By Stephen M. Sachs
Professor Emeritus of Political Science, IUPUI

Adequate and appropriate economic development is a necessity if American Indian nations are to be able to attain a high level of real sovereignty and self-sufficiency, in order to be able to govern themselves and be equal participants in American federalism; while without sufficient sovereignty, a major say in how economic efforts are undertaken, experience shows that economic development will very rarely be successful.

American Indians rank near the bottom, for measured groups, of almost every social, health and economic indicator, with more than twice the average poverty and unemployment rates,¹ and the worst math and English achievement levels,² while lagging in high school and college graduation rates³. They also have the shortest life expectancy and suffer greatly from more diseases than any other group.⁴ At the same time, Native Americans receive much less federal money per person for services than Americans generally,⁵ with Washington spending more money for the health care of each federal prisoner than for each Indian.⁶

To differing extents, most recognized Indian nations suffer from poverty, including high unemployment, low incomes and low net personal worth.⁷ Although the situation is improving for many nations, most tribes have a shortage of capital and income,⁸ and suffer from very undeveloped infrastructure,⁹ restricting their ability to undertake economic and community development, and to provide jobs and sufficient and adequate housing,¹⁰ along with appropriate and reasonable quality and culturally appropriate health, education, police and social services. Lack of funding reduces the ability of tribes to govern themselves, with most Indian nations lacking the resources to take over many federal programs, and making it more difficult for tribal governments to collaborate with other governments and have an equitable say about public policy that effects them.¹¹ Thus, there is an immense need for the expansion of tribal economies.

In the last fifteen years Indian nations as a group have made significant economic gains, with just a few tribes very well off, some having made very little improvement, and most significantly improved, but still way behind the rest of the country. For the 40% of the tribes that have them, casinos have played a role in fiscal improvement, but the most important factor in economic growth has been nations gaining control of their economic initiatives, with tribes with casinos increasing economic development from 1990 to 2000 by 36% and those with out gaming by 30%.¹²At the same time, while there remain significant barriers to individual indigenous business development, Native American business activity is growing rapidly on, and around, reservations. Among firms earning more than $50,000 annually, these firms are outperforming other minority owned ventures. Dun and Bradstreet reports that American Indian enterprises, which constitute 5% of minority business, have a greater average sales volume and larger number of employees than their counterparts. However, particularly in states with large Indian populations, indigenous people own businesses at a much lower rate than the non-minority population. From 1987 to 2000 the number of Indian owned enterprises grew by 84%, seven times the over all national rate, to 197,000, with sales rate growth double that of the U.S. average, so that their gross incomes have expanded by 179% to $34,3 billion.¹³

Tribal Sovereignty and Economic Development

The central set of issues that must be met for continued successful and meaningful tribal economic advancement involve the multi-dimensional aspects of tribal sovereignty. Experience shows that tribal economic development needs to be controlled by the tribes and their members, though considerable appropriate outside expert advice and technical assistance is needed. Studies of economic development on reservations demonstrate that imposed programs have largely failed, while those that have been successful have almost always been undertaken by Indian people themselves or in full partnership with others.¹⁴  Only the members of a local community can fully understand their own situation, though outside experts with a sufficient knowledge of the particular people and place may be extremely helpful in partnering with community members in building understanding of the situation and realistic options for action.¹⁵ The more different the local culture is from that of outside experts or decision makers – as Native cultures are from the U.S. mainstream – the more this is the case. Moreover, economic development is not merely a matter of providing jobs and income. It is part of community development, and needs to be undertaken consistently with the values and goals of the community, which the community must determine for itself.

This means that the process by which the community decides must be consistent with the culture of the community members.¹⁶ Tribal sovereignty is not the sovereignty of the tribal government or council, which is only an instrument for the expression of the sovereignty of the Native nation. Numerous Indian nations suffer from culturally inappropriate governments imposed by the United States, which need revision as an essential step in returning their communities to harmony and preparing the ground for effective economic and related community advancement.¹⁷ Since most Native people continue to hold inclusive participatory values (though they may be frustrated by lack of opportunities to participate in community decision making), in most instances it is essential to give tribal members ownership (and make them feel like owners) of the nation’s economic processes and entities by involving them in economic decision making, in ways that fit the particular nation. This will not only work to stop making economic development a divisive issue, by moving the community toward harmony while increasing the quality and consistency of tribal economic policy, but will increase the ability to of the tribal government to be, and to be perceived as, a reliable partner for working with external entities for tribal economic advancement.

Similarly, many Indian nations either do not have judicial entities, or have tribal courts that are not independent from the tribal councils. This has resulted in difficulty in achieving equitable resolution of conflicts and trouble cases within the community, that are widely recognized as legitimate.¹⁸ It has also been a deterrent to numerous businesses undertaking economic ventures with tribes, when they fear that tribal courts will be partial to the nation, should a dispute arise.¹⁹

In addition, while tribal governments and the tribal political process ought to set the goals and guidelines for tribally owned business, and should review their operation, tribal businesses need to be given autonomy in their day to day operations, so long as they function well within the purposes and guidelines set for them.²⁰ This is necessary to insure that tribal enterprises are run professionally, and that the quality of their management is not under cut by politics, weighed down by bureaucracy, or overrun with turbulence from rapid shifts in policy or interpersonal infighting. This is also consistent with the traditional dispersion of power in Indian nations, that promotes their participatory democracy.

One set of issues that many Native nations need to address as they grow their economies is how to do so in ways that increase the independence of nation citizens, and overcome the dependence created by U.S. colonialism. Tribal member participation in decision making, education and other services and appropriately developed programs can, and do, play important roles here. In addition, tribes need to find a good balance for their situation between sharing tribal income directly with members, and applying it to increase member opportunity and empowerment through such vehicles as education, including scholarships, cultural exchanges and technical training, and business financing and other support.

Running Native Businesses with Culturally Appropriate Management

In order to promote the effectiveness of Native enterprises, and to reinforce tribal culture, it is extremely valuable to run tribal businesses consistently with the nation's culture. Since the traditional values of most Native nations are participatory, in many instances, it would make sense to run the nation's businesses as participatory organizations. Today, the wider world is increasingly discovering the advantage of using traditional tribal organization principles and methods in the operation of business, governmental and non-profit organizations.²¹ Research shows that organizations, particularly in business, with properly structured and functioning employee participation, or team process, function better by every measure,²² because well functioning workplace participation brings better organizational communication, more knowledgeable decision making, more understanding in the carrying out of decisions and functions, increased commitment and moral among personnel, bringing greater efficiency, productivity and effectiveness in the organization. Thus it would seem especially appropriate to have indigenous organizations, whose cultural values are participatory, operate with organizational democracy. With tribally owned enterprises, this can mean developing an appropriate participatory or team process, which is usually best reinforced by a parallel reward system that may include group productivity bonuses and profit sharing.²³ Where businesses are owned by tribal members, employee participation can be enhanced by structuring the enterprise with democratic worker ownership. This can be done via various vehicles including cooperatives and employee stock ownership plans (ESOPS), under which debt is separated from participation, so that members of the organization may own differing financial stakes in the enterprise, without that interfering with each member's right and ability to participate in decision making. The idea is to use financial reward in ways that reinforce the process of organizational operation while encouraging investment,²⁴ so that both through participation in decision making and in financial compensation, personnel feel like owners, and in this case, contributors to tribal welfare in the course of advancing their personal (and family) interest.

A fine instance of a participatory employee owned Indian enterprise is Navasew, a sewing business started up in an abandoned factory on the Navajo reservation in December 2003.²⁵ The firm, manufacturing dress shirts for the Navy and combat uniform tops for the Army, was carefully started with technical and planning assistance from Industrial Cooperative Association (ICA), which has Native experience, financing from Navajo Nation, Omega Apparel - a firm experienced in the field - ICA affiliate LEAF and grants from the department of agriculture. The Navajo workforce is being trained in all aspects of the apparel business, so that they can effectively participate in the management of the firm. Navasew is already successful and plans for expansion of the operation are in progress.

An excellent model of alternative, community wide participatory organization, that may be useful for Indian nations to consider, and which, in fact is similar to the much more recent, holistic development by tribes, such as the Mississippi Choctaw and Southern Utes, discussed below, is the Basque federation of worker cooperatives centered at Mondragon, in the Basque country of Spain. The Mondragon cooperative federation now owns participatory businesses, and undertakes business ventures with partners, that span the world.²⁶ They grew from a single workshop employing 5 people in 1956, to a federation of well over 100 primary producer cooperatives by the 1980s employing considerably over 20,000 people. The first cooperative, starting as a manufacturer of cook stoves, by the 1960's became Spain's leading manufacturer of household appliances, expanding, in the 1980s, to make a quarter of its sales internationally, primarily in Latin America. The primary cooperatives are supported by secondary cooperatives including an investment bank, educational cooperatives, one of which became the Mondragon University, in 1997, and a research and development unit that even developed its own robots for manufacturing. There were also retail, restaurant, and housing cooperatives, as well as Basque cultural organizations and activities, so that the federation functioned very much as a community. As a whole, the Mondragon enterprises have been far more productive than conventional businesses in Spain (In the 1980s having a 25% greater return on investment than standard Spanish businesses) and were quite successful in the international market. By 2000, the Cooperatives had expanded to provide over 53,000 jobs, as they have taken advantage of recent developments in globalization to further internationalize their business to almost double sales and employment, from 1995-2000.

An important element in the federation's success has been its financial arrangements. First, much as in, more recent, U.S. employee stock ownership plans (ESOPS), coop employees have individual accounts, which pay out to them when they retire, or otherwise leave federation employment. If their coop makes money, a share goes into their accounts. If the enterprise looses money, the employees help support the business with deductions from their accounts. As with American ESOPS, employees generally accumulate a large nest egg by the time of their retirement, giving them an interest in the long term performance of the firm. In the meantime, the capital in the employee accounts is available to the bank to support enterprise development, though some of the capital is invested outside the cooperatives to provide the security of diversification. The entrepreneurial division at the bank has been very careful in choosing new investments, and has appointed an incubation team of experts to nurture each new business, until tit is ready to operate on its own. In more than a half century, no Mondragon Cooperative has ever failed.

Commanding a large amount of capital, the bank, whose board is composed of representatives of each cooperative, has been able to act in a tribal manner, for both the good of each enterprise and the larger whole. It makes low interest loans to new undertakings, and to those that are going through hard times. When the market changes, the bank shifts its investment and loan activity. Similarly, with the federation having its own educational and training entities, when a cooperative needs fewer workers, the excess employees are supported in going back to school. When they have finished their training or educational advancement, they go back to their coop, or, if it does not need them, are placed in a federation firm that does.

As a result of these entrepreneurial and educational arrangements, when the recession of the 1980s hit in Europe, the Federation simply adjusted to it, with financial support to temporarily troubled businesses (in a few cases, essentially as grants), retraining of momentarily unneeded workers, and investment and marketing to expand business oversees, so that for worker-owners at Mondragon, and the federation as a whole, there really was no recession. In the 1980s, when it began to become more difficult for European manufacturing to succeed against Asian competition, the bank shifted its investment priority into developing service industry. In the 1990s, taking advantage of globalization, the federation doubled its sales and employment by further internationalizing. The federation's automotive division, for example, through purchase, business start up, take over, or joint venture, has acquired manufacturing plants close to its customers in Brazil, Mexico, India, Brittan and the Check Republic, while the appliance cooperative, Fagor. already with plants in Argentina and Morrocco, has bought out facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Appropriate Education, Training and Technical Assistance

Because of a lack of business and modern personal financial experience by a high percentage of Indian people living on isolated, low income, reservations or in low income urban neighborhoods, whose parents and neighbors also had little business or modern personal financial experience, several kinds of business and education are needed by numerous American Indian people.²⁷ First, education in economic literacy, needs to be provided, including dealing with banks and other financial institutions, understanding credit and how to build an maintain it, and how to access and use financial resources. Second, although entrepreneurship is compatible with traditional indigenous culture, a high percentage of American Indians do not have knowledge of main stream business and entrepreneurship, and need education in the basic knowledge and skills, including such things as how to develop a business plan, understanding investment, cash flow, marketing, and other general business practices. Similarly, with the lack of business background, many Native American businesses need technical assistance and mentoring concerning many areas of their operation.²⁸

To be most effective, business, financial and technical education and training need to be provided in appropriate ways to fit the culture and individual learning styles of those involved. Native nations may develop the capacity to do this themselves, or collectively, including providing incubators for native owned businesses. For example, four Indian Nations in Maine operate the Four Directions Development Corporation, which offers technical assistance and funding to native businesses.²⁹

Where tribes wish to start up businesses, or own exploitable resources, they may need to contract with experienced external firms to manage the enterprise or undertake the resource extraction. It is advisable in such cases for Indian nations to include in the contract that the external management firm will train tribal members to take over the enterprise. A number of tribes have done this, including the Southern Utes,³⁰ who arranged for training and the right to buy out the management contract in setting up their casino. When enough tribal members had attained sufficient training and experience, the nation exercised its buyout right and took over management of the casino, and increased tribal income. Similarly, the Southern Utes arranged for training of tribal members and organized their own natural gas distribution company. As gas leases with external production companies have expired, the tribe has taken over the gas production and distribution from that land, significantly increasing the amount of money the tribe brings in from each cubic foot of produced gas.

Gaining Access to Capital and Financing at Reasonable Interest Rates

Many American Indian nations and tribal members seeking to become entrepreneurs, particularly on reservations, lack access to debt and equity capital, and often are confronted with very high interest rates for what capital is available. For tribal members on isolated reservations, there are often no financial institutions within very long distances, while lack of electricity or telephone lines may prevent electronic access to financial sources. A part of the problem of obtaining financing, and receiving it at favorable rates, is that since land and resources are held in trust, they are not available as loan collateral. In the past, this often meant that tribes could not launch potentially successful businesses, such as tourist hotels, themselves, and were reduced to leasing land to outside companies that would create and manage the businesses, reducing the tribe to receiving a limited number of dead end, low paying jobs, and a small portion of the enterprise income.

As Indian nations have gained more control of their economic and other affairs, including being able to make more lucrative contracts for energy extraction and rights of way, this situation has begun to change, and somewhat more capital has been coming available. The potential profitability of casinos has made acquiring capital or investment to launch them relatively easy, and though the increased tribal income generated by gaming, for nations that have it, has usually been far less than what is required for full business, and social service development, it has provided a significant new source of finance. However, numerous tribes still lack the capital they need to begin to approach the level of economic for self-sufficiency, and for the development of education, housing health and other services, and for the infrastructure necessary for all kinds of tribal development.

The money needed for tribal economic development can come from a number of sources, as grants, investments and loans. The federal government can play a major roll in meeting its trust responsibility, here, both with direct grants and with measures that encourage private investment, grants and low cost loans. This can include loan guarantees, and devices such as declaring low income reservations "enterprise zones," entitling private parties to receive federal tax reductions for on reservation investments, A number of foundations have already provided some important assistance, such as the Northwest Area Foundation providing The Lumni Nation of Washington a $200,000 grant, in January 2004, to reduce the tribe's 18.3% poverty rate through wellness, education and economic development efforts,³¹ while Microsoft Corp. deposited $1 million in the Native American Bank to help make mortgages available to American Indians.³²

Tribal institutions and tribes can also play an important role in providing economic development related funding to Native nations and indigenous owned businesses. The Native American Bank, has been providing a variety of banking services to tribes and Individual Indians, including loans for capitalization and businesses services.³³ Meanwhile, the Lakota Fund, for example, has been making loans to small businesses on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, since 1986, and runs the Spirit Horse Gallery, providing an outlet for Oglala Lakota artists and crafts persons.³⁴ Indian nations can also help their own members, such as the Cherokee Nation Commerce Department has done in promoting tribal member savings for business development, education and home ownership, through offering individual development accounts, together with budget training and credit counciling.³⁵ Federally recognized tribes, as governments, can also issue bonds for economic development and other governmental purposes, though current law limits tribal bounding power to strictly "governmental functions." Thus it has recently been proposed that federal statutes be changed to make Indian nations fully equal to other governments in this regard.³⁶ Most important, now that some Native nations have advanced to the point of being more than self-sufficient, and some others are reaching that stage, the better off Indian nations would do very well to assist their less well off brothers and sisters through investment, grants and technical assistance, either directly, or through Indian economic institutions.³⁷

To be useful, whatever financial and other resources are available for tribes and native entrepreneurs need to be known. This information needs to be included in education, technical assistance and public information programs. It should be regularly updated and made available by Indian nations and institutions, financial institutions and by government agencies, including on the internet.

Reducing Bureaucracy, Clarifying Rules and Processes and Providing Necessary Infrastructure

In addition, both tribal governments and the federal government can clarify policies and rules, and reduce bureaucracy so that business decisions can be made in a reasonable time. Currently, on a number of reservations, the process for gaining approvals from the tribe and/or the BIA, allowing a business start up or move in a new direction, takes several times longer than for a private business on private land to gain the same permissions.³⁸ Similarly, by developing clear land use and other policies and decision/approval processes, tribes can direct development to fit tribal needs and values, while providing certainty and reducing decision making time that facilitate business development, while allowing those affected by a decision to have a say about it. Also, certainty promoting business development can be enhanced by establishing clear appropriate transaction recording instruments (e.g. a method for recording a land use agreement) and effective, low cost enforcement and adjudication procedures.

Although to accomplish it requires capitol, that at times may only become available from economic expansion, a critical requirement for economic development is the creation of the necessary infrastructure, missing on many reservations. This not only includes building and maintaining adequate roads and bridges, but also distribution of electricity, telephone and computer systems. Government, businesses and foundations can play an important role here, as exemplified by a provision inserted into the FY2006 highway bill to allocate $3 million over the next 5 years to pave some of the 7600 miles of dirt roads, of the 9800 miles roads, on the Navajo reservation,³⁹ and by various public and private initiatives to increase computer availability and training on reservations, such as the $6 million grant to the Navajo Nation in 1998 for the Nation’s chapters to build their computer capacity. As of fall 2005, the 110 chapters each had from three to 14 computers, available round the clock to chapter members for any purpose, which wee wirelessly connected to the internet. Much of the development was done by OnSat, a world wide company that helps developing nations establish computer networks in rural areas. Similarly, the Native owned firm, Sacred Wind, began providing cell phone service in isolated areas of the Navajo Nation, early in 2005, and relying federal and state subsidies, hoped to supply 2500 dine households with phone service by the end of the year.⁴⁰ By using newer technology, sometimes via satellite, communication can be improved without the expense and environmental damage of constructing phone lines over vast distances. Similarly, a number of nations have been moving to fill their own needs for electricity, consistent with their environmental needs and values, by applying wind and other new technology. By meeting their own needs in this way, they are also assisting in satisfying their neighbors needs, and thus turning required self-development into longer term income producing investment. For example, The Hopi Nation is exploring developing wind generated electricity, and, possibly later on, solar power from photo voltaic cells, in an effort to attain ecological and economic sustainability. This might include involvement in the Sterling Energy wind farm, if that is selected to replace the Mohave Generating station, which uses Hopi coal from Black Mesa and coal slurry water from the N-Aquifer, dangerously depleting that aquifer, while pollution from the Mohave plant is contributing to global warming and high cancer rates in the area.⁴¹ Meanwhile,Laguna Pueblo designer Dave Melton and Sacred Power Corporation of Albuquerque have already brought electricity to 30 isolated homes on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico, using wind turbines and photovoltaic cells, as part of a developing alternative power projct.⁴²

Appropriate Development Planning

An important piece of economic development strategy is to choose economic enterprises that fit the location of the tribe. The most profitable Indian casinos are located in populous areas, as are the Foxwoods Resort Casino Mohegan Sun Casino. Navajo Nation, in sparsely populated scenically beautiful rural areas, has been attempting to increase tribal and tribal member tourist related business. Some nations in isolated rural areas have been providing outsourcing to an increasing number of U.S. companies that prefer to send jobs to reservations rather than outside the U.S. On four Utah reservations, 150-180 jobs were known to have been created from commercial and government outsourcing, by July of 2005, while on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Lakota Express, an Indian owned web design and marketing firm, had a contract to check the accuracy of the transcribing of hand written information in English recorded by an outsourcing operation in China.⁴³ Doing business over the internet is also an option for isolated tribes and native entrepreneurs,

Finally, to be able to develop sufficiently with economic security for the long term, it is usually wise to diversify economic activity. Single lines of business have limited capacity, may have limited lives and are extremely likely to vary in success over time. A variety of ventures provides security as individual enterprises decline or need reorganization, and is likely to better fill community needs. Broad based economic activity is also likely to build better ties with the surrounding community, including providing a wide range of employment and shared interest among tribal and neighboring governments and communities.

Diversification and Intergovernmental Cooperation

While much yet needs to be achieved, there are numerous instances of successful diversified tribal business development as parts of broader tribal development. An excellent example that had made significant progress before the advent of Indian gaming, and which has continued to expand with its assistance, is development of the Mississippi Choctaw.

The Choctaws who remained in Mississippi after the tribe was removed to Indian territory, now Oklahoma, in the 1830s had to persist in a difficult struggle of survival as a people and as individuals.44 With the government failing to fulfill its treaty obligation to provide allotments to most of those remaining in Mississippi, many tribal members were reduced to share-cropping on what had been their own land, for $.50 a day. Thus, amid poverty and harsh living conditions the Nation's population declined to just over 1200 in 1910. In 1918 the federal government finally acknowledged its responsibility and established the Choctaw Agency with a few sparsely funded programs. In 1921 the government purchased 17,000 scattered acres to create a reservation, today comprising seven communities. Yet conditions remained so desperate that it was only in the 1960s that the birth rate began to exceed the death rate, with the a new federal politics giving space for the tribe to assert its self-determination and begin its own process of holistic development, including building an economic base. Business efforts began with the sale of tribal timber, allowing the tribe to hire one of its members as a business manager. By the late 1960's the Choctaw had established a construction company, building and renovating homes, and an 80-acre industrial park, that by the late 1980s contained six manufacturing plants, three of which were owned by the nation. One of these is Chata Greeting Enterprises (now American Greetings), which near the end of the '80s was the fourth largest producer in the world, by volume, of greeting cards. The plant was financed largely under a compact with city of Philadelphia, MS through the city passing the first industrial bond issue in the United States used for Indian economic development. A second is Chata Enterprises, supplying General Motors with wire harnesses for automobile instrument panels. The plant was expanded to become the Fourth largest employer in the state with many non-tribal workers, also in collaboration with the city of Philadelphia, passing a bond issue.45 In 1985, the Choctaw set up a credit union to provide banking services to tribal members and three years later completed the Choctaw Shopping Center housing a bank, a grocery store, a restaurant, a barber and beauty shop, a gas station and other businesses. As of 2003, the nation owned and operated a broad portfolio of manufacturing, service, retail and tourism enterprises throughout Mississippi, the Southeast and into Mexico, including two resorts centered on casinos.46 The Choctaw then provided more than 8,000 permanent, full-time jobs, 65% of which were held by non-Indians. With an annual payroll of more than $123.7 million, the Choctaw Nation had become one of the 10 largest employers in Mississippi. In addition, tribal revenues have helped the Choctaw to reinvest more than $210 million in economic development projects in Mississippi. Some tribal enterprises, such as the Choctaw Farmers Market, are intended to provide non-economic as well as economic benefits, to tribal members, in this case, enhancing nutrition while increasing tribal farmers' incomes.

On this economic base, the Choctaw have funded tribal, and broader community development, in collaboration with surrounding localities and governments, for mutual benefit. Before the end of the 1980s, this already included an education program from pre-school through high school and a training and vocational center for adult education, providing learning in a culturally appropriate manner along with Choctaw culture, which had led to more than 60 tribal members earning college degrees by late in that decade. Also during the '80s, the health program encompassed a 40 bed hospital with three satellite clinics, a 120 bed nursing home, mental health and substance abuse programs, an ambulance service, a community nursing and training program, and monitoring of sanitation and water quality.

Today, these and other tribal and collaborative programs with other communities are considerably expanded.47 Education has grown to become the largest unified reservation school system in the United States, with 1,700 - 1,800 students, with newer programs including child care, post-secondary education and all levels of post secondary education counseling, scholarships and student support services. Health services have been enhanced with a dental clinic, a Diabetes Management Center, dietary and nutrition programs, non-emergency medical transportation, A Women's Health Center and a WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program. The Choctaw Housing Authority now provides general maintenance, emergency maintenance, housing placement, resident services and the holistic Drug Elimination Program.

Community Services now encompasses a full range of programs, including Child Welfare Service, Foster Care, Handicapped and Elderly Services, Pathway House, S.T.O.P Domestic Violence, food and emergency services, and behavioral health programs. The Choctaw Department of Agriculture and Rural Development operates a number of programs that provide assistance and education to farmers and gardeners, along with education for homemakers. The department's conservation, nature and education programs combine with those of the Environmental Program Office to manage and protect the environment and provide for sustainable development. The tribe monitors air and water quality and runs its own water treatment plant for drinking water and undertakes solid waste treatment. Tribal government is now well financed and has expanded to include a court system, corrections and a police and fire department.

Other examples of successful economic development, bringing intergovernmental cooperation, in which tribal gaming played an important role in facilitating business diversification, include two cases from California. In the first instance, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians,48 with one of the largest reservations in the state had long used much of their 32,000 acres for fruit farming and cattle ranching. In later years, land was leased for sand and gravel mining operations or to various utilities, water districts and rail lines. This, however was never enough to fully support the tribal community.

With the launching of tribal gaming, the nation made the strategic decision to utilize gaming revenue as a catalyst to diversify the tribal economy. In 1997, Morongo opened one of the largest Shell gasoline stations in the country. In 1999, that was followed up by an A&W drive-in restaurant nearly twice the size of the national prototype, and one of the most successful A&W franchises. Also, that year, the Morongo opened the first Coco's restaurant owned by an American Indian tribe. The Morongo then acquired Hadley Fruit Orchards, three retail stores and mail order operations. In 2003, the tribe opened a $26 million Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water bottling plant. All of this has made the Morongo the largest private sector employer in the Pass Area, with almost 2000 employees, and a major contributor to the regional economy, with an annual payroll that exceeds $25 million, while generating millions more in payroll taxes, unemployment benefits, employee benefits and health programs.

An economic impact analysis conducted by economist Dr. John Husing estimated that jobs directly or indirectly attributable to all of the economic operations of Morongo would rise from approximately 1,726 jobs in 2002 to approximately 5,800 in 2008. He projected that total economic impact brought to the Inland Empire area during this period would be $2.8 billion including the creation of more than 4,000 new jobs and $1.4 billion in the purchase of new goods and services. The band contributes to the fact that nearly 2/3 of the jobs created by tribal governments in California are held by residents of nearby communities. In addition, as of 2003 Morongo was spending an estimated $20 million per year for goods and services purchased from about 1,200 outside vendors, about 25 percent of which are minority-owned and operated. This does not include the sale of goods and services generated by patrons visiting the area or services and merchandise purchased by tribal employees. The U.S. Department of Commerce research estimates that 42 jobs are created for every one million spent on goods and services. As of late 2003, the Morongo were exploring how to provide clean, reliable and low cost energy to their businesses, tenants and tribal members, in the course of becoming energy self-sufficient, while creating yet another income stream and to maintain its traditional role as a steward of the environment.

In the second California case, investments of casino profits by Elk Valley Rancheria in Crescent City has been reviving one of California's poorest counties.49 The town's dingy bowling alley experienced a $2-million renovation, while the local golf course received new carts and clubs. The tribe also opened an adjacent sports bar and grill in 2003, while operating Harborside Internet, the only Internet service provider serving the southern coast of Oregon, since purchasing it in 1999. Planning was underway in the fall of 2003 to improve 205 oceanfront acres with a four-story hotel, a performing arts center and expanding the existing nine hole golf course into an Arnold Palmer-designed 18-hole facility that local officials hope will finally bring remote Del Norte County into the lucrative tourist circuit. Working with the county's natural beauty, the tribe also looked forward to offering guided expeditions for whale watching, white-water rafting and tide-pool exploration.

By the early 2000s, the tribe had become the county's largest private employer with 250 workers on its payroll and 200 more anticipated with the projected oceanfront resort near the Oregon boarder. In addition to creating jobs, tribal investment has increased the wages and income of community members. In fall of 2003, a bill was winding its way through the state legislature would allow the tribe to partner with the city and county to finance a greatly needed $35-million wastewater treatment plant. For the nation, the casino was a clear path out of poverty. None of the 100 Rancheria members remain on government assistance, and a college fund was putting 13 students through school. Meanwhile, the Rancheria was moving to increase business by moving its casino from a residential street to the major north-south highway. The Elk Valley Rancheria petitioned the BIA to put its newly acquired land in trust, while making an agreement with the county to more than make up for the $2800 in property taxes that it would lose, by pledging the neighboring government a share of bed taxes from the resort that could bring the county as much as $250,000 a year. In addition, the Elk Valley nation has been contributing to funding what has been billed as the largest July 4 fireworks display between San Francisco and Portland. It also has loaned money, interest-free, to the county fair board. The tribe has taken the reins of the community's only Head Start program, which served 60 mostly non-tribal children, while hosting Native American motivational speakers at the local high school.

Where Indian nations have been able to develop their economies, sufficiently, tribal sovereignty has been significantly realized internally through providing the needed funding for tribal governments to operate effectively, running their own programs consistently with tribal needs, while providing the infrastructure, education, training and other services necessary to empowering tribal members to be good citizens and government workers. Externally, those tribes that have been able to build decent economies have gained a degree of political power enabling them fill their roles as governments in the American federal system. This has not only involved collaboration between tribes and local governments, but has included Indian nations gaining more input into decisions that affect them in some states, and to a lesser degree at the federal level. This is especially the case in California, where Indian nations collectively are now the largest contributor to political campaigns, and with heavy financing have been able to realize the passage of some ballot propositions.50 As an active member of one California nation stated in the presence of this writer, before her tribe's financial rise, it was difficult for it to obtain any acknowledgement from inquiries to the state's U.S. Senators. Since the nation's coming to economic prominence, when she call's Senator Feinstein's office, the Senator often calls her back personally.

Large campaign donations, particularly at the federal level, do not necessarily bring about a desired policy action. Often, they provide more in the way of access than direct influence, and at times Indian nations have been taken advantage of by political operatives to make sizable contributions with no actual possibility of obtaining a policy gain, as has been made clear in the Abramoff scandal.51 Never-the-less, though most Indian nations and most Native Americans still have much to attain to be reasonably well off financially, there is no question that advances in tribal economics are increasing tribal welfare and sovereignty at homes while empowering tribal governments to move toward becoming full partners in American Federalism.52 The key to successful tribal economic development is in undertaking it as part of tribal development, as a whole, with the understanding that it is necessary to transcend the overly narrow western definition of economics, transforming it into the art and science of living well within the community, and with the environment, human and non-human, all of which is natural.

NOTES

1. It was reported in "Indian & Indigenous Developments: Tribal Developments," in Indigenous Policy, Vol. XV, No. 3, Fall 2004, "Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States," developed from U.S. Census data, reports that last year 23% of single race native families live below the poverty line, which is double the national rate. Almost 28% of single race, Native Americans are now without health insurance, compared with 15.1% of all Americans. Mean Native American Income dropped 1.6% over the last three years to $33.024, while nationally median family income fell .6% to $43,527. Despite ongoing economic development, Native Americans remain at the bottom of every socio-economic indicator. (Louis Gray, "Editorial: Indians Remain Poorest Under Bush, Study Says; Urban Indians Suffer in Great Numbers, Report claims," Native American Times, September 1, 2004, p.7, and "Weak economy hurting American Indian families," Indian Country Today, September 22, 2004, p. A6)." See also Ezra, Rosser, "This Land Is Your Land: This Land Is My Land: Markets and Institutions for Development of Native American Lands," Arizona Law Review: Vol. 47, No. X, Footnotes 31 & 32, p. 6, and . "Poverty Status, By Race/Ethnicity, 1980 and 1990," in Marlita A. Ready, Ed., Statistical Record of Native North Americans (Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1993), p. 814.

It should be noted that because of large average sizes of households, Native Americans remained second from the lowest for all groups measured from 1980 to 1990, but they were the only group to have household income (adjusted for inflation) decline during the decade. Indians were the measured group with the second largest percent of children below the poverty line in both 1980 and 1990, with only Black children suffering a higher poverty rate. However, while the percentage of Black children below the poverty line increased over the decade (37.8% - 38.8%), the percentage increased at a far higher rate for Indian children (32.5% - 37.6%). Jonathan Taylor, and Joseph Kault, American Indians on Reservations: A Data book of Socio-Economic Changes Between the 1990 and 2000 Census (Cambridge, MA: The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2005) found that while American Indians remained the poorest group in the U.S., American Indians in Indian Country experienced substantial growth in income per capita, so that even with this Indian population increasing by more than 20% between 1990 and 2000, real (inflation-adjusted) per capita Indian income rose by about one-third. For both gaming and non-gaming tribes, the overall rate of income growth substantially outstripped the 11% increase in real per capita income for the U.S. as a whole. From 1990 to 2000, Indian family poverty rates dropped by seven percentage points or more in non-gaming areas, and by about ten percentage points in gaming areas. For the U.S. as a whole, family poverty dropped eight-tenths of a percentage point. Meanwhile, between 1990 and 2000Indian unemployment rates dropped by about two-and-a-half percentage points in non-gaming areas and by more than five percentage points in gaming areas, while overall U.S. unemployment dropped by half a percentage point.

The Harvard Project on Indian Economic Development, issued a report, in July, Eric Hensen and Jonathan B. Taylor, American Indians at the Millennium, showing that census data indicates that urban Native Americans experience a 17% poverty rate, compared to 35% on reservation. Urban Indians have difficulty accessing health care, for while more than 60% of native people live off reservation only 1% of Indian Health Service (IHS) funding is off reservation, and various eligibility requirements prevent many indigenous people from using what health services are available. Among other things, this means that urban Indian children often suffer from substantive abuse without supportive services. With most Indian incomes low and urban rents high, the vast majority are forced to live in questionable neighborhoods. While the number of Natives buying houses is increasing, very few can afford to do so. This is especially so in San Francisco, which has the nation's most costly housing and the fourth largest urban Indian population. For this and other Harvard Project reports go to: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/hpaied/res_main.htm. The report will soon be available in book form.

The economic underdevelopment of most tribes is part of a larger complex of deprivation resulting from colonialism. For a discussion of the impact of European and U.S. colonialism on Native nations and people, and what can be done to overcome it in conjunction with economic development, see Stephen M. Sachs, LaDonna Harris, Barbara Morris and Deborah Hunt, "Recreating the Circle: Overcoming Colonialism and Returning to Harmony in American Indian Communities," Proceedings of the 1999 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association (Washington, DC: American Political Science Association, 1999).

2. Of particular significance is that inadequate funding and often culturally inappropriate education have led Indians to have the lowest overall rate of educational achievement of any U.S. group measured. In 1989 Native Americans had the lowest rate of achievement in mathematics (Indian Nations at Risk Taskforce, U.S. Department of Education, Final Report, Indian Nations at Risk: An Educational Strategy for Action (Washington, DC: Indian Nations at Risk Taskforce, U.S. Department of Education, 1991), pp. 7, 9.).

Taylor, and Kault, American Indians on Reservations, found that from 1990-2000 the proportion of adult Indians on reservations with less than a 9th grade education declined substantially. In Indian areas with gaming, this put adult Indians at about par with U.S. levels. The proportion of Indian adults with college degrees rose substantially, though not enough to keep pace with the very substantial gains in overall U.S. college attainment.

3. The 1990 census reports that only 65.3% of Native American residents 25 years or older, and residing on reservations, completed high school, as opposed to 75.2% of all Americans over 25, while only 8.9% of the same Native American population obtained a four year college degree, compared to 20.3% of the U.S. population over 25 (IHS, Trends in Indian Health, p. 28). In 1989 Native Americans suffered the highest drop out rate from high school of any ethnic group measured (Indian Nations at Risk Taskforce, U.S. Department of Education, Final Report, Indian Nations at Risk, pp. 7, 9.). More recently, NCAI President Tex Hall reported in his January 1993 'State of the Indian Nations' address that Only 17% of Native Americans go on to college in a nation where, over all, 62% do so ("On going Activities," Native American Policy, Vol. XIV, No. 1, Spring 2003).

4. It should also be noted that the Native American condition relating to health has been considerably substandard for the U.S. It was reported in 1993, that while there has been a significant improvement in the health of Native Americans over the last quarter century, Native Americans continue to have a higher mortality rate than the U.S. population at large (Indian Health Service (IHS), Trends in Indian Health (Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Indian Health Service, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Legislation, Division of Program Statistics, 1993), p. 5) because of poor living conditions and a lower availability of health care than is available to the American population as a whole. The death rate for Native Americans (as of 1988) is higher than for the entire population for selected causes as follows (Ibid..):

1. tuberculosis - 520% greater
2. alcoholism - 433% greater
3. diabetes melitus - 188% greater
4. accidents - 166% greater
5. homicide - 71% greater
6. suicide - 54% greater
7. pneumonia and influenza - 44% greater

Maternal death rates and infant mortality rates remain somewhat higher for Native Americans than for Americans generally (Ibid., pp. 35 and 36). With considerably more fluctuation in rate than for any other group, maternal death rates for Native Americans have improved along with improvements for the population as a whole since 1973, but were rising more sharply than those of other groups after 1985, when all groups suffered some increase. Indian infant mortality rates have always been higher than those of the population as a whole, but have fallen further since 1973 than for any other group. The number of infant deaths per 1000 were as follows in 1988: 11 for Native Americans, 8.5 for Whites and 10.0 for the population as a whole.. Life expectancy for Native Americans has improved, trailing the population as a whole by 10 years in 1972, to coming within 3.4 years of expectancy for the population as a whole and 4.1 years of that of Whites in 1988 (Ibid. p. 71).

Currently, the situation is only somewhat improved. On January 31st, 2003 National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) President, Tex Hall, in the first "State of Indian Nations" address, American Indian life expectancy is five years shorter than that of any other race. Native Americans are three times more likely to die from diabetes and are disproportionately impacted by other diseases, yet Indians receive less health likely to die from diabetes and are disproportionately impacted by other diseases, yet Indians receive less health care than the average American, and development of Indian health services is exceedingly slow. The National Congress of American Indians communicated in 2005 that life expectancy for Native Americans is almost 6 years less than any other group measured in the U.S.. 13% of native deaths are of those younger than 25, a rate three times higher than for the U.S. population as a whole. The U.S. Civil Rights Commission Reported in 2003 that "American Indian youths are twice as likely to commit suicide...Native Americans are 630% more likely to die from tuberculosis, 650% more likely to die from diabetes, and 204% likely to suffer accidental death compared with other groups. ("Trifecta for pro-Indian legislation," Native American Times, May 25, 2005, p.p. 1 and 3, at p. 3).

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported, in July, 2005 that while a national public health goal of reducing infant mortality rates by the year 2000 was achieved for the general U.S. population, American Indians have not experienced the same rate of reduction. For the country as a whole, the proportion of babies who died in their first year of life declined between 1995 and 2002, to a rate of 7 deaths per 1,000 live births. In Montana, the infant mortality rate is the same as the nation's. But the death rate for Indian babies was 9.8 deaths per thousand. In the seven-year study period, 610 Montana babies died; 100 of those infants were Indian, though only about 12.5 percent of births in Montana are Indian. The Indian infant mortality rate was worse in surrounding states: Wyoming: 12 per thousand, South Dakota: 13.6, North Dakota: 12.9 and Idaho: 12.4. For more information go to: http://tinyurl.com/kw6m7. Meanwhile, HIV/AIDS infection rates for Indians continue to rise, especially compared with the rates for whites. In 1995, the Native American rate of HIV infection surpassed that for whites and by 2003 were 40% higher than the white rate, at 11.5 per 100,000 compared to the white 8.1 per 100,000 rate. More than a million Americans were reported to have HIV/AIDS, 1900 of whom were Native, with more than half of those cases in California, Oklahoma, Arizona, Washington and Alaska ("Indian and Indigenous Developments," "U.S. Developments," "Tribal Development", Indigenous Policy, Fall 2005

5. "Federal Indian Spending: A Sinking Trust," The Friends Committee on National Legislation, Indian Report, I-55, Summer 1997, pp. 1, 3. The overall inadequacy of federal spending for Indians is discussed in, Stephen M. Sachs, "Termination By Budget: Impact of the 1996 Federal Budget on Native Americans, "Proceedings of the 1996 Meeting of American Political Science Association (Washington, DC: American Political Science Association, 1996). Similarly, Taylor and Kault, American Indians on Reservations report that in the period of the 1990 to 2000 U.S. censuses federal Indian funding levels lost ground against non-Indian domestic spending.

6. Tex Hall, President of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), delivered the third annual State of Indian Nations Address, on February 3rd, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, reported that "per capita expenditure for American Indian and Alaska Native medical services is less than one-third of the average annual expenditure for individual Medicaid assistance, and is even less than our per capita health expenditure for federal prisoners." ("Ongoing Activities: U.S. Activities," Indigenous Policy, Vol. XVI, No. 1, Spring 2005.

7. High unemployment and poverty have been very long term problems on reservations that while improving, are still serious. After the 1990 census, the picture (now somewhat improved) was:

Most of the available jobs around many reservations are with the tribes, and are at least partially funded by the federal government. There are relatively few Native Americans on or off reservation in high paying jobs, such as those of doctors, lawyers or business executives, but off reservation Native Americans have better job opportunities than on, as is indicated in still generally relevant 1970 figures showing that 48% of employed Native Americans in cities worked as white collar workers, technicians, craftsman, foreman, etc., as opposed to 35% on reservation (Olson and Wilson, Native Americans in the Twenty First Century, p. 164.). While situations vary from reservation to reservation, unemployment generally runs high, driving down wage levels for those who can find jobs. For example at Pine Ridge in South Dakota, unemployment runs from a low of 45% in the summer months when seasonal work, such as construction, is available, to a high of 90% in the winter, to average about 80% (Olson and Wilson, Native Americans in the Twentieth Century, p. 185.) Also, William Kindle, President of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, in a letter of January 24, 1996 to Alex. J. Lumberman Sr. of the American Heritage Association, continues to report an 80% unemployment rate at Rosebud, which is near Pine Ridge and has similar conditions. Over all, unemployment for Native American males averaged 16.2% for males and 13.5% for females in 1989, compared to 6.4% for males and 6.2% for females in the U.S. population as a whole that year. Indian Health Service (IHS), Trends in Indian Health, 1993 (Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Indian Health Service, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Legislation, Division of Program Statistics, 1993), p. 29. See also the poverty, income and unemployment data in footnote 1.

8. Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), Effective State Policy and Practice: Entrepreneurship Development in Native American Communities, Volume 4, No. 2, Washington, DC, Corporation for Enterprise Development, 2005, available in PDF from www.cfed.org, p. 2., p 2.

9. An NCAI study of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Road Program shows that while Indian country has 3% of the nation's roads, only 1% of U.S. highway funding is spent for them. Of the 50,000 miles of reservation road, three fourths are unpaved. Hazardous road conditions are a significant factor in Indian highway fatalities being four times the national rate. Bridges across Indian country are equally in need of improvement, repair and maintenance (For more information go to: www.ncai.org). while NCAI President, Tex Hall's January 31st, 2003 "State of Indian Nations" address, pointed out that 25% of American Indians have no telephones, more than 14% of reservation homes still have no electricity and 8% have no running water ("On going Activities," Native American Policy, Vol. XIV, No. 1, Spring 2003).

10. While conditions vary from reservation to reservation, in general, there is insufficient housing, leading to crowding of many people into small structures. At Pine Ridge for example, as of 1995, there were only 1500 units for 26,000 people: an average of 17 per house, which may be only 20' by 20' (Van Biema, "Bury My Heart in Committee," pp. 48, 50. Also, "Tribal Housing Susceptible to Economic Stress," Indian Country Today, June 29, 1995 p. A10, contains an overview of the tribal housing situation. The article reports that the situation today would be much worse if there had not been a significant increase in housing in recent years from new construction, and that housing construction has become more efficient in terms of cost and construction time). About 1000 Pine Ridge residents were then on the waiting list for housing, some of whom had been waiting for two decades (Eric Haase, "Tribal Housing Singled Out for Major Cuts," Indian Country Today, June 29, 1995, p. A9). Much of the housing is substandard, without insulation (thus very hot in summer, and quite cold in winter), plumbing, or an adequate kitchen. It is aging and in serious need of repair (with the BIA housing repair program backlogged with a documented $600 million need in 1996), as reported in Ada Deer, "1997 Budget: GOP Cuts Threaten BIA Funding; Impact deep at Reservation Level," Indian Country Today, Week of May 27 - June 4, 1996, p. A7. It should be noted that U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of the Secretary, "Annual Report to Congress: FY1979: Indian and Alaska Native Housing and Community Development Programs," in commenting that much progress had been made during 1979 made a statement (p. 6) that remains largely true today (although, as Taylor, and Kault, American Indians on Reservations, point out, there have been increases in the rate of new Indian housing construction since 1990).

The condition of Indian housing is generally poor, and the needs for community development assistance enormous. Units needing replacement often lack normal water, sewage, and electrical services, or effective weatherproofing. Almost half of all Indian housing is substandard, as measured by relatively conservative BIA standards. Over 25% of existing structures have severe structural deficiencies, are unsuitable for even basic rehabilitation and require replacement.

Housing and community development needs are closely interrelated on Indian reservations. Lack of water and sewer systems, electricity, all-weather roads (paved or unpaved), and fire fighting equipment are as much of a problem and a priority for communities as a whole as they are for those interested in the provision of new housing. Unfortunately, Indian communities are almost uniformly of very low income, and lack the income tax base to finance such improvements.

11. As of May 2005, 232 nations - about 40 percent of all federally recognized tribes - operate one or more programs that had been previously administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The other tribes fall into one of two categories: "638 contracts" or "direct service." Tribes with contracts still report to an officer in the BIA. Direct service tribes continue to rely on the bureau to manage their programs. ("Indian and Indigenous Developments: U.S. Developments," Indigenous Policy, Vol. XVI, No. 1. Spring 2005). Americans for Indian Opportunity President Ladonna Harris commented to this author that her discussion with Indian leaders and examination of federal legislation and funding indicates that lack of resources is the primary reason that most Indian Nations do not take over federal programs.

12. Taylor and Kault, American Indians on Reservations.

13. CFED, Entrepreneurship Development in Native American Communities, Volume 4, No. 2 (Washington, DC, Corporation for Enterprise Development, 2005), available in PDF from www.cfed.org, p. 1.

14. Stephen Cornell, Co-Director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, "Politics, Business and Nation Building: Self-Governance and Economic Development in Indian Country Today," paper delivered at the 4th Annual Arizona Economic Summit in Phoenix, AZ, 1997; and Stephen Cornell and Joseph P. Kault, Reloading the Dice: Improving the Chances for Economic development on American Indian Reservations (Cambridge, MA: The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 1992, PRS92-1).

15. On the whole problem of decision making and consulting by outsiders see Stephen M. Sachs and Deborah Esquebel Hunt, "Appropriate Consulting with Indian Nations: Facilitating Returning to the Wisdom of the People," Proceedings of the 2000 American Political Science Association Meeting (Washington, DC: American Political Science Association, 2000).

16. Cornell and Kault, Improving the Chances for Economic development on American Indian Reservations, pp. 17-23.

17. LaDonna Harris, Stephen Sachs and Benjamin Broome, "Returning to Harmony Through Reactivating The Wisdom of the People: The Comanche Bring Back the Tradition of Consensus Decision Making," Native Americas, Vol. XII, No. 3, Fall 1996; and "Wisdom of the People: Potentials and Pitfalls in Efforts by Comanches to Recreate Traditional Ways of Building Consensus," American Indian Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 1, Winter 2001.

18. Stephen M. Sachs, “Need for More Indian Nations to Develop Independent Courts,” Indigenous Policy, Vol. XVI, No. 2, Fall, 2005, p, 36.

19. Cornell and Kault, Improving the Chances for Economic development on American Indian Reservations, pp. 27-33.

20. Ibid., pp. 33-38.

21. For a discussion of the development of employee participation and ownership, and the reasons for it, see Stephen M. Sachs, "The Interaction of Forces for and Against Political and Social Transformation," Proceedings of the 1997 American Political Science Association Meeting (Washington, DC: American Political Science Association, 1997).

22. John Simmons and William Mares, Working Together (New York: Knopf, 1983), Paul Bernstein, Workplace Democratization: Its Internal Dynamics (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1980), especially, Ch. 5; Alan S. Blinder, Editor, Paying for Productivity: A Look at the Evidence (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1990); Edward E. Lawler III, Susan Albers Mohrman and Gerald E. Ledford, Jr., Employee Involvement and Total Quality Management: Practices and Results in Fortune 1000 Companies (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1992) and Haig R. Nalbantian, Ed., Incentives, Cooperation, and Risk Sharing: Economic and Psychological Perspectives on Employment Contracts (Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Litlefield, 1987).

23. Paul Bernstein, Workplace Democratization: Its Internal Dynamics (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1980), especially, Ch. 5; Alan S. Blinder, Editor, Paying for Productivity: A Look at the Evidence (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1990); Edward E. Lawler III, Susan Albers Mohrman and Gerald E. Ledford, Jr., Employee Involvement and Total Quality Management: Practices and Results in Fortune 1000 Companies (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1992) and Haig R. Nalbantian, Ed., Incentives, Cooperation, and Risk Sharing: Economic and Psychological Perspectives on Employment Contracts (Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Litlefield, 1987).

24. Ibid,

25. ICA News and Events: A Report from ICA's Community Jobs Program, Fall, 2005. ICA is located at 1 Harvard Street, Suite 200, Brookline, MA 02445 (617)232-8765, ica@ica-group.org. Another worker cooperative development group with Native experience, particularly in Latin America, is led by Warner Woodworth, Dept. of Organizational Leadership & Strategy, Marriott School, Brigham Young University, 786 TNRB, P.O. Box 2307 Provo, UT 84602 (801)422-6834, warner_woodworth@byu.edu.

26. Discussed in Henk Thomas and Chris Logan, Mondragon: An Economic analysis (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1982); Alastair Campbell, et al, Worker Ownership: The Mondragon Achievement (London: Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Society, 1977); Terry Mollner, Mondragon: A Third Way (Shutesbury, MA: Trustee Institute , Inc., 1984); A. Gutierrez-Johnson and William Foote Whyte, "The Mondragon System of Worker Production Cooperatives," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 31, No. 1, October 1977, pp. 18-30; A. Gutierrez-Johnson, Compensation, Equity and Industrial Democracy in the Mondragon Cooperatives," Economic Analysis and Workers' Self-Management, Vol XII, pp. 267-289; Robert Oakeshott, "Mondragon: Spain's Oasis of Democracy," in Jaroslav Vanek, Editor, Self-Management: The Economic Liberation of Man (Baltimore: Penguin Books, Inc., 1975), pp. 290-296; and Germal Medanie, "Mondragon: Your Add Is About to Run Out," Grassroots Economic Organizing Newsletter, No. 10, September/October, 1983, "Worker Ownership Worldwide and at home- Constructive Responses to Global Militarism;" and Holm-Detlev Kohler, "What Happens to Successful Coperatives in Capitalist Globalization: Some Notes on Recent Trends in The Basque Mondragon Cooperative Corporation (MCC)," GEO: Grass Roots Economic Organizing, Issue No, 50, February, 2001.

27. CFED, Entrepreneurship Development in Native American Communities, p. 2.

28. Ibid.

29. Ibid., p. 4. Another example is The Native Financial Education Coalition (NFEC), a group of local, regional and national organizations and government agencies working together to promote financial education in Native communities, started by the Treasury Department in 2000, but now independent. Native Financial Education Coalition seeks to exchange information, forge partnerships, identify and develop strategies for outreach and training, as well as identify gaps in information about financial education needs. NFEC has trained nearly 800 instructors to teach financial education courses in Native communities using the Building Native Communities: Financial Skills for Families curriculum. NFEC held a policy briefing in Washington, DC, in April 2003, stressing the need for Native Americans to increase their financial understanding. for information go to: http://www.treas.gov/financialeducation.

30. The Southern Ute Casino is run by the Southern Ute division of gaming (http://tinyurl.com/fd9v3).

To produce and distribute its natural gas, the Southern Ute Tribe set up Red Willow Production Company, 14933 Hwy 172, Ignacio, Colorado, 81137, (970) 563-5100, http://www.rwpc.us/. Red Willow is now part of the Southern Ute Energy Group (http://www.sugf.com/energy.htm) comprised of several different entities owned by the Southern Ute Growth Fund, each with its own management team and its own business objectives, but sharing certain common elements and the opportunity to collaborate on a variety of projects.

The Energy Group consists of: Red Willow Production Company - an oil and natural gas exploration and production company operating predominately in the western United States, offshore Gulf of Mexico and Western Canada. Red Willow is regarded as one of the world’s leading experts in the extraction of methane gas from coal-bed deposits, although the company is also actively engaged in conventional oil and gas exploration and production; Red Cedar Gas Gathering Company - a natural gas processor and transporter for product moving through Southern Ute Tribal lands. This operation is a joint venture with Kinder Morgan and is the largest gas gatherer and processor in the State of Colorado (Red Cedar Gathering Company, 26266 Highway 160, Durango, CO 81303 (970) 247-5754, rcgwebadmin@redcedargathering.com, http://www.redcedargathering.com/contact.html); And Aka Energy Group, LLC - a processor and transporter of natural gas and natural gas liquids in the Rocky Mountain states and the Mid-Continent region of the country. Aka identifies, acquires and operates midstream assets that are under-utilized and/or under-performing, but which possess attractive growth potential. AKA operates largely through its wholly owned subsidiary, Frontier Field Services, LLC (4200 E. Skelly Drive, Suite 700, Tulsa, OK 74135, (918) 492-4450, http://www.frontierfieldservices.com/contact.htm). The combined Frontier assets, as of winter 2006, include approximately 300 MMcfd of gas gathering, treating and processing facilities including 700 miles of pipeline and related facilities operating in New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. The Growth Fund's origins began in the 1980s and 1990s, when the tribe aggressively developed its natural resource base and, in January 1999, adopted an official Financial Plan to separate its core government from its various business and related investment activities. The Financial Plan provides the tribe with an economic strategy which ensures that a core government and baseline cash distributions will exist in perpetuity, while at the same time optimizing available investment resources to provide for long-term security of the tribe and its Members.

31. "Indian and Indigenous Developments: U.S. Developments," Indigenous Policy, Volume XV, No. 1, Spring 2004.

32. "Indian and Indigenous Developments: U.S. Developments," Indigenous Policy, Volume XVI, No. 1, Spring 2005.

33. For more on NAB go to: http://www.nativeamericanbank.com.

34. CFED, Entrepreneurship Development in Native American Communities, pp. 4-5, which includes a larger list of sources for Native business technical assistance, and also funding.

35. Ibid., p. 4.

36. Proposed by NCAI President Tex Hall in his the third annual State of Indian Nations Address, February 3rd, 2005 ("Activities in the U.S: Ongoing Activities," Indigenous Policy, Vol. XVI, No. 1, Spring 2005).

37. Tim Giago, "It is time for gaming tribes to 'think Indian'," NTN Article #6264, 4/4/2005, published in Indigenous Policy, Volume XVI, No. 1, Spring 2005.

38. For a lengthy discussion of additional economic policies and strategies that Indian nations might consider, and for an explanation of the ftnerences here to developing clear and easily applied policies and procedures, see Ezra, Rosser, " Markets and Institutions for Development of Native American Lands."

39. The bill passed the Senate in May of 2006. Whether it was part of the final bill is uncertain ("Indian and Indigenous Developments: U.S. Developments: Economic Development," Indigenous Policy, Vol. XVI, No. 2. Fall 2005).

40. "Indian and Indigenous Developments: U.S. Developments: Economic Development," Indigenous Policy, Vol. XVI, No. 2. Fall 2005.

41. Ibid.

42. "Indian and Indigenous Developments: U.S. Developments: Economic Development," Indigenous Policy, Vol. XVI, No. 1. Spring 2005. Meanwhile, while many plains tribes are planning or beginning creating wind power farms, Honor the Earth, in coordination with Solar Energy International, the Western Shoshone Defense Project, American Spirit Productions and the Battle Mountain Band of Te-Moak Western Shoshone provided free training and installation of a demonstration solar photovoltaic system in the heart of Western Shoshone territory near Elko, Nevada on April 4-9, 2005, a the first step toward the promotion of locally run energy systems and economic development for Native communities. For more information contact Winona LaDuke, Honor the Earth Executive Director (612)879-7529 or Julie Fishel (775)468-0230, www.honorearth.org, www.solarenergy.org and www.wsdp.org.

43. "Indian and Indigenous Developments: U.S. Developments: Economic Development," Indigenous Policy, Vol. XVI, No. 2. Fall 2005.

44. Sharon O'Brien, American Indian Tribal Governments (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989), Ch. 1.

45. See, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Choctaw Industrial Park (Philadelphia, MS: Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, 1982) and John H. Peterson, Jr., "Three Efforts at Development Among the Choctaws of Mississippi," in Walter L. Williams, Ed., Southeastern Indians Since the Removal Era (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1979).

46. "Indian and Indigenous Developments: U.S. Developments: Economic Development", Indigenous Policy, Vol. XIV, No. 2. Fall 2003,

47. For current details go to http://www.choctaw.org/government/index.htm.

48. "Indian and Indigenous Developments: U.S. Developments: Economic Development", Indigenous Policy, Vol. XIV, No. 2. Fall 2003, developed from a statement by Morongo Band of Mission Indians of California Tribal Chairman Maurice Lyons reported in the E-mail Digest of Indigenous News (from Andre Cramblit: andrekar@ncidc.org).

49. Indigenous Policy, Ibid.

50. For example, by October of 2003, California Indian nations were the largest contributor in the recall election for the state's governor, having contributed more than $11 million with more expected in the last week. At that point, Indian money accounted for one of every six dollars of the $66 million contributed to candidates or spent by independent committees so far on the recall effort ("Indian and Indigenous Developments: U.S. Developments," American Indian Policy, Vol. XIV, No. 2, fall. 2003).

51. For example, see "Abramoff pleads guilty, promises to help in probe," pp. 1 & 5, and "Documents show lobbyist took $14 million from Mississippi Choctaw," pp 5 & 8, in News from Indian Country, January 23, 2006.

52. For an extensive discussion of tribal governments and American federalism see Stephen M. Sachs, LaDonna Harris and Barbara Morris, "Native American Tribes and Federalism: Can Government to Government Relations Between the Tribes and the Federal Government Be Institutionalized?," Proceedings of the 1997 American Political Science Association Meeting (Washington, DC: American Political Science Association, 1997); Barbara Morris, Stephen M. Sachs and LaDonna Harris, "Strategy and Choice: Opting for Cooperation or Competition, Investigation of Tribal and Sub-National Government Relations," Proceedings of the 1998 American Political Science Association Meeting (Washington, DC: American Political Science Association, 1998); and Stephen M. Sachs, LaDonna Harris and Barbara Morris, "Honoring the Circle: Developing Government to Government Relations Between Indian Tribal Governments and Federal, State and Local Governments," Paper presented at the 2002 Western Social Science Association Meeting, available from the author of the current paper.