Page 28 - 2023 February Report

February Report 2023
Arizona and New Mexico Trip Report (2)
Launched in September 2020, the Office of Native American Advancement & Tribal Engagement’s (NAATE) goal is to increase Native American awareness and the health and well-being of Native American students, faculty, staff, and Tribal Nations. An important priority for NAATE includes identifying and promoting tribal interests and building programs and research capacity in ways that honor and respect tribal sovereignty and the needs of Native nations and tribal communities in Arizona and beyond. The University of Arizona has tremendous resources to use in support of these institutional priorities and to support the mission of NAATE.
I’ve summarized briefly the other meetings we had. Levi sent additional documents and PowerPoints for each of the folks with whom we met. I’m happy to share any additional information.
On Tuesday evening, Bobby and I had dinner with Levi and his staff, Christina Gargus, Program Manager and Jacquelyn Valenzuela, Executive Assistant who both have been so supportive of our visit. Tina and Jacquelyn served as tour leaders and cart drivers for our visit.
Eller College of Management – We met with many top staff including the Dean and Senior Associate Dean, Development Director and a professor – and two Native students, one was an undergraduate and one in graduate school. Their enrollment is about 8600 and a little less than 2.5% are Native. They seem to have a high percentage of Native MBA students – about 16%. They also have an AIBL chapter.
Levi Esquerra, Sherry Salway Black and Bobby Krause
School of Indigenous Governance and Development – This school is in the planning stages. It is based on the great work being done at U of AZ in Indigenous Governance and Economic Development. This work is linked to the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development (HPAIED). The founders of the HPAIED, Joseph Kalt and Steve Cornell, also started the work at U of AZ that resulted in the 2001 founding of Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management and Policy (NNI). This effort is also linked to the School of Law, and we had one of their prominent professors, Rob Williams, do a presentation – Rob is Lumbee from North Carolina. They discussed a particular program, January In Tucson (JIT), which brings tribal leaders from all over the country and Indigenous leaders from around the world for a three-week intensive program on governance and how to support economic development.
Native FORGE
Native Americans make up 4.3 percent of Arizona’s population and less than 1 percent of the state’s business owners. The Native FORGE program is designed to help tribes leverage economic development to bridge disparities in Indian Country by lessening reliance on the federal government’s “one-size-fits-all approach.”
This is the initiative that Levi submitted as an LOI. Even though this effort fits into our funding areas, we are not going to request an application at this time. Our visit was to learn more about what is happening at the U of AZ as a view to possible future funding. Levi will be attending the JSF March meeting via Zoom to share more about their initiatives.
CATalyst – this is a “maker space” or a location that focuses on creating things – this is the type of space that may be in the FORGE spaces. It had many types of machines and technology to assist in creative activities such as metal work, sewing, film, printing, etc. For example, the Native FORGE locations would have the “maker space” for potential business opportunities.
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