Self-Governance Communication and Education Tribal Consortium

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Strong Indian Country partnerships bring expanded offerings for the 2025 Wiring the Rez Conference
The Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University’s Indian Legal Program (ILP), American Indian Policy Institute (AIPI) and the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)’s Center for Tribal Digital Sovereignty (CTDS) announced a new partnership in growing ILP’s long-standing conference — Wiring the Rez.
Wiring the Rez is excited to announce extended partnerships for the 2025 conference. Thanks to these new partners – the NCAI and the Self-Governance Communication and Education Tribal Consortium (SGCETC) – they are able to expand the topics and extend the conference to a full two-day format. NCAI is a nonprofit organization advocating for a promising future for Indian Country by working to gain consensus on constructive visions. SGCETC is a nonprofit consortium of Tribal Nations dedicated to advancing Tribal sovereignty and enhancing Self-Governance authority for all Tribal Nations through advocacy, education and strategic partnerships.
This year, Wiring the Rez will include an additional topical focus, expanding the event to two full days. The new topic will focus on Tribal digital sovereignty, where speakers will discuss the resources and support needed to establish a digital sovereignty plan and navigate the complexities of digital sovereignty. The event will also continue to focus on e-commerce, gaming, Tribal lending and self-governance – helping Tribal Nations, Tribal entrepreneurs and business providers gain a deeper understanding of the Tribal e-commerce environment.
“ASU is a leader in Innovation and technology, and ASU Law leads the way in smart partnerships for positive impact across Indian Country. When ASU partners with Tribes and National organizations, we work to strengthen Tribal sovereignty by advancing best practices and information sharing. Dr. Traci Morris and the new Center for Tribal Digital Sovereignty will be at the center of this movement. The American Indian Policy Institute and NCAI are natural partners for this conference,” said Stacy Leeds, Willard H. Pedrick Dean, Regents and Foundation Professor of Law at ASU Law.
Business development in Indian Country has long been a significant challenge. However, recent improvements in broadband coverage, Tribal fintech and legal understandings offer greater opportunities for business development on Tribal land.
Confirmed speakers include keynote speaker Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes; Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Roe Lewis; NCAI Executive Director Larry Wright Jr.; Self-Governance Communication & Education Tribal Consortium Executive Director Jay Spaan; Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Director of Self-Governance and Health Policy Melanie Fourkiller; Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Chief Operations Officer Linda Austin; San Diego State University Assistant Professor Brandon Mastromartino; Pechanga General Counsel Steve Bodmer; Greenburg Traurig Attorney Jennifer Weddle; Jenner Block Attorney Charles Galbraith; LCO Financial Services Chief Administrative Officer Trina Starr; Curador Labs President Corey Owens; Executive Director Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative Carly Griffith Hotvedt; Southern California Tribal Chairman’s Association Director of Technology Matthew Rantanen; and NCAI General Counsel and Chief of Staff Geoffrey Blackwell.
More information at: law.asu.edu/wiringtherez

SGCETC's award-winning docuseries, For Our People: Stories of Tribal Self-Governance & Sovereignty, will be available to watch on FNX's streaming app (FNX TV) starting this Sunday.

FNX | First Nations Experience is the first and only national broadcast television network in the United States exclusively devoted to Native American and World Indigenous content. Through Native-produced and themed documentaries, dramatic series, nature, cooking, gardening, children's and arts programming, FNX strives to accurately illustrate the lives and cultures of Native people around the world.

Download FNX TV Now! Available FREE on Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Fire Stick, Samsung/Vizio/LG/Apple/Android/Fire TV, and on the web.

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https://www.tribalselfgov.org/2025conference/

SGCETC thanks Citizen Potawatomi Nation for trusting us to share their story and for raising awareness of our docuseries, For Our People!

Source: https://www.potawatomi.org/blog/2024/09/26/docuseries-wins-telly-for-episode-highlighting-cpns-eagle-aviary/

Docuseries wins Telly for episode highlighting CPN’s Eagle Aviary

September 26, 2024

Out of more than 13,000 entries, a video highlighting Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s Eagle Aviary was honored this year with a People’s Telly Gold award.
Protecting the Messengers — Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s Eagle Aviary is part of a For Our People docuseries produced by Self-Governance Communication & Education Tribal Consortium (SGCETC).
“We’re a non-profit organization that works with tribal nations all across the country to enhance and advocate for tribal self-governance and sovereignty,” SGCETC Executive Director Jay Spaan said. “One of the things we are tasked with, part of our mission, is educating people about what tribal governments do.”
The docuseries, he said, is part of how they accomplish that. SGCETC goes around the United States and highlights different tribal nations and how they are serving their communities. They try to film three to four episodes each year, and to date, they’ve released about 23 in total.
For the segment on CPN, Spaan said he lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and had heard about the Aviary, as well as working closely with CPN Self Governance Director Kasie Nichols. Spaan reached out to Nichols to ask about doing a video segment on the aviary, and Chairman John “Rocky” Barrett agreed to let them tell the story.
“I was really thrilled about the opportunity to show off our Self Governance (office),” CPN Aviary Manager Jennifer Randell, who is featured in the Protecting the Messengers episode, said. “They are our cheerleaders. They helped get the grant for the Aviary, so to be able to show that off was important to us.”
Creating the episode
Once SGCETC identifies a story, Spaan said, they partner with Pursuit Films, an all Native-owned and operated film production company based in Tulsa.
“I think that is critical,” Spaan said of choosing a Native-owned company to partner with. “They really understand Native culture, understand working with tribal governments, and they honor and respect that tribes are the storytellers and should be the ones telling that story and not someone from the outside.”
SGCETC and Pursuit Films start with a storyboard and a series of pre-interviews to make sure they understand the story.
“We’re always looking for that emotional connection and also making sure that it’s a great success story for Indian Country,” he said.
His team did multiple Zoom meetings with Randell, Aviary Assistant Bree Dunham, Nichols, Chairman Barrett and Vice-Chairman Linda Capps.
Those interviews are especially important, Spaan said, because they help determine the direction of the films.
“We really see ourselves more as the vehicle that allows tribes to tell their own stories. We’re reaching out to tribes and saying, ‘What do you want to highlight?’” Spaan said. “We’re just there to capture that story. We don’t script anything. That is all directly from the tribe, telling their own story.”
Once they had done the pre-interviews, they started the planning process and then brought in a five-person film crew to the Aviary for two and a half days of filming.
“I don’t know how they did all of that video that they did for two days and managed to edit it down. I would still be editing it,” Dunham said. “They’re great storytellers.”
After the episodes are filmed, SGCETC premiers them at an annual conference where those involved in the story are invited on stage to talk about their experience with filming and why they wanted to tell the story. This year, the conference took place in April in Phoenix, Arizona, and Dunham and Randell were present for the Q&A at the premiere.

Telly Awards
“We have so many great episodes,” Spaan said. “The dedication and commitment of Jennifer and Bree to the project, and how the Tribe really supported that vision. It’s a unique story.”
Because of that, SGCETC decided to select the video as one of their entries for a Telly Award.
The Telly Awards receive more than 13,000 entries from around the world, and Spaan said they narrow those entries down to a smaller number and allow people to vote for the winners.
Once voting was complete, Protecting the Messengers received a 2024 People’s Telly Gold award. SGCETC was also honored with a Silver Telly for the other piece they entered, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe — Healing Our Community, about a healing center opened by Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe in Washington state. In both cases, Spaan said they wanted to show the innovation of tribes and how they serve their communities.
Video as outreach
With part of SGCETC’s mission being to educate, they also hope For Our People serves that purpose, and episodes are available to the public. SGCETC posts all episodes on YouTube, with plans to add them to their website in the future. They’ve also had episodes shown by agencies to staff members and to universities as a part of curriculum about tribal governance.
Winning a Telly, he said, will help with that.
“It gets us a lot more attention, so hopefully people will see it. That’s our goal, is to have as many people as possible in the public to view it and to try to understand the great stuff the tribes are doing,” Spaan said.
Randell and Dunham have already seen an impact from the release of the video in what they do.
“We’ve had a lot of tribes interested, and tribes have reached out since then, even tribes that don’t have self-governance programs,” Randell said. “So, for me, that’s really exciting, because if you’re not invested in your sovereignty, you’re really missing out, especially now. I think tribes really need to stand on their sovereignty and claim that while they have the opportunity to do so. Self governance isn’t a federal program, it’s a way of life. Tribes are best suited to understand the needs of their people, and the Nation’s commitment to programs like the Aviary wouldn’t be possible otherwise.”
When Dunham and Randell first approached Chairman John “Rocky” Barrett about opening an eagle aviary, Dunham said they only had a three-minute DVD of an eagle release to give a vague idea of what they wanted to do. With this episode of For Our People, she said it will be a great way of inspiring other tribes.
Learn more about SGCETC at tribalselfgov.org, and visit their YouTube channel, , or www.tribalselfgov.org/forourpeople to watch videos in the For Our People series.
To learn more about CPN’s Eagle Aviary, visit cpn.news/aviary.

Registration for the 2025 Self-Governance Conference is now open!

https://www.tribalselfgov.org/2025conference/