The Native American Rights Fund holds governments accountable. We fight to protect Native American rights, resources, and lifeways through litigation, legal advocacy, and legal expertise
Native Stewardship Guidebook
Description: A practical legal and ethical guidebook produced by Land Justice Futures and the Native American Rights Fund, helping religious communities and private landowners understand their obligations under NAGPRA (the federal law governing the protection and return of Native American human remains and cultural items). It walks through five common situations landowners may face, from possessing cultural objects to stewarding burial sites and navigating boarding school graves, offering concrete best practices for each.
Use Case: A practical compliance and education tool for any organization navigating legal obligations tied to land, cultural heritage, or community stewardship, demonstrating how to break down complex federal law into scenario-based guidance that meets readers in their specific situation.
Takeaways:
Organizing guidance around five common real-world scenarios, rather than abstract legal language, gives readers an immediate entry point, making it easy to locate their specific situation and understand exactly what is expected of them.
Embedding FAQs directly into the document anticipates resistance and confusion before it arises, neutralizing the most common reasons landowners delay or avoid compliance with NAGPRA.
Description: A comprehensive policy manual guiding Chief State School Officers and State Education Agencies through tribal sovereignty, federal education programs, and the role of Tribal Education Departments, equipping state leaders to engage tribal governments on a true government-to-government basis.
Use Case: A reference tool for advocates and organizations working to hold state education institutions accountable to their legal obligations toward tribal governments, demonstrating how formal policy language can be translated into concrete institutional practice and meaningful government-to-government engagement.
Takeaways: Including a model protocol as an appendix transforms the manual from informational to operational, giving agencies a ready-made tool to act on what they've learned rather than having to build a process from scratch.
Cultural Accommodation Guide
Description: A one-page advocacy guide produced by the Native American Rights Fund, helping Native American students and families navigate school policies around wearing eagle feathers at graduation ceremonies. It combines seven practical action steps with legal context, explaining both how to make a request and why schools are obligated to honor it under constitutional and state law protections.
Use Case: A field-ready tool for advocates and legal organizations supporting underrepresented students in asserting religious and cultural rights within public school systems. Provides a replicable model for any advocacy group that needs to equip their community with both the legal grounding and concrete steps to challenge institutional resistance without legal representation.
Takeaways: Bold, action-oriented headings like "Review," "Request," and "Advocate" ensure that even a reader skimming under pressure walks away knowing exactly what to do next, making the guide functional in high-stakes moments where there is no time to read every word.
Education Change Toolkit
Collective Complaint Submission
Description: A collective complaint letter signed by over thirty tribal leaders across Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, urgently calling on President Biden to direct the United States to file an amicus brief in support of the Bad River Band's fight against Enbridge Energy.
Use Case: A model for coalitions needing to escalate a legal or policy crisis to the highest level of government through unified, formal complaint. Demonstrates how multiple sovereign or institutional voices can be coordinated into a single document that combines legal argument and political pressure without losing the weight of any individual signatory.
Takeaways:
Opening with the court's unanswered request to the federal government reframes the letter's central argument before the reader encounters any background, establishing government silence as the primary failure being challenged rather than any single corporate actor's conduct alone.
Framing the opposing party's interpretation as a threat extending far beyond the primary affected group strategically broadens the coalition of stakeholders, making it politically costly for decision-makers to remain silent or treat the issue as narrow or isolated. (In this case, framing Enbridge and Canada's interpretation of the Transit Treaty as a threat to every state, federal agency, and private landowner along the Canadian border, not just tribal nations.)