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- By Tribal Business News Staff
- Sovereignty
The Harvard Kennedy School’s Project on Indigenous Governance and Development has opened nominations for its 2025 Honoring Nations awards.
The awards go to programs that promote and sustain tribal self-governance, serving in turn to create sustainable economic development, improve tribal services, and manage vital resources, per a statement from the Harvard Project. The goal, writes a representative, is to “shift the focus from what does not work to what does.”
“At the heart of Honoring Nations is the principle that Tribes themselves hold the key to positive social, political, cultural, and economic prosperity—and that self-governance plays a crucial role in building and sustaining strong, healthy Indian Nations,” the Harvard Project’s statement reads. Since Honoring Nations began in 1999, the Harvard Kennedy School has issued 142 awards across 100 Native tribes.
Programs eligible for nomination include cultural affairs, economic and community development, education, environment and natural resources, government performance, health and social services, intergovernmental relations, and justice. Programs must meet several criteria:
- It must be administered under the authority of a federally-recognized American Indian nation or Alaska Native community (or an office, division, or agency thereof) that played a formative role in designing and implementing the program.
- The submission must come from the tribal government office, division, or agency responsible for oversight and/or administration of the program.
- The program must have been in operation for at least 12 months prior to the application deadline.
Awarded programs will receive grant funding for sharing their success stories: $2,000 for honors and $5,000 for high honors. Additionally, awarded programs may be featured in case profiles, national-building curricula, and Smithsonian Institution exhibits, providing further recognition and opportunities to share their successful initiatives.
The application is available online here. More information can be found at the Project on Indigenous Governance and Development website.
