Graduate Certificates
Apply online for the Fall 2025 or Spring 2026 Cohorts! Application deadlines: August 1 & November 1. (Please note that many scholarship deadlines occur on or before May 1.)
About These Programs
Our graduate certificate programs were designed as focused offshoots of our full 36 credit Masters of Tribal Administration and Governance and Tribal Resource and Environmental Systems degree programs. Online course delivery, including five synchronous weekends each semester, provides interaction with experts in each curriculum area, including faculty, staff, special guests, and students. These certificates are 12 credit certificates designed to take one course (3 cr.) each semester across two academic years.
Accepting applications for Fall 2025, apply online today!
For more information, email [email protected], or you can text or call 218 726 7332.
Tribal Sovereignty and Federal Indian Law
Designed to meet the professional needs of individuals interested in tribal governance and tribal relations. The courses in this program emphasize the inherent authority of tribal nations, federal Indian policy, and the legal status of tribes as contemplated within federal courts. This certificate ensures students understand fundamental governance and legal principles associated with tribal nations and prepares them to participate in tribal governance and tribal relations.
Tribal Sovereignty and Federal Indian Law Certificate Program Requirements
Tribal Administration and Leadership
The Tribal Administration and Leadership Postbaccalaureate Certificate is designed to meet the professional needs of individuals interested in tribal governance and tribal relations. The courses in this program emphasize the leadership qualities and skills necessary for tribal contexts, strategic management, operations management, and human resources management. Topics addressed include Indigenous conceptions of leadership, strengths-based orientation, leadership styles, strategic planning and implementation, organizational frameworks, personnel, workplace conflicts, effectiveness, and efficiency.
Tribal Administration and Leadership Certificate Program Requirements
Indigenous Environmental Systems and Resource Management
Designed to meet the professional and leadership needs of individuals interested in natural resources and environmental programs considering both Indigenous and Western knowledge systems. The courses are based on the interrelationship of biological, physical, and cultural systems and address program operations, sustainability, and integrated ecosystems studies. The certificate prepares students with a foundational understanding of tribal knowledge systems and resource management practices needed to engage with local, regional, and national tribal nations.
Indigenous Environmental Systems and Resource Management Certificate Program Requirements
Tribal Natural Resource Stewardship, Economics, and Law
Designed to meet the professional and leadership needs of individuals interested in Tribal natural resources and environmental programs considering multiple perspectives regarding economic value and exchange of decision-making affecting the natural resources of Tribal Nations. The courses in this program provide a transdisciplinary area of study that aims to address the connections between human economies and natural ecosystems. The certificate prepares students to understand the connection between economic decisions and stewardship of natural ecosystems.
Tribal Natural Resource Stewardship, Economics, and Law Certificate Program Requirements
Admission Requirements
- Bachelor's degree - Anyone who has or will obtain a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution in the U.S. or a comparable degree from an officially recognized college or university outside the U.S. may apply for admission.
- Undergraduate transcript(s) are required.
- GPA - Preferred minimum undergraduate Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) or higher for admission.
- Resume/CV
- Personal Statement - The personal statement should give the committee a better picture of who you are and is an opportunity to share your personal qualities. You should describe what has prepared you and motivates you toward this certificate as well as how you plan to apply the certificate. It can include a summary of your educational and professional journey. It should be 500 words or less and be proofread for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.