The collection consists of documents from LaDonna Harris' personal life as an activist and from AIO's four decades of operation as a non-profit organization involved in advocacy and development projects related to the needs and rights of Native Americans. The contents of this collection range from Ms. Harris' early years as an activist and wife of U.S. Senator Fred Harris in the 1960s, to her founding of AIO in 1970, and running AIO through the 1990s, to AIO's continued operation under the direction of her daughter, Laura Harris, in the early 2000s. The collection documents AIO's principal activities, including organizing conferences, seminars, workshops, and other programs for Native American tribes and governmental agencies. Major initiatives include: partnerships for the Protection of Tribal Environments; Governance project; Family Systems project; Tribal Issues Management System; Toward an Understanding of Rural Economies; IndianNet; and the Ambassadors Program. Additionally, AIO was instrumental in the formation of the Council of Energy Resource Tribes, American Indian Telecommunications Consortium, Tribal Association of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. The collection contains correspondence, proposals, seminar materials, and publications related to these and other AIO projects. The collection also features material from governments (federal, state, municipal, and tribal) and civil society organizations with which AIO worked. As such, the collection offers a record of the activist groups and governmental agencies that operated in the same milieu as AIO.
Visit the LaDonna Harris Papers and Americans for Indian Opportunity Records finding aid for more information on the physical collection these documents came from.
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Water I (in American Indian Country)
Native American Tribal Councils
This file contains copies of ordinances and resolutions to regulate water use in Native American tribes. Booklets of the Pauma Reservation ordinance to regulate water use on the reservation along with tribal codes as well as resolution documents for water use in the Navajo Nation and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville and Umatilla Reservations are included here.
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What About Irrigation?
Diana Lawrence and Maggie Gover
This a copy of American for Indian Opportunity Red Paper # 17 entitled “What about Irrigation” addressed to Tribal Decision Makers. This paper was prepared in response to expressed interest by tribal councils in agriculture as economic development. Diana Lawrence, research assistant and Maggie Grover, program director for AIO prepared this paper.
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What Are the Barriers to the Effective Participation of Tribal Governments in the U.S. Federal System?
LaDonna Harris
These are copies of communications and correspondence related to the AIO’s symposium on Capitol Hill to address the question: What are the barriers to the effective participation of tribal governments in the U.S. federal system? This symposium was scheduled for June 29, 1987. Other communications concerning ‘Sovereign dependency: a political double bind symposium and a proposal entitled ‘The great tree of peace: Iroquois contributions to the U.S. constitutions are included in this correspondence.
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What is INDIANnet? Information Systems
INDIANnet
This file contains a set of draft images along with a brief definition and goals of INDIANnet.
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White House Conference on Balanced National Growth and Economic Development
LaDonna Harris
This is a copy of LaDonna Harris’ remarks on issues of economic development, growth, and government in 278 Native American tribes at The White House Conference on Balanced National Growth and economic development. By addressing common issues in tribal governmental processes, she suggests that improved intergovernmental relations between tribal and state governments would improve the possibilities for a balanced national growth.
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Women in Tribal Government
Pamela Z. Harris
This file contains Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO)’s correspondence on a proposed study about the role of Native American Women in Tribal Government by Pamela Zoe Harris.
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Wounded Knee Legal Committee
Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee
This file contains a collection of communications and copies of the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee Newsletters. Relevant topics include a letter to President Carter requesting to stop police brutality against Native American people in South Dakota, paper clippings and newsletter articles concern A.G. William Janklow, Dennis Banks’ extradition, St. Paul Trial Report, Sioux Falls Report, South Dakota’s Dual Justice Prevails, Wounded knee trials continue to try the government, Irrational Custer prosecutions continues in Sioux Falls, Government ‘Fabrication’ against the leaders, The military defense in Lincoln, and Victories.
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You Don’t Have to Be Poor to Be Indian
Maggie Gover
This file contains copies of loose chapters of Maggie Gover’s book “You don’t have to be poor to be Indian”. In the introduction, the author states that this document is not intended to be a how-to-do-it manual for economic development. It is intended to be a discussion of problems that tribal decision-makers must deal with, to supply information that may be useful in making future decisions, and hopefully, to suggest some options or new ideas for Indian control of Indian resource development.
