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This paper attempts to draw usable lessons from the experience of American Indian nations in the United States that have faced the challenge of starting and sustaining effective self-governance. Some of those nations have addressed it more effectively than others, and their experiences offer some insights that may be transferable to the Northern Territory. The paper organizes factors or catalysts helping to start and sustain governance into three categories. The first category is how the community (or tribe or nation) thinks and talks about governance. This has to do with the internal conversation about governance and the assumptions that indigenous communities make about rights, responsibilities, and the nature and role of government itself. The second category is how the community (or tribe or nation) organizes itself. Two questions are particularly important here. Who is the “self” in indigenous self-governance—that is, in what social unit(s) is authority vested? And what institutional form does indigenous governance take? The third category is how other governments respond to indigenous self-rule, having to do with the extent of federal or state support for indigenous governance and the extent of federal or state willingness to invest in building indigenous institutional capacity. The paper closes by drawing a distinction between indigenous self-administration and indigenous self-governance, arguing that only the second is likely to produce significant, positive results in indigenous communities.