Description
Recommendation: That the Foundation award a special grant of $25,000 to Harvard University for a special project to support a convening of scholars and Native leaders.
In May, the Project on American Indian Economic Development (HPAIED) at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government will convene scores of Native leaders and scholars to reflect on the future of efforts to strengthen Native communities. Since 1986, the Harvard Project has pioneered research that shows how tribes can improve their economic, cultural, and political well-being. HPAIED has not only conducted research but has tested it by working closely with tribes to apply the lessons suggested by it.
Many tribes have made enormous strides with the help of the Harvard Project and of its partner, the University of Arizona’s Native Nations Institute. HPAIED has shone a light on these successes with its Honoring Nations program, which recognizes innovative initiatives throughout Indian Country in such diverse areas as public health, land and water management, education, and cultural preservation.
The May event will include several components, including: a day-long convening of some 75 elected tribal chief executives, scholars, and other practitioners from Indian communities; a scholarly conference at which papers for a volume of essays will be presented and critiqued; a gathering of “alumni” of the Harvard Project—participants in its work over the last 30 years—who are a veritable “who’s who” of Indian political, academic, business, and cultural leaders.
The Harvard Project will record much of the conference for dissemination through its on-line outlets. It will also integrate the learning that emerges during the three-day event into the curricula of the Harvard Project and the Native Nations Institute. Finally, a peer-reviewed volume will be published—most likely by University of Arizona Press in 2019.
The Luce Foundation has been developing a new fellowship program for Native intellectual leaders. HPAIED faculty and staff have already been helpful in this effort, connecting us to important figures in Indian Country and inviting us to participate in a week-long course on the state of Native America at Harvard.
The symposium will also be of value to the fellowship program, bringing together leaders, who can help us to identify candidates for the fellowship—or themselves become candidates! And even if the fellowship program does not move forward, this modest grant in support of the symposium will help to underwrite a significant contribution to American Indian leadership and community development.
The total cost of the three-day event is $300,000, of which the Luce Foundation would contribute less than 10%. The Foundation’s grant would support the costs of the symposium generally, which include travel, honoraria, meals, meeting expenses, administration, etc. HPAIED is seeking assistance especially to subsidize the costs of participation by Indian leaders who could not otherwise afford to attend. The Harvard Project has secured funding from a variety of sources, including several tribes, the Endeavor Foundation, and the Kennedy School itself; several other requests are pending, including to the Bush Foundation and Goldman Sachs.
The Foundation has made more than 60 grants to Harvard University since 1968, totaling more than $10 million. However, it has made only one grant to Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, which hosts the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.
For these reasons, I am pleased to recommend a special grant of $25,000 to Harvard University for a special project to support a convening of scholars and Native leaders.
