50th Anniversary of the Indian Self Determination and Education Assistance Act

Date: Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Time:  1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. ET
Register
Format: Free non-CLE Webinar, available on-demand immediately after on YouTube
Sponsor: ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Since 1975, or for 50 years, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDA) has provided a unique legal framework for tribes to assume the responsibility, and associated funding, to carry out programs and services that the United States government would otherwise be obligated to provide to American Indians and Alaska Natives. Today, the tribal self-determination and self-governance policies, and other legislative initiatives designed along the lines of the Act, have proven to be some of the most successful policies that the United States has ever enacted impacting American Indians and tribal communities.

 These unique policies have fostered an extraordinary renaissance in tribal communities by empowering tribes to promote their tribal economies, build governmental infrastructures, provide law and order, manage tribal natural and cultural resources, meet the healthcare and educational needs of their members, and perform a myriad of other governmental functions.  This webinar will include distinguished presenters that have been deeply involved in shaping and implementing the self-determination policy in tribal communities and nationally.

 Speakers:

• Mary L. Smith – Immediate Past President, American Bar Association; Former CEO, Indian Health Service; Vice Chair, VENG Group; Chair, Caroline and Ora Smith Foundation
• Deb Haaland – Former Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior 
• Bobbie Greene Kilberg – Former White House Fellow, President Nixon’s Domestic Policy Council
• Bryan T. Newland – Former Tribal Chairman, Bay Mills Indian Community; Former Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior
• W. Ron Allen – Chair/CEO, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal
• Natasha Singh – President and Chief Executive Officer, Alaska Tribal Native Health Consortium

Moderator:

• Geoffrey D. Strommer – Partner, Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker LLP