Vantage Point historian Eric Zimmer presented a paper entitled “Funding Tribal Existence: The Ford Foundation’s Support for the Native American Rights Fund Since 1970” on March 15, 2019. His presentation was part of a panel that explored the ways in which philanthropic support can help shape agendas for burgeoning minority and civil rights organizations while encouraging the advancement of equality and social justice. Zimmer joined dozens of scholars from around the US for a special Philanthropy & Social Impact Research Symposium, which was sponsored by the Center on Philanthropy & Public Policy at the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy.
His essay revealed how the Ford Foundation’s early experimentation with public interest law led it to help create the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), which became one of — if not the — most influential and impactful Indian legal organizations in the country. By providing early support and mentoring, and by enabling Native leadership to lead and propel NARF’s mission forward, the Ford Foundation helped support tribal sovereignty and self-determination. Although it only planned to fund public interest law programs for a few years, the Ford Foundation has continued to reinvest in NARF every year for nearly a half century. This work has produced important new laws and many major victories in the courtroom — including a win in Cobell v. Salazar, perhaps the largest class-action lawsuit in American history — that resonate across Indian Country.