UA News

The UA and the Morris K. Udall Foundation recently signed a cooperative agreement to create a new institute at the University of Arizona that will provide educational and policy resources to American Indian and other indigenous nations.

UA President Peter Likins and Terrence L. Bracy, chairman of the Morris K. Udall Foundation, signed the agreement to allow the UA Foundation to provide $1 million this year for the proposed Native Nations Institute Founded by the Morris K. Udall Foundation and the University of Arizona. The new institute will be part of the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at the UA. Planning for the institute has been under way for the last year through a grant to the UA from the Ford Foundation.

Also present at the signing were Joan Timeche, assistant director of Native Nations Institutes, and Mary Jo Fox, ambassador to the Indian Nations for the UA and associate to the president for American Indian affairs.

Legislation signed in January by then President Bill Clinton authorized an appropriation of $12.3 million over the next five years to the Morris K. Udall Foundation for a major new initiative in support of self-governance by American Indian nations.

The Morris K. Udall Foundation is the federal agency founded to continue the public service legacy of the late Morris K. Udall, a longtime Arizona member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

"Indian nations in the United States increasingly are taking control of their own affairs," said Manley Begay, a Navajo who is director-designate of the proposed Native Nations Institute. "As they do so, they face significant educational and policy challenges. This institute is an effort to support Indian self-governance and economic development through leadership and management training, rigorous policy analysis and basic research, all designed to support Indian nations in meeting their own objectives."

Three organizations have joined together in this new initiative. Much of the institute's funding comes from the Morris K. Udall Foundation, which also has been instrumental in establishing the institute at the University of Arizona.

"The trustees of the Morris K. Udall Foundation had been listening to a conversation among Native Americans about what the foundation could do in regard to Indian education," said Bracy. "The establishment of the Native Nations Institute at the University of Arizona allows us to contribute directly to the strengthening of Indian leadership. We're proud to be part of this effort to help Native nations prepare for the 21st century."

Likins, speaking as president of the University of Arizona and a trustee of the Udall Foundation, expressed his appreciation to "both Congress and the University faculty for enabling this unprecedented collaboration to come together in support of the Native Nations Institute."

The University will back the new institute with significant intellectual and financial resources. In addition to its home at the Udall Center, faculty from the James E. Rogers College of Law, the Eller College of Business and Public Administration and the American Indian Studies Program, among other units, all will contribute to institute programs, while Likins has made the institute a priority in the University's fund-raising efforts.

The institute's work will rely heavily on research carried out over the last dozen years by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at Harvard University, the most comprehensive effort yet undertaken to examine development issues in Indian Country.

"This is a large part of what will make the Native Nations Institute unique," said Begay. "There are other leadership training programs in Indian Country, but this is the only one that is grounded in systematic research on indigenous self-governance and economic development."

Bracy was quick to thank the Arizona Congressional delegation and other key legislators for their assistance in obtaining the new funding for the institute. "Many hands have shaped this institute, but none more important than those of Senator John McCain. He treats these issues with the same depth and commitment as did Mo Udall," Bracy said.
"In addition to Senator McCain," said Bracy, "this simply would not have happened had it not been for the invaluable help of Congressmen Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., and Ed Pastor, D-Ariz.," he said. Bracy also extended a special thanks to Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who provided critical support for the legislation.