CTER - About CTER

About CTER

The Council for Tribal Employment Rights (CTER) is a community based non-profit Indian organization that is comprised of and represents the interests of over three hundred (300) Tribal and Alaska Native employment rights offices. CTER is acknowledged as the premier leader in the field of tribal employment rights and is the only national Indian organization that is dedicated exclusively to protecting Tribal employment, contracting and entrepreneurial rights on and near reservations.

The organization was established in 1977 by Tribal Employment Rights Offices (TERO) to create a national advocacy voice and to provide Tribes with direct TERO program developmental services. CTER implements it’s by mission by providing advocacy, training, technical assistance, community education, bridge building and legal consultation in the areas of Indian Preference, federal labor and civil rights law.

The principal objectives of CTER as stated in the organization's constitution are:

To advocate and promote the establishment and enforcement of tribal employment rights laws which shall be responsive to the sovereign interests of Indian and Native people throughout the United States.
To provide necessary training and technical assistance to Indian Tribes, Alaska Natives, and other Indian organizations in order to maximize impact of Indian preference.
To act as a resource and liaison organization for federal agencies, businesses, Indian Tribes, and other organizations interested in positively affecting the tribal employment rights effort.
To develop and provide leadership initiative and practical strategies for increasing the economic and social self-sufficiency of Indian/Native people and tribal governments.

Indian Tribes, as sovereigns have the sovereign authority to regulate and control the employment practices of all employers conducting business on their reservations. This power enables Tribal Governments to require that all contractors operating within their jurisdiction to provide Indian preference in employment, contracting and subcontracting.

As individuals, Indian people have unique and special employment rights. They have a right to preference in employment under tribal and several critical federal laws. Also, as citizens of the United States, tribal people, as are all Americans, are protected by all anti-discrimination related laws adopted by Congress.

Within the past four decades, Tribal governments have made tremendous strides in identifying and protecting the rights, resources and opportunities of their people. Tribes are effectively exercising self-governance to protect their water, timber, hunting, fishing and gaming rights in order to garner maximum economic returns and opportunities from the use of their resources.

This type of effective advocacy is being brought to the protection and assertion of Indian and Native Employment and contracting rights by approximately 300 Tribal and Alaska Native village governments that have established Tribal Employment Rights Ordinances and TERO enforcement programs.

Tribal/Native governments have the authority to enact the strongest employment and contracting laws in the nation. Whether employers are mining tribal resources, building federally funded or federally funded or federally assisted roads, houses, dams, clinics, schools, etc., or operating casinos, factories, or other businesses (tribal or private), a tribal government can use its sovereign powers to require maximum employment of Indian people.

However, history shows that only by officially passing a tribal law imposing Indian preference requirements and only by establishing an office within the tribe to enforce the law will Indian people truly benefit from the intent of applicable Tribal and Federal laws.