The Office of Tribal Relations consists of two interconnected components: the Associate Vice President of Tribal Relations and the Native Nations Center for Tribal Policy Research. This website focuses on the role and responsibilities of the Associate Vice President, who provides executive-level guidance on tribal engagement across the University. For information about the Native Nations Center for Tribal Policy Research—including its research initiatives and programming—please visit ou.edu/nativenationscenter.
Please note: The Office of Tribal Relations is not a student-facing office and does not provide direct services to students.
ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT OF TRIBAL RELATIONS
Tana Fitzpatrick serves as the University of Oklahoma’s Associate Vice President of Tribal Relations. In this executive advisory role, she offers strategic counsel to university leadership on engagement with Tribal Nations, with an emphasis on approaches that reflect political sovereignty, intergovernmental respect, and institutional alignment. She supports efforts across all three campuses to strengthen long-term, trust-based partnerships with Tribal Nations.
Prior to joining the university, Fitzpatrick served the U.S. Congress as a policy analyst in the Library of Congress’s Congressional Research Service. While at CRS, she advised members of Congress and their staff as the expert on matters involving tribal lands and natural resources.
Fitzpatrick’s career also includes four years in the federal executive branch, beginning with the U.S. Department of the Interior as a Senior Counselor to the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs, with later roles in the White House Office of Management and Budget and the National Indian Gaming Commission.
In addition to federal service, Fitzpatrick worked as an attorney for two tribal communities in Arizona. She served the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community as a tribal prosecutor and worked as in-house counsel for the Gila River Indian Community.
Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude from Oklahoma City University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Spanish and earned a Juris Doctorate from Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Fitzpatrick is a member of the Crow Tribe of Montana and a descendent of the Sioux, Ponca, and Chickasaw nations.
