Our IPI Advisors Circle
8/7/2026
NARF’s Indigenous Peacemaking Initiative (IPI) has long been guided by a volunteer group of advisors who are experts in Indigenous peacemaking, each from their own unique perspective. Having this group guide the work creates a well-guided set of goals and priorities, and a focus that stays true to the founding vision of service to Native American communities who desire to implement their own traditional dispute resolution practices to help their community members in modern times.
For decades, experts in peacemaking and related areas of justice systems for Native Americans have guided the IPI. The IPI originated at the request of Tribal nations who requested that NARF help facilitate peacemaking in Native American communities who were the intended beneficiaries of the former Legal Services for Indian Country program of the U.S. Department of Justice, for which NARF served as the umbrella administrative contractor. The initial Advisors came from a broad geographical range, and consisted of experts in the field of peacemaking who were willing to help NARF develop the IPI (initially called the “Many Paths to Justice Initiative”) and make sure that it was as beneficial and useful in Native American communities as possible. Many of these initial Advisors were among the early leaders of the modern Peacemaking movement, which was sparked by several national meetings of peacemakers and supporters held beginning in the late 1980s and running intermittently though the mid 2000s. The Advisors structure for the IPI has worked well since it started, and it continues to this day.
Today the Advisors Circle for the IPI consists of individuals from a wide array of Tribal backgrounds, and with various areas of expertise including peacemakers, Tribal Court judges and court-builders, academics accomplished in dispute resolution systems, educational development leaders, former law enforcement, professors, and culture-bearers for their nations. We even enjoy guidance and input from the state court judge, now retired, responsible for the most complete and successful adaptation of peacemaking in a state court.
Each of our Advisors has been involved in peacemaking for decades. They bring wisdom and guidance from their experience, which helps keep the IPI’s work true to the goal of protecting continued tribal existence by supporting practice of traditional tribal justice practices and helping with their adaptation to modern issues and systems.
The Advisors Circle meets on a regular basis (recently the regular meetings occur quarterly) and the members advise the project on matters put before them for guidance, as well as discussing ideas for new goals and for better implementation of planned work. This all helps keep our focus on meaningfully helping preserve and apply Native values and worldviews. We do this so we can help Native communities and even entire Tribal nations to revive and thrive. Like the practice of peacemaking itself recognizes the importance of multiple perspectives and experts in Tribal values to effective dispute resolution, so too the Advisors Circle brings many different tribal perspectives and professional experiences to bear on the content and conduct of IPI’s workflow. They are, in short, a longstanding and essential piece of the work, and their contributions are vital to the IPI’s ongoing effectiveness and focus.
