applying indigenous values to contemporary tribal citizenship: challenge and opportunity by LaDonna Harris, Kathryn Harris Tijerina, and Laura Harris Self-governing comes with responsibility and privilege. Key to sovereignty is the right to defne for ourselves who we are as a nation. Tribal govern- ments, part of the U.S. federal system of governments, have the opportu- nity and challenge of defning the requirements of their citizenry. As the inheritors of immense and complex civilizations, we have the chance to decolonize tribal governmental policy and compose a new concept of con- temporary tribal citizenship. Tribal nations, Alaskan Native villages, Native Hawaiian communities, and Indian Pueblos can throw off the repressive and dysfunctional U.S. policies of assimilation that were intended to destroy our culture and end our political status. The challenge is to reaffrm our true tra- ditional values. Consciously incorporating Indigenous values into our gov- erning structures provides the opportunity for tribal governments to make value-centered decisions – decisions that can move us beyond the legacy of colonization and ensure that Native nations remain distinct and that we will continue as a people.