Dinner will be provided and there will free raffle at closing. Please RSVP here, so that we know how much food to have on hand!

This tribal recognition informational session is a follow-up to the May 2019 topic: Land Acknowledgement. This topic will cover federal recognition of tribes, tribal membership, and identity. Federal recognition is important for several reasons. First, when tribes are extended federal recognition, they can establish tribal governments that possess a measure of sovereignty. Non-recognized tribes can form tribal organizations but lack sovereign powers. Second, federally recognized tribes can have their reservation lands placed in trust. This means that their land is protected by the federal government from being purchased or taken by non-Indians. What is the process tribes need to take to become federally recognized? How many tribes are currently in the process of being recognized? Once recognition by the federal government is established, what is the process in becoming a member?

Our guest speakers:

Se-ah-dom Edmo, Shoshone-Bannock, Nez Perce & Yakama, is the Executive Director at MRG Foundation. Se-ah-dom is experienced in community organizing and racial and social justice work across the region. She is a published author: American Indian Identity: Citizenship, Membership, and Blood (Praeger, 2016) engaged scholar and program designer. Se-ah-dom has served as the Sovereignty Program Director at the Western States Center since 2016, worked for nine years at Lewis & Clark College as the Coordinator for the Indignous Ways of Knowing Prgram. Se-ah-dom was appointed to Oregon’s Joint Task Force on Addressing Racial Disparities in Home Ownership.

Robert Miller, citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahome, is a professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University and the faculty director of the Rosette LLP American Indian Economic Development Program. he was appointed in 2016 to the Navajo Nation Council of Economic Advisors. Bob graduated from Lewis & Clark Law School and clerked for Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Bob is the Interim Chief Justice for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe Court of Appeals and an appellate judge for the Court of Appeals of the Grand Ronde Tribe and the Northwest Inter-Tribal Court System. He has published four books: Creating Private Sector Economies in Native America: Sustainable Development through Entrepreneurship (Cambridge University Press, 2019); Reservation “Capitalism:” Economic Development in Indian Country (Praeger Publishers, 2012); Discovering Indigenous Lands: The Doctrine of Discovery in the English colonies (Oxford University Press, 2010) and Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark and Manifest Destiny (Praeger Publishers, 2006).

Portland Youth and Elders Council is a grassroots advocacy group housed at NAYA Family Center, and is open to everyone interested in building a strong civic connection with the local Native American community. Our mission is to strengthen the quality of life for the Portland American Indian and Alaska Native Community by encouraging local leadership, community development, and the practice of culture, values, and traditions.