b'COVER STORYAFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde with Joe Kalt.NATION BUILDING Q & A w i t h J o e K a l t o f t h e H a r v a r d P r o j e c tJ oe Kalt is a professor withconstructing and reconstructing the capacitythat we find to the successful rebuilding Harvard University who has beenof a community to make its own decisions.of the fabric of a nations economy, its looking for many years at theFundamentally, it boils down to having theinstitutions and its social fabric is the issues of Nation Building andcommunity in charge of its own future andability to govern itself well. We have economic development in Native Americanits own affairs. This does two critical things.to recognize that we are in an era in and First Nation communities. Along withFirst, effective self-governance means thatwhich the colonial powersthe federal Professor Stephen Cornell, Professor Kaltthe key decision makers who determinegovernment of Canada, the federal started the Harvard Project on Americanthe fate of the community are from thegovernment of the United Stateshave Indian Economic Development (thecommunity and accountable to the community.retreated somewhat. This has created Harvard Project) in 1987. It was a randomIts much easier to hold them accountablemore spacenot perfect space, but more knock on the door by the Crow Tribe ofthan if they are off in Ottawa or somespacefor tribal communities, native Montana, who wanted help negotiatingother governments capital. Second, self- communities, to run themselves. Like a contract with a coal mine, that got thegovernance greatly increases the likelihoodother nations in that kind of situation, whole thing started. that the decision making and policiesyou can fight mightily to claim your that affect the community will matchinherent right to self-governance, and What is your definition of the communitys shared values, cultureyou can re-establish that right and Nation Building? and priorities. then you can fall flat on your face if you What we fundamentally mean is this:cant effectively exercise the right to Constructing and reconstructing theWhat are the top factors in self-govern. So, the drive and desire for capacity of a community, in this caseNation Building according to the self-governance are the first keys to nation Native communities, to fully governHarvard Project? rebuilding, but these have to be backed up themselves according to their own valuesFrom Poland to Potawatomi, fromby the ability to self-govern. By that we and own methods. This applies anywhere Albania to Akwesasne, the first keymean, rebuilding the institutions of self-70 The Circle Winter Issue 1 2019'