with an orientation to their new leadership and policy-making roles. He proposed a program that would provide knowledge, resources and the benefit of applied experience from former tribal leaders and a view of governance and policy development from the tribal perspective.

ASU has provided an orientation program to newly elected municipal officials since 1997 in partnership with the League of Arizona Cities and Towns. ASU saw the value of developing a program for tribes and worked together with the representatives of Indian Country to create the American Indian Newly Elected Officials (AINEO) Program.

With former President Makil as the program consultant and Jacob Moore, Tribal Relations Coordinator, the AINEO program, under the leadership of Sandra Ferniza in the ASU Office of Public Affairs, is responding to the oft voiced needs of Indian Country.

In 2011, AINEO was renamed the Tribal Government Leadership Forum (TGLF) to reflect the program's expanded mission and the broader audience, which includes all elected and appointed tribal leaders and key tribal government staff.