Honoring Nations
In 2003, the CTUIR Cultural Resources Protection Program received HONORS at the 2003 Honoring Nations Ceremony in Albuquerque, New Mexico for their work in enforcing cultural resource management laws, influencing public policy, and building support for tribal management of critical resources.

Honoring Contributions in the Governance of American Indian Nations. Celebrating Excellence in Tribal Governance

Since contact, the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla have lost cultural objects and sacred sites to looting, development, and archaeological excavations.  Over the years these three bands—brought together in 1855 and united into a single tribal government in 1949 as the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation—mourned the loss of irreplaceable cultural artifacts.  Sadly, under federal management, these losses continued well into the late twentieth century.  Convinced that they could do better, the Tribes began the development of their own Cultural Resources Protection Program in the late 1980s.  Today, the Program is a recognized leader in enforcing cultural resource management laws, influencing public policy, and building support for tribal management of critical resources.

Honoring Contributions in the Governance of American Indian Nations (popularly known as Honoring Nations) is a national awards program that identifies, celebrates, and shares outstanding examples of tribal governance.  Administered by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the program was launched in 1998 with the support of the Ford Foundation, which sponsors similar governmental best practices programs around the globe.  Honoring Nations spotlights and awards tribal government programs and initiatives that are especially effective in addressing critical concerns and challenges facing the more than 560 Indian nations and their citizens.  Honorees serve as sources of knowledge and inspiration throughout Indian Country and beyond.

(Source quoted from:  Honoring Nations 2003 Celebrating Excellence in Tribal Government.  The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University)

For more information about Honoring Nations visit: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/hpaied/.