On July 27, at the opening breakfast of Dartmouth’s third annual Tribal Leadership Academy, College President Sian Leah Beilock announced the launch of the Dartmouth Tribal Sovereignty Institute.
A donation from Tom and Gina Russo ’77 will endow an executive director position. The search for the inaugural director, which will be led by executive search firm Isaacson Miller, is underway, according to Native American Program director Adria Brown ’15.
In an email statement to The Dartmouth, Native American and Indigenous studies professor Bruce Duthu ’80 said the Institute will “serve as the College’s primary point of contact” for Dartmouth’s work with Native American tribal nations.
“The Institute will allow the College to engage directly and intentionally with the tribal nations of this country on issues of mutual concern, including economic development, health care services and cultural revitalization efforts,” Duthu wrote.
Duthu added that the establishment of the Institute marks a “new chapter” in the College’s “historic commitment” to Native American tribal nations. When Dartmouth was founded in 1769, one of its purposes, as outlined in its charter, was the “instruction and education” of Native Americans, though relatively few Indigenous students attended the college at that time. In the 20th century, Dartmouth renewed its commitment to that mission through the adoption of the Native American Program and expanded admissions opportunities for Indigenous students. Currently, more than 200 Indigenous students from more than 70 tribal communities and nations attend the College, according to Dartmouth Admissions.
The Tribal Sovereignty Institute will “assume responsibility” for the Tribal Services and Solutions Project and the Tribal Leadership Academy — which are pre-existing pilot programs — operated by the College. The Institute will also be “developing a cadre of new initiatives that support and advance the self-determination capacity of tribal nations throughout the U.S.,” Duthu wrote.
According to Tribal Leadership Academy assistant Eloisa Roach ’28, who attended the opening breakfast, the Tribal Services and Solutions Project provides off-term funding for Native students and NAIS majors and a post-baccalaureate fellowship focused on designing solutions for issues that “uniquely affect tribal communities.”
The Tribal Leadership Academy, which was launched in 2024, invites around 25 newly elected or appointed Native American tribal leaders to campus in July each year and provides workshops on professional development and tribal policy issues such as economic development and health care delivery. Brown said the program helps the College “build stronger relationships with tribes.”
In response to requests for comment about the launch of the institute, a College spokesperson shared an excerpt from Beilock’s script for her speech at the Tribal Leadership Academy. The Tribal Sovereignty Institute “represents the next big step forward” in Dartmouth’s relationship with tribal nations.
“In alignment with our original charter, Dartmouth has taken significant steps over the past several decades to deepen our partnership with Native communities — advancing solutions to endemic issues faced by Indigenous communities and those far beyond,” Beilock said in her speech. “It will be a lasting center for collaboration, bringing leaders together at a critical nexus to deepen understanding, expand scholarship, and develop new knowledge.”
Roach added that student involvement will be “at the foundation” of the Tribal Sovereignty Institute and its programs, especially the Tribal Leadership Academy.
The Tribal Leadership Academy is “also about building tribal leaders from the Dartmouth students that are already here and making sure that they’re committed and have the resources to maintain relationships with their community,” Roach said.
Associate director for curatorial affairs and curator of Indigenous art Jami Powell said that other institutions on campus, including the Hood Museum, will also support the Institute’s focus on tribal sovereignty.
“Part of what we hope to do at the Hood is to be a partner for hosting events,” Powell said. “We are often the people who are hosting consultations or visits from delegations and managing the return of ancestral remains and other cultural objects to tribal nations.”
In an email statement to The Dartmouth, dean of libraries Susanne Mehrer wrote that Dartmouth Libraries “look[s] forward” to working with the Tribal Sovereignty Institute.
“Our library and research experts are poised to support the Institute in its research ambitions,” Mehrer wrote. “We’re committed to elevating and amplifying research at Dartmouth, and where possible, ensuring the communities who would most benefit from Dartmouth’s scholarship have access to it.”
Roach added that the Tribal Sovereignty Institute will help “articulate the relationship” with tribal nations that Dartmouth outlines in its charter.
“As Native students, we’re told about the charter and about these ongoing commitments,” Roach said. “The Tribal Sovereignty Institute is more about building relationships with tribes as nations and tribes as government, not just as racialized Native people. It’s about recognizing our sovereignty and our continued governance structure.”
Powell added that she hoped the Institute will be a “hub for programming” across campus.
“I’m hoping it will also be … a way that we can engage with different departments across disciplinary boundaries,” Powell said. “For them to be able to engage with tribal nations as well, so they can support projects or be involved through their expertise, but also so they can meet these tribal leaders … and learn from those experiences as well.”
According to Brown, when the Native American House reopens in fall 2027 — following its closure for the 2026-2027 academic year for renovations — it will include a designated administrative space for the Tribal Sovereignty Institute with a “separate entrance.”
“We think of ourselves as in partnership with the Institute, and [are] helping them have their first space here at Dartmouth,” Brown said.
Tom and Gina Russo ’77 did not respond to requests for comment by time of publication.
Sahil Gandhi ’29 is a reporter from Staten Island, N.Y., and is majoring in environmental studies and government modified with philosophy and economics. He loves word searches and falling down internet and Wikipedia rabbit holes.
