Roles, responsibilities, and traits of tribal liaisons

A tribal liaison is a person (or group of people) designated by their organization to carry out the responsibilities outlined in the organization's tribal consultation policy. Tribal liaisons work to strengthen the government-to-government relationships with tribes throughout the United States (US Bureau of Indian Affairs, 2024b). A tribal consultation is a formal, two-way, government-to-government dialogue between official representatives of tribes and federal, state, or local governments or nongovernmental agencies to discuss proposals before making decisions (Hanschu, 2014; Metropolitan Council, 2024; US Bureau of Indian Affairs, 2024c). Each organization has a more detailed description of the roles and responsibilities of their tribal liaison (e.g., US Air Force, 2020; US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 2021). In general, these responsibilities include the ones listed in Box 1.

To embody these roles and uphold these responsibilities, tribal liaisons require a portfolio of knowledge and skills; the desirable knowledge and skills of an effective tribal liaison are numerous and profound. Their description varies by organization and context. The ones presented in Box 2 are noted by several organizations (e.g., Francis-Begay, 2013; King County, 2017). Furthermore, the knowledge and skills listed in Box 2 were also highlighted by the ESIL external Indigenous partners who work as tribal liaisons in various contexts and organizations.

Challenges in tribal liaison preparation in institutions of higher education

Having defined the roles, responsibilities, and traits of tribal liaisons, we point to several issues that challenge their cultivation within higher education institutions. In the following, we draw from our experiences in creating and operating the ESIL certificate at CU Denver. Open to students from any major, background, and experiential level, many of our experiences are common across non-Indigenous institutions in the United States and around the world (e.g., Eagle, 2015; Murray & Campton, 2023; Waterman et al., 2023; Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, 2021).

Benefits of extracurricular learning

Extracurricular learning is any activity outside the scope of a regular academic curriculum (Jackson & Bridgstock, 2021; Winstone et al., 2022). As such, it ranges widely in nature and in the role of the student (e.g., leader, participant). Among others, extracurricular learning includes social and cultural activities, workshops, internships, sports, student clubs, and volunteer work.

Several impacts related to participation in extracurricular learning are reported in the literature: enhancement of social and professional skills (e.g., Bohnert et al., 2007), sense of belonging (e.g., Buckley & Lee, 2021), improved well-being (e.g., Busseri et al., 2011), academic gains (e.g., Stuart et al., 2011), competence and skills development (e.g., Jackson & Bridgstock, 2021), confidence building (e.g., Kanar & Bouckenooghe, 2021), and improvement of employability (e.g., Clark et al., 2015; Winstone et al., 2022). More specifically, the following considerations have been identified as benefits and impacts of extracurricular learning on students, including Indigenous students (Johnson et al., 2020; King et al., 2021; Kuh, 2008; Sweat et al., 2013): reducing stress through finding friends and community; finding a space for self-care; developing a sense of belonging; helping students enjoy their studies and persist to graduation; development of skills (technical and professional) transferable to professional life after graduation; development of networks and relationships with peers, professors, and working professionals; development of professional advising and mentoring networks; enhancement of university courses and curriculum by incorporating Indigenous knowledges and skills into courses and curriculum; and giving visibility and presence to Indigenous cultures and science in the university and local communities. All these considerations support student retention and success.

Extracurricular learning can address several challenges, mentioned in the previous section, in preparing effective tribal liaisons in higher education institutions. In this paper, we focus on two types of extracurricular learning carried out within the context of the ESIL certificate at CU Denver: workshops and internships. These activities were designed with the purpose of complementing and enhancing regular university curricula in various disciplines (e.g., biology, engineering, geography, political science) by educating and training students in topics that are essential to achieve the ESIL mission and vision in preparing tribal liaisons (CU Denver, 2024b).

Certificate in ESIL

CU Denver is a public, urban research university situated on the ancestral homelands and unceded territories of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute. Its 12,250 undergraduate students are 39% white, 28% Hispanic, 12% Asian, 9% Black, 9% international, and 1% each Native American, Pacific Islander, and unknown (CU Denver, 2024c) making it the most diverse research university in Colorado. Nevertheless, CU Denver has comparatively few Indigenous students (or faculty), so academic programs generally do not contextualize themselves through Indigenous frameworks. In contrast, such contextualization is a strength of tribal colleges and universities (TCUs), but at the time the ESIL program was established in 2018, we had yet to form relationships with TCUs (that have been formed since). Recognizing the need for Indigenous leadership for curriculum development, ESIL reached out to a network of Indigenous STEM professionals working at various organizations to solicit their input on program development following the framework of collective impact (Kania & Kramer, 2011). That process of intentional community building will be the subject of a separate paper.

The ESIL program started at CU Denver in 2018 as a Design and Development Launch Pilot (DDLP) funded, in part, by NSF's program, named for the late Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, called Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES). The goals of this launch pilot were (1) to develop a network of partners using the principles of collective impact (Kania & Kramer, 2011) and (2) to engage the network in the development and implementation of an ESIL certificate program at CU Denver. ESIL welcomed partnering representatives from public sector organizations and CU Denver faculty. The ESIL program also benefited from contributors from other public sector and non-profit organizations and institutions of higher education who participated for varying lengths of time, providing their expertise to advise strategic planning.

At the time of its creation in 2018, ESIL was a first-of-its-kind integrated higher education certificate, comprising curricular and extracurricular learning, focused on STEM students seeking to liaise on environmental issues between tribal and non-tribal organizations. In recent years, ESIL has expanded to include students from all disciplines. The ESIL program seeks to build on best practices for students and contribute lessons learned to the literature on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) related to achievement, cultural navigation, and establishing symbiotic cultural and scientific identities. From the beginning, professional evaluators have documented and assessed program activities, evolution, and student feedback using the Indigenous evaluation framework (Velez et al., 2022).

Workshops

The ESIL certificate incorporates workshops to fill gaps in knowledge and skills not covered in courses and university programs and to create close ties between the university and students with Indigenous communities, knowledge holders, tribal liaison professionals, and organizations working with tribes. Those close ties, in turn, facilitate the transition of students from college to a career as a tribal liaison or professional working on Indigenous lands and issues. Workshops also bring to the university community a forum for educating students regarding Indigenous knowledge, skills, practices, culture, history, and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). Importantly, through the interactive discussions during and following each presentation, the workshops provide a mechanism for Indigenous students to have their voices heard. Last but not least, having a regular forum serves to reinforce a sense of community and a safe space for ESIL students.

A total of 30 workshops were carried out between academic years 2018/2019 and 2022/2023 (Table 1). Workshops were conducted by ESIL external partners, tribal liaisons, Indigenous community leaders, and knowledge holders, as well as Indigenous professors (Table 2). These 30 workshops included 36 individual presenters, 27 of whom (75%) are Indigenous students or professionals.

Among the Indigenous professionals, job titles included General Engineer, Research Ecologist, and Senior Policy Director, so accordingly they brought authority, experience, and perspective to their workshops. In this way, Indigenous leadership was built into the ESIL certificate by design. They focused on topics around the following areas: tribal law, sovereignty, politics, and governance; Indigenous cultures, communication, protocol, and decorum; facilitation and negotiation; North American Indigenous history and current affairs; Indigenous leadership and decision making; skills and role of a tribal liaison in government and tribal organizations; and TEK. Initially, workshops consisted of half-day to full-day presentations mixed with activities related to one of the specific topics previously mentioned. The workshops were held on Fridays when most classes at CU Denver do not meet. After the COVID-19 pandemic and based on our initial experiences with the format and length of the workshops, their format and length were modified, as described in the Discussion.

Prior to assessment, the ESIL program was reviewed by the Colorado Multiple Institutional Review Board and exempted from human subject review (COMIRB Protocol 18-0133), and all assessment followed the Indigenous evaluation framework (Velez et al., 2022). A survey was administered after most workshops to obtain feedback from the students regarding the following two questions: (1) What is the most important information or message that you are taking from today's workshop? (2) What is something that you learned today that was either surprising to you or that is causing you to think about things differently? A total of 23 workshop reports were created based on these surveys. In addition to these reports, additional feedback on the workshops was gleaned from two ESIL students who specifically called out the field trip to Tall Bull Memorial Grounds on 10/1/2021 in their end-of-program comments prior to graduation.

Internships

From its inception, the incorporation of internships as part of the design of the ESIL certificate was strongly supported by the program's external partners, again reflecting Indigenous leadership. The internships are required to be carried out in Indigenous communities, organizations working on projects related to Indigenous lands or issues, or with tribal liaisons. The aim is to enrich the students' preparation with an immersive Indigenous-relevant professional experience to obtain several of internships' benefits reported in the literature (Binder et al., 2015; Galbraith & Mondal, 2020; Ismail, 2018; Lei & Yin, 2019): easing the college-to-career transition by developing professional networks and improving the students' resume and competitiveness for the job market, clarifying students' professional goals and desired career paths, increasing motivation and improving academic outcomes, developing professional advising and mentoring networks, and enhancing professional interpersonal, communication, political, negotiation, and leadership skills.

Eleven ESIL internships have been completed to date, as detailed in Table 3. Starting in 2021, at the end of their internship, students were requested to submit an internship reflection on the experience, including its impact, importance, and value. The prompt for these reflections comprised five questions: (1) What was your ESIL internship about? (2) For your internship, can you describe some of what you did and how it might have been impactful to you? (3) What was something you learned or did not expect from your internship experience? (4) How has your internship experience reinforced your career goals? (5) What skills, related to being a tribal liaison, did you use or were you exposed to? Five reflections were submitted, as well as one slide deck describing a certain student's internship. These six documents were used to assess the internship experience and to provide feedback to the ESIL leadership to support planning and program development.

Coding methods

Workshop feedback and internship reports were analyzed using descriptive coding (Saldaña, 2013, pp. 87–91), which applies a short word or phrase to label the topic in a passage of qualitative data (Figure 1). Codes were emergent, being identified during coding, rather than being predetermined. Eighteen codes emerged from the workshop feedback; 17 codes emerged from the internship reports; five of these were common to both workshops and internships. Codes that appeared multiple times (at least three times among the 23 workshop reports or at least twice in the six internship reflections), including the five codes common to both workshops and internships, were used to marshal student responses categorized by code. However, although it appeared multiple times, the code COVID-19 was omitted because student responses under that code were entirely feedback on remote workshop logistics. Review of the student responses, categorized by code, revealed four emergent themes and associated subthemes. Student quotations to illustrate each theme or subtheme were copied verbatim from the workshop reports and internship reflections. Accordingly, this method preserves and promotes student voices as our sole source of qualitative data.

Wayfinding

Thus, being a tribal liaison was recognized as a pathway supporting authentic participation by Indigenous STEM professionals. One student wrote that they were previously only considering employment with tribes or nonprofit organizations and that now, after their internship, they were also considering employment in the public sector. Another student stated that the September 2022 podcast on the National Park Service informed a potential career path with that agency. Thus, the workshops and internships provided opportunities for students to connect with careers and professionals, allowing students to see themselves doing the associated work.

Beyond these higher level observations about the importance of communication, students also commented on the practical value of the communication experience they gained through their internships, including a group presentation on lead (Pb) concentration and an elevator pitch describing a research paper. Two interns commented on the value of making an oral presentation to communicate with various parties related to environmental stewardship.

Knowledge

The second theme is knowledge, where students pointed to specific information gained through the workshops. At the most basic level, workshops provide instruction on topics relevant to the work of a tribal liaison. Over four workshops, students learned some of the history of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, the National Park system, the Sand Creek Massacre, and Tall Bull Memorial Grounds—a space in Denver Mountain Parks officially stewarded by Denver's Indigenous community. In addition to history, over two workshops, students reported learning tribal resource economics, including the basic technology of hydraulic fracturing and the protests surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline. Notably, two different Indigenous STEM professionals offered two different perspectives on oil and gas development, emphasizing the important point that different tribes make different decisions and underscoring the importance of nuance when discussing ESIL. The breadth of knowledge presented provided an opportunity for individualization of education and experience as students navigate ESIL and their training as liaisons.

Under the theme of knowledge, two important subthemes emerged: law and TEK. Students noted that tribes, states, and the federal government have different perspectives on Indian law. One student noted that there had been some recent positive outcomes for tribes through legal efforts, which motivated them to support future legal efforts, although it should be noted that, at least before the mid-20th century, the overall record of tribes in federal courts has been overwhelmingly negative (Fletcher, 2014). Students gained knowledge of federal Indian law, specifically mentioning the case of Cherokee versus Georgia and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. Students also reflected on a number of legal ideas, for example, the observation that the land that constitutes the modern city of Denver was taken without legal repercussion.

Students also contrasted the Indigenous legal goal of restoration versus the non-Indigenous legal goal of retribution and noted the complexity of the legal system, where—for example—the US Department of Justice may take sides. Students also reflected on Indian law beyond the United States, reflecting on a podcast that described how an early draft of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples had been edited to the detriment of Indigenous peoples.

Perspective

Indeed, the subtheme of managing challenges was also reflected in student comments on the internships. One student's internship was hampered by an unexpected delay in their background check by the hosting organization. Another student, while presenting the results of their internship, was surprised to encounter interpersonal and intergroup politics whose resolution required intervention by the internship mentor. These politics arise from the notion, expressed in other student feedback, that different tribes have different perspectives and that there are complex relationships between tribal, state, and federal governments. One student recognized that being a tribal liaison means that there are multiple perspectives, and although decisions are required, one cannot force parties into agreement. Another student wrote that with “many moving parts,” liaisons have a duty to inform each side, rather than advocating for just one side. Taken together, these experiences helped students to begin developing the perspective required to be an effective tribal liaison.

Engagement

The fourth and final theme is engagement. That is, having been exposed to the potential career path of a tribal liaison, having gained relevant knowledge, and having developed some nuanced perspectives, how did students feel about the workshops and internships? Multiple students articulated how the workshops had reinforced their motivation to attend college, major in STEM, and participate in ESIL. Students wrote of helping others, finding common ground, and not giving up on their education or career. Specifically, students wrote that ESIL provided “opportunity to make a difference,” that “my education will not go unused,” and that “I will be able to live out my passion.” One student summarized this sentiment by writing that they were driven to “directly contribute to the betterment of my community on a daily basis.” In contrast to typical academic seminars, student feedback was emotional: One student was encouraged by a workshop speaker's dual identity (i.e., a speaker who was part Indigenous); another student wrote that a certain workshop put their own feelings into words; and another student expressed gratitude for the part they played to support environmental stewardship during their internship: “Being able to play a part in that is almost too overwhelming for words.”

Complementing these individual emotional reflections was a desire to connect with a broader community. This was reflected in several students' desire to connect with ESIL students and mentors, and in one student's internship report, where they reported bonding with other students from marginalized identities. In particular, the October 2021 field trip to Tall Bull Memorial Grounds was an important opportunity, after 18 months of pandemic restrictions, to meet the ESIL community in person. One student wrote, “I surely missed everyone and was grateful I got to see everyone again.” Indeed, against a backdrop where Indigenous students often feel alienated at non-Indigenous colleges, the sense of community was especially important. In other words, beyond the wayfinding, the knowledge, and the nuanced perspective, students reported positive feelings of inclusion. As one student summarized, “I can be Indigenous without having to explain it.”