UNIT 19 • STAGE 1 OF 7
The Foundation
Set up the design system, build the hero section, and add your navigation and section stubs
Unit 19: The Nation Rebuilding Era
Unit 19 documents the Nation Rebuilding Era of federal Indian policy, from 1995 to the present. You are building the eighth and final research site in the Federal Indian Policy Series. The design system, the structure, and the approach are the same as Units 11 through 17. The history is new, and it is the most empowering era in the series: Tribal nations are exercising sovereignty won through decades of legal and political struggle and using it to build.
The Tribal Self-Governance Act of 1994 closed the Self-Determination Era. What opened in 1995 was different: not a fight for the right to self-govern, but the work of actually doing it. Tribes began building the institutions, economies, courts, and cultural programs that sovereignty requires. The courts continued to shape the terrain. McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020) confirmed that nearly half of eastern Oklahoma is Indian Country. Haaland v. Brackeen (2023) upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act against constitutional challenge. This era is ongoing, and the building continues.
The framework for this unit: Rebuilding Native Nations
The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development spent decades researching what makes Tribal nations succeed at economic development and governance. Their findings, compiled in Rebuilding Native Nations (ed. Miriam Jorgensen, 2007), showed that Tribes exercising genuine sovereignty over their own governance structures build more stable economies and stronger communities than Tribes operating under continued federal administration. Sovereignty in practice, not just on paper. This unit uses that framework as its anchor without being about the book itself.
The thesis for this site
The thesis you are building toward across all seven stages: "The legal victories of the Self-Determination Era gave Tribes the tools. The Nation Rebuilding Era is what Tribes are doing with them. Across Indian Country, nations are governing, building, recovering land, protecting language, and winning in court. This is what sovereignty looks like in practice." This is the record you are documenting.
New CSS pattern in this unit: scroll-snap
Stage 2 introduces scroll-snap-type and scroll-snap-align, a pure CSS technique that makes a container snap between sections as you scroll. No JavaScript required. Stage 7 also introduces a pre-built scroll-driven animation using animation-timeline: scroll(), which links an element's animation state directly to scroll progress. Stages 1 is HTML and CSS only.
The Design System
Unit 19 uses the same Prussian blue archival palette as Units 11 through 17. The CSS custom property names and values are unchanged. This is the eighth site in the series, and it shares the same visual language as the other seven.
--bg-main: #0D1B2A; /* Ink Black */
--bg-section: #1B263B; /* Prussian Blue */
--bg-card: #0D1B2A; /* Same as bg-main */
--text-light: #E0E1DD; /* Alabaster, primary text */
--text-dim: #778DA9; /* Lavender Grey, secondary */
--text-muted: #506070; /* Labels, captions */
--gold: #778DA9; /* Accent */
--gold-light: #A8BDD0; /* Hover accent */
--gold-dim: rgba(65,90,119,0.14);
--gold-border:rgba(119,141,169,0.22);
--rust: #415A77;
}
Build the Hero Section
The hero follows the same structure as Units 11 through 17: two-column grid, era badge, large Playfair Display title, thesis description with a bolded closing line, resource links, and two CTA buttons.
- Era badge: "1995 – Present"
- Title: "Nation Rebuilding"
- Thesis closing line: "Sovereignty in practice. The work is happening now."
- Resource links: Harvard Project on American Indian Econ. Dev. (hpaied.org), Native American Rights Fund (narf.org), National Congress of American Indians (ncai.org)
- CTA buttons: "Explore the Record" (primary, links to #the-building) and "The Courts" (secondary, links to #the-courts)
What "nation building" means
The term "nation building" in Indian Country refers to a specific set of activities: developing governance structures that are both effective and culturally matched, building economies that sustain Tribal governments and serve members, recovering land, revitalizing language and culture, and establishing justice systems with real jurisdiction. These are not abstract policy goals. They are things specific Tribal nations are doing right now, with their own staff, their own resources, and their own authority. Stage 2 introduces each of these five pillars through the scroll-snap section.
Add the Nav and Section Stubs
Add the fixed nav with the six section anchor links and build empty <div> stubs for all six sections. You will fill each section in Stages 2 through 7.
Nav links: #the-building, #the-laws, #the-courts, #the-nations, #my-research, #today
Stage 1 Complete!
The design system is set, the hero is built, and the nav and section stubs are in place. Stage 2 introduces the new CSS pattern for this unit: scroll-snap. You will build the five nation-building pillars inside a snap container where each panel lands cleanly in view as you scroll.
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