MDE Indigenous Education Initiative Tribal Consultation Guidebook - Manual / Resource - Page 6
Why Do We Consult with Tribes?
Tribal Sovereignty
Since time immemorial, Indigenous Peoples of what is now known as the United States have exercised their
inherent right to self-government as sovereign and independent tribal nations. With the arrival of Europeans
in North America and the resulting claims made on ancestral tribal lands, tribal nations and their citizens
have had to contend with multiple efforts to deny the existence of their rights, ignore their rights, or strip
these rights from them completely.
Tribal nations today are still working to reassert and protect their right to exercise their inherent sovereignty
as independent and self-governed nations. As sovereign nations, tribes maintain full authority over their
citizens even when those nations utilize services provided by federal, state, or local governments to meet the
needs of their citizenry.
For federal, state, or local educational agencies providing educational services to tribal citizens, those
agencies have a responsibility to the tribal nations to which the students they serve belong. It also means that
those educational agencies act as agents of the tribal governments and must allow tribal nations to have input
into the educational program provided to their citizenry at all stages: planning, implementation, monitoring,
and evaluation.
