What Does Centering Native Justice Require? A New Report Has Answers

We hear a lot about justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion from foundations. Legal justice, environmental justice, racial and social justice. But rarely are we asked as Native peoples about our justice, as people experiencing a myriad of injustices perpetrated by this country. Our voices are invisible.

Michael Roberts (Tlingit), First Nations Development Institute

What does justice mean in Native American communities? And how should Native perspectives inform broader conceptions of justice in the United States? Those are two of the big questions asked in a new report from the First Nations Development Institute (First Nations).

The First Nations report, titled Elevating Native Voices of Justice Across Indian Country: Compilation of Research Findings by Native Leaders and Scholars, is the most detailed study of its kind. The report draws on the following datasets:

• A national survey of 1,600 Native Americans
• A national survey of 3,300 US residents who are not Native American
• A set of 31 qualitative interviews of Native advocates and leaders
• A collection of 33 essays (published as Invisible No More: Voices from Native America in 2023)
• Submissions from 21 Native artists, fashion designers, and musicians
• A national convening of 28 Native leaders held in Colorado in the summer of 2024

In the report, the authors focus on three themes:

1. Native notions of justice—not uniform among Native communities—but, as a whole, substantially different from broadly used notions of justice in the United States
2. The wide-ranging consequences of injustice
3. Changes in policy, practice, and culture that are needed to help remedy existing injustice and set the foundation for a broader recalibration of the economy, the environment, and human relationships

Native Visions of Justice

In discussing Native visions of justice, one point to identify at the outset is that the literal translation of “justice” does not exist in most Indigenous languages in North America and US territories.

Native communities…have developed a strong sense of Native justice centered on sovereignty, land stewardship, culture, and language.

The report’s authors contrast “Western systems of justice, which are mostly rights-based, punitive and blaming of individuals” (15) to Native systems that focus on restoration, responsibility, communal repair, and healing—or more simply put, “taking accountability for the repair of harm” (16).

Native communities have a range of terms to describe what in Western terms is referred to as “justice.” For instance, Native Hawaiians used the word pono, which is translated as “righteousness” (16). The Cherokee word for justice is better translated as “healing.” The Lakota notion of justice is more akin to being “a good relative.” The Anishinaabe have a concept Mino-Bimaadiziwin, which means “living a good life” (17). Among the Diné (Navajo) people, a core concept is hozho, which roughly translates as “peace, balance, beauty, and harmony” (19).

Tara Evonne Trudell (Santee Sioux/Rarámuri/Xicana), a visual artist interviewed for the report, notes that Western justice feels like “a colonial construct imposed upon Indigenous people.” By contrast, she told the report’s authors, “Justice in our communities is a way of living where we can remember our ancestral teachings and ceremonies, learn and practice how we advocate, and create spaces to come together” (18).

Defining Native Justice

According to the report, Native communities, faced with US colonialism, have developed a strong sense of Native justice centered on sovereignty, land stewardship, culture, and language.

The issue of sovereignty, the authors note, has multiple facets. One involves the unfilled legal, moral, and economic obligations established by hundreds of treaties with the US government. A second facet are limits on tribal authority, for instance, the inability of tribal governments to prosecute non-Native offenders, even as more than half of the murders of Native people are committed by non-Native people. And a third are limits on Native representation in the US government itself. For example, the first Native American cabinet official was former Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, appointed in 2021—that is, for the first 245 years of the nation’s history, the number of Native American cabinet officials was zero.

Regarding land, the report authors note that land is at the core of Indigenous identity: “It is difficult to overstate the connection between land and justice, land and identity, land and everything. Land is not just a place to live. It is a sacred source of life, sustenance, and spirituality” (27).

And add, “Land preservation, and the way that communities have maintained both traditional and adapted stewardship practices, is also a form of justice.” The authors also emphasize that “sustainable agriculture practices work with–rather than at the expense of–the land” (39).

Culture and language, and their preservation, are also critical to Native conceptions of justice and political strategy. As the report summarizes:

A central theme that emerged in the convening, and across the interviews with Native leaders of nonprofit organizations, was that colonization, government assimilation policies, and Supreme Court decisions—essentially the past and ongoing efforts to eradicate Native languages and to take Native children, land, cultural artifacts, foods, and water—are at the root of current day injustices experienced by Native peoples (31).

One critical finding is that many non-Native people support Native language and cultural preservation. Of the 3,300 non-Native people surveyed, 72 percent indicated that “more financial support should go to language and culture programs, so Native American children become more familiar with their cultural heritage” (33).

The Ongoing Costs of Colonialism

It is, of course, no secret that even as Native American communities make gains, the ongoing effects of US colonialism are enormous—especially, the report emphasizes, dehumanization, invisibility, and erasure of Native peoples.

“Land is not just a place to live. It is a sacred source of life, sustenance, and spirituality.”

The US education system is a primary culprit. As the authors point out, schools, built on a colonizer framework, “privilege Western paradigms and knowledge systems over Indigenous ways of being and ways of knowing. This has led to both the invisibility of contemporary Native peoples and cultures, and the creation and continual dissemination of dominant social narratives that misrepresent Native peoples often as ‘savage’” (98).

This invisibility is not just abstract. The report notes that more than 8.36 million surface and subsurface acres of land taken from 123 Indigenous nations currently produce income that helps fund 14 higher education institutions. At the Colorado convening mentioned above, one participant called attention to the direct linkage of education to Native justice: “For Native youth, literacy is advocacy, math is a social justice issue, and cultural literacy is mental health” (99).

Other effects of colonialism can be seen in the environment, in health, and in Native economies. One Native leader pointed out, “Indigenous paradigms view colonialism as a shapeshifter or a monster with a violent appetite for life.” The effects are manifold. More broadly, the report authors note, “Disconnection from land, Native food systems, birthing practices, and cultural practices contribute to physical health harm as well.” Meanwhile, per capita federal funding for the Indian Health Service is only about one-half of the funding for prisoner healthcare, far below the national average (103).

The report also highlights some of the economic impacts: “Native peoples, communities, and enterprises are excluded from philanthropy, investments, capital, and banking, and other economic systems.” Despite the growth of Native Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), an estimated 86 percent of tribal communities lack banking access, according to one Native CDFI leader (104).

Carlin Bear Don’t Walk (Crow/Northern Cheyenne), an oil painter and one of the artist contributors to the report, reflects, “Justice for our people would bless us with the power to prosper and breathe life back into a dying environment, where unimaginable dreams can become achievable goals” (106).

Building Forward

One promising sign from the survey data that inform the Centering Native Justice report is that there is broad support for remedies: a “large majority of respondents (Native and non-Native) believe the US should uphold treaty obligations…tribes should have the final say in negotiations about land and resources, and Native families should be legally supported to stay together” (105).

Several areas are identified for change in policy and practice using an intersectional approach, but the report has some specific recommendations laid out by topic:

• Public Policy

The Land Back movement is a central focus here. Key demands outlined include “changing unjust laws, returning stolen lands, and restoring the rights that have long been denied” to advance Indigenous sovereignty (109).

• Philanthropy

The report recommends that funders must: 1) ensure foundation staff are at parity representation in line with the communities and/or populations served; 2) demand comprehensive data designed by, inclusive of, and evaluated by Indigenous researchers and communities; 3) center Native people in grantmaking; 4) develop trust-based relationships with Native communities; 5) reduce administrative burdens; and 6) educate foundation staff, including looking into how their own wealth likely derives from the exploitation of Native people and require repair.

• Environment

Report authors call for policy and philanthropic support of Native land stewardship, involvement of Native people in environmental justice conversations, and support for resettlement when it is needed due to climate change.

• Health

The report makes the case for the health community to treat colonialism as a mental health pandemic. The authors also call for policy and philanthropic support for Native midwifery, coverage of traditional healing practices, and support for Native family and child development.

• Arts, Media, and Culture

Public and philanthropic support for Native voices in the media are needed. Native artists and storytellers, Native language programs, and returning tribal remains to their ancestral lands is critical.

• Economy

The report shows the need for public and philanthropic support for Indigenous-owned businesses, as well support for Native lending and banking and Native-led economic infrastructure. Additionally, the report authors call for redefining how “trust land” is treated “to ensure full land and economic Sovereignty and full ability to utilize it as collateral for access to capital.” More broadly, the report authors call for “reparations or financial compensation to address genocide and theft of tribal lands” (120).

• Politics and Justice

There is an ongoing need for Native involvement in the political sphere. The report also recommended the creation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as well as enhanced tribal legal and judicial capacity to directly handle missing and murdered Indigenous persons cases.

Putting It Together

In its conclusion, the report sums up current attitudes toward justice: “Native justice is what most people—Native and non-Native” across the country say they want, even if they don’t know, “how to define it, express it, demand it, and hold leaders accountable” (125).

What does Native justice demand? There is a clear core vision that is “centered on the constructs of Sovereignty and Indigenous values, and rooted in place, landscapes, community, and cultural practice” (125).

Principles that are present in Native justice systems across tribes, cultures, and regions, the authors note, include “balance, reciprocity, listening, healing, repair, frugality, and restoration after harm” (125).

Native justice, of course, can (and should) inform broader notions of justice. As the authors point out, “Native peoples have values, assets, and concrete practices–such as land management, food systems, and climate adaptation and mitigation–that can meet this moment of environmental, climate, ecological, economic, social, and, arguably, spiritual crisis” (126).

As the report authors conclude, “For both Native and non-Native communities alike, now is a critical time to recognize the importance of Native justice and to embrace Native values to meet the crises of this moment” (126).