What does it look like when Tribal Nations don’t just participate in workforce systems, but lead them? On April 28, Workforce Matters hosted a conversation through the Workforce Grantmaking in Native Nations and Communities Initiative featuring two compelling examples from Indian Country where collective governance, data sovereignty, and strategic philanthropy are reshaping what workforce development can be.
Joining us were:
- Bernadette Panteah, Co-Chair, Native Workforce Partners (NWP)
- Dr. Christine Meyer, Director of Education, Coeur d’Alène Tribe
- Megan Elkins, Program Officer, W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Below are some key takeaways.
Collective Governance as a Workforce Strategy
Native Workforce Partners (NWP) is a collaborative group of 15 Native-serving workforce programs across New Mexico, including Pueblo Laguna, Acoma, the Navajo Nation, Mescalero Apache, Jicarilla Apache, and others. Together, they have built a governance model where all 15 member organizations share strategic leadership and decision-making authority through a consensus-driven process.
Bernadette Panteah described how NWP emerged from a recognition that individual Tribal programs were being asked to operate within systems that were not designed for them and did not honor Tribal sovereignty. The group recognized that the solution was not to work harder within those existing systems, but rather to organize collectively and change the dynamic of how states interface with Tribes and Native serving entities.
The group developed a plan to center a Native vision and lead the conversation. As NWP engaged as a unified voice grounded in data and community priorities,Tribal programs gained traction with the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions.. The coalition recently secured access to the state’s co-enrollment database, a concrete gain that maximizes resources for participants across programs.
Panteah noted that the coalition operates on a clear principle: engagement with the state is government-to-government, not subordinate programs seeking accommodation. A formal Memorandum of Agreement with the state’s Department of Workforce Solutions is a priority, not as a courtesy, but as legal recognition that Tribal programs operate under their own authority and deserve direct consultation on statewide policy. NWP’s model has earned national recognition and was prominently featured in the National Congress of American Indians Workforce Toolkit 2.0 as a replicable model for other states.
The Education Pipeline as an Expression of Sovereignty
Dr. Christine Meyer has served as Director of Education for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe since 2006. In 2007, she began drafting a one-page document at a conference in Baltimore representing a vision for an education pipeline for the Tribe. Over two decades, this has evolved into a comprehensive, Tribally-governed education pipeline spanning early childhood through graduate school and career.
The pipeline is not a compliance exercise, as Dr. Meyer described, but rather it is an expression of the Tribe’s inherent sovereignty over education and its right to self-determination. Rather than building programs to fit outside funding requirements, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe designed a system rooted in five core values, including membership, stewardship, guardianship, scholarship, and spirituality, and seeks funds only when they align with what the pipeline needs.
The results speak to the model’s staying power. Over 75 Coeur d’Alene Tribal members are currently pursuing four-year degrees, with the Tribe investing approximately one million dollars annually to support 50 students in post-secondary education.
The pipeline is sustained through braided funding from federal sources (including Head Start, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Office of Indian Education grants), the Tribe’s own substantial investment, and partnerships with the Schmidt Family Foundation and Vadon Foundation. Recent federal funding cuts, including the loss of a $1.2 million National Science Foundation grant, have created serious pressure on programming and staffing, underscoring how vulnerable even well-designed systems remain when federal policy shifts.
Data as a Tool for Equity and Self-Determination
A recurring theme across both presentations was the transformative power of data, as well as the importance of who controls it.
Dr. Meyer described a period when her team collected comprehensive data on every high school student: remedial courses needed, credits behind, timeline to graduation. Sharing this data quarterly with the school administration put the Tribe at the table as an equal partner, where the school district could not deny what the numbers presented. Student outcomes improved as a result.
She noted that similar data work is now underway in early childhood, connecting literacy data from Tribal programs with K-3 outcomes in public schools. The goal is the same: to see clearly what is happening with Tribal youth at every stage, and to have the evidence to advocate for change.
Bernadette Panteah echoed this. For NWP, building data practices and a unified voice were inseparable. Philanthropy helped make that possible, enabling the coalition to move beyond survival mode and toward sustained systems change.
Both speakers made clear that data sovereignty, who owns data, how it is used, and for whose benefit, must be defined by Tribal Nations themselves. Funders who require data collection have a responsibility to fund the capacity that collection requires.
How Philanthropy Can Follow Tribal Leadership
Megan Elkins of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation spoke to what it means for philanthropy to genuinely follow, rather than lead, in partnership with Native-led organizations.
The foundation’s investment in NWP helped fund the strategic planning and coalition infrastructure that federal WIOA dollars simply couldn’t support. Elkins described the foundation’s approach as investing in capacity, governance, and leadership cultivation, the less visible work that makes everything else possible. Rather than defining budgets at the outset, the foundation allows grantees to identify needs and apply funding as the work develops.
Three takeaways for funders stood out:
1. Fund the infrastructure, not just the programs.
Federal and state funding rarely reaches governance, coordination, and leadership development. That is precisely where philanthropy can fill a gap no one else will. Elkins emphasized the importance of giving grantees room for strategic planning, succession planning across generations, and the time to scale what works.
2. Let grantees define success.
Rather than imposing quantitative metrics, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation reads proposals to understand each grantee’s vision, then identifies two to three outcomes, qualitative or quantitative, that reflect what success looks like for the grantee. Elkins noted that aspirational goals should never be held against organizations when funding disappears overnight. When metrics are grantee-defined, the return on investment runs much deeper.
3. Write Tribal Nations into your institutional strategy.
Native Nations should be included as sovereign nations in institutional strategic plans, not as a subset of DEI or racial equity work. Explicit inclusion creates institutional accountability that outlasts individual program officers and protects funding continuity through leadership changes or political shifts. The NSF grant loss described by Dr. Meyer, a research project defunded as DEI despite the Tribe being the only listed partner, illustrates exactly why that protection matters.
Looking Ahead
The Workforce Grantmaking in Native Nations and Communities Initiative has made over $720,000 in grants directly to Native-led organizations over the past two years. A second wave of grants is now underway, focused on coalition funding and cross-community infrastructure.
The next webinar in this series will be held June 30, 3:30-4:30 pm EDT and will focus on the NCAI Workforce Toolkit 2.0 with practitioners from across Indian Country sharing workforce-led initiatives.
You can register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/VuBug_yvTaacjFoyfz_smw
View the April 28 recording and download webinar slides from Workforce Matters’ video library
