By Robert J. Nava Volume 33, Number 6
November/December
California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB) and the CSUSB Philanthropic
Foundation have long benefited from meaningful educational and philanthropic
partnerships with California Indian Nations—most notably with Yuhaaviatam of
San Manuel Nation, as the institution sits on its unceded ancestral territory in San
Bernardino County. This article provides an overview of the CSUSB Foundation’s
relationship and partnerships with the Yuhaaviatam people and other California
tribes and shares the lessons we’ve learned in building trust, reciprocity, and
mutual respect—major themes in Native American philanthropic traditions.
Over past decades, many of the 574 federally recognized tribes in the United
States have generated new wealth by establishing business enterprises on and
off their reservations that include gaming operations, hospitality, entertainment,
and real estate development, among others—affording greater self-
determination and financial independence for tribal citizens. That wealth has
also allowed the tribes to increasingly contribute to their communities
financially.
For example, the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation has become one of the
most philanthropic organizations in California, donating more than $425 million
since the early 2000s to support charitable and educational institutions.
The philanthropic roots of tribal nations run deep in our country’s history. As far
back as when European immigrants first arrived in North America, they
encountered the First Americans and their well-established giving practices.
The sharing of personal property like food, blankets, baskets, and beads was
foundational to community well-being. In fact, the earliest examples of
community giving and support in North America originated in Native traditions.
Today, more higher education institutions and foundations are seeking
partnerships with and support from tribal nations.
As we engage tribal nations today, we must understand and acknowledge the
tragedy and trauma of the conquest, colonization, and atrocities that Europeans
and then Americans committed in appropriating native lands and suppressing
their language and cultural traditions through forced assimilation. Along with
museums, American universities have more recently played our own role in the
tragedy and trauma through acquisition and possession of ancestral remains.
The 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990
(NAGPRA) and the California state version in 2001, Cal NAGPRA, compelled
colleges and universities to recognize the sovereignty and fundamental human
rights of native citizens and to identify and return ancestral remains and cultural
artifacts to the appropriate tribal communities in strict compliance with
California State and federal law. Documenting this history is best left to Native
scholars and historians, but it frames our responsibility as we develop
relationships with such communities.
Yuhaaviatam (People of the Pines) of San Manuel Nation
Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation has made generous and transformative
philanthropic contributions to colleges, universities, and charitable organizations
to help uplift regional communities and Indian country through economic
development and philanthropic support. CSUSB has been a major beneficiary of
the philanthropy of the tribe, which has significantly helped fund the university’s
student services building and named it after their iconic leader Santos Manuel.
The tribe has also provided financial support to establish an Office of Tribal
Relations and, most recently, established an endowment to support a credential
program in the James and Judy Rodriquez Watson College of Education to
prepare males of color to become K–12 teachers.
The tribe’s cultural tradition of giving is embodied in the spirit of “Yawa,” a
Serrano word meaning to act upon one’s beliefs and to embrace the value and
worldview bestowed upon the tribe through their Creator. This includes
generational responsibilities that preserve and protect the Yuhaaviatam
Nations’s ancestral lands and their inhabitants. For the Yuhaaviatam,
philanthropy is not noblesse oblige; rather, it is reciprocity and the obligation to
strengthen the circle of life and to give intentionally and responsibly in ways that
enable present and future generations to make the world better. One tribal elder
explained that philanthropic decisions are guided by whether they will secure
the well-being of seven generations into the future.
Lessons Learned From Building
University-Tribal Relationships
The most important lesson I learned early in my career about engaging tribal
leaders was that it demands developing personal and long-term relationships
based on trust. Building such a relationship usually takes much longer than the
traditional 18 to 24-month period one normally needs to cultivate a major gift
donor.
The instructive moment came in an interaction I had years ago with the chair of
the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Tribe. The dean of the CSUSB College
of Humanities and I met with the tribal chair seeking a grant to support a
proposed Center for California Indian Nations. The chair listened to our
presentation politely, and when we concluded, he said: “We have many visitors
who stop by now to ask for support. I have two categories where I place these
requests—one is BC, and the other is PC.”
He went on to say that BC means that the organization seeking support offered
to engage in a partnership before the tribe had establishing its lucrative casino
and gained wealth, and PC means that the organization only asked for a
donation after the casino had made the tribe financially successful (“Post
Casino”). We did not receive the grant, and we left his office with a better
understanding of the concept of reciprocity, realizing that the university had not
earned the privilege to ask for a gift at that time.
An example of the notion of reciprocity and partnership between the tribe and a
university “Before Casino” was exemplified in 2019 by the Yuhaaviatam’s $25-
million gift to Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital. In the early 20 th century,
Loma Linda University established a medical clinic on the reservation to provide
medical services to the tribal citizens and elders when they lacked health care
and had limited financial means. This longstanding relationship spanned 100
years before the tribe made the gift.
University/Foundation and Tribal
Partnerships: Practices and Programs
Several institutional practices and programs at CSUSB have helped build and
deepen reciprocal, and respectful relationships with Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel
Nation and other tribal nations, including the following.
The university has developed a land acknowledgment, a formal
statement, recognizing that it sits on the ancestral territory of
Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation. We highlight that land
acknowledgment at all public ceremonies on the campus, honoring
our friendship and underscoring that our histories and stories are
interwoven in this space.
We have established the President’s Native American Advisory Council
to seek guidance and advice from tribal leaders to help top CSUSB
administrators build a vision for the advancement and the success of
Native American students attending the university. We have benefited
from the council’s advice on enrollment outreach and retention of
native students as well as on strategies and programs to create
engaged and sustained partnerships between the university and tribal
nations.
We have appointed a Tribal Elder in Residence who not only provides
guidance and mentorship to our native students, faculty, and staff but
also counsels the university president and other campus leaders.
The university supports and serves as the venue for the annual
Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation Pow Wow, a three-day celebration
of tribal dancers and bird signers. The university community is
privileged to share this spiritual and cultural experience on the
campus.
CSUSB was the first university to establish a partnership with California
Indian Nations College, the only accredited tribal college in California,
to encourage and support Native American transfer students.
California Indian Nations College and CSUSB also partner to host the
annual Native American Higher Education Summit held on the CSUSB
campus.
The university has formed a Cal NAGPRA committee and hired a
program coordinator to develop a comprehensive inventory of Native
American artifacts held on the campus and a plan to repatriate those
cultural items to their proper tribal homes. As referenced earlier, it is
critical to ensure that the university, colleges, and departments comply
with the Native American Graves and Repreparation Act.
We invite Native American leaders and tribal citizens to serve on our
university boards, advisory committees, and foundation. At our
foundation, we’ve found that a good first step is to have the board
charge the nominating committee to conduct a gap analysis to review
the current membership and identify tribal leaders or native alumni to
consider for appointment to the board. Without such a clear plan and
criteria, the natural tendency is to depend on more traditional
networks when searching for board members, which can easily
reinforce identity salience—the idea that individuals will simply
perform in a manner congruent to how they identify themselves.
When a board has a critical mass of people serving on the board with
truly varied perspectives that support broad and inclusive thinking, the
results can be particularly powerful.
These practices and programs reinforce that our university and foundation board
share a responsibility to honor reciprocity, acknowledge historical trauma and
resilience, and recognize tribes as sovereign nations and cultural and educational
partners.
To conclude, I’d like to share one more important lesson. Always remember that
building tribal partnerships based on reciprocity extends beyond philanthropy.
Not all tribes have the economic resources to contribute philanthropically, but
every tribe possesses cultural, historical, and educational knowledge. Such
nonfinancial gifts can also enrich the mission of our universities and the
educational experience for all our students, faculty, and staff in many invaluable
ways.
Robert J. Nava, JD, retired in 2025 as the executive director of the CSUSB
Philanthropic Foundation and vice president for university advancement. He
currently serves on the San Bernardino Valley College Foundation.
