economic growth

Investing in Rural Prosperity Chapter 7: Native America x Rural America: Tribal Nations as Key Players in Regional Rural Economies

Year

The seventh chapter in Investing in Rural Prosperity, "Native America x Rural America: Tribal Nations as Key Players in Regional Rural Economies", outlines the diversity of Native nations, including with respect to governmental structure and economic opportunity. It also explores the history and evolution of Native economies, the effect that European colonization and U.S. government policy have had on economic opportunity in Indian Country, and efforts by Native people to improve Native economic prosperity. The authors highlight ongoing challenges to improving Native economies, including the still small on-reservation private and nonprofit sectors, and the need for continued improvements in creating business friendly legal infrastructure and access to capital. The chapter concludes by showcasing instances in which cooperation between Native nations and nearby non-Native communities have led to improved quality of life for both and proposes that increased regional collaboration could result in substantial mutual gains for both tribal and rural communities.

Investing in Rural Prosperity, published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, seeks to help rural individuals and communities achieve shared economic prosperity. By outlining a framework for how to approach rural development successfully and showcasing stories of progress in different communities—as well as highlighting recommendations for action by policymakers, practitioners, funders and researchers—the editors and authors hope to advance this important goal.

The book includes contributions from 79 authors in the United States and abroad, representing financial institutions, nonprofits, philanthropies, academia and government agencies. The chapters touch on a wide range of topics, including entrepreneurship support, workforce development, energy efficient manufactured housing, and digital inclusion. The book delves into the challenges of our past and the promise of our future. Ultimately, Investing in Rural Prosperity is a call to action, so we can realize that promise—together.

The views expressed in the book do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, or the Federal Reserve System.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Jorgensen, Miriam, and Joan Timeche. “Investing in Rural Prosperity Chapter 7: Native America x Rural America: Tribal Nations as Key Players in Regional Rural Economies” Saint Louis Fed Eagle, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 23 Nov. 2021, https://www.stlouisfed.org/community-development/publications/invest-in-rural

 

 

Access to Capital and Credit in Native Communities

Year

This report emerges from the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Fund’s commitment to helping Native Communities develop through increased access to capital. The ideas presented are grounded in an understanding of current economic conditions in Native Communities and in established research concerning the drivers of economic change in Native nations. They also reflect voices from the field, a key aspect of the research methodology.

Resource Type
Citation

Native Nations Institute. 2016. Access to Capital and Credit in Native Communities, digital version. Tucson, AZ: Native Nations Institute.

Business Enterprises Toolbox

Year

What do successful businesses and economic development look like in a Native nation? Find out with case studies and research reports on successful and awarded efforts from around the world. Understand how to build and implement business codes, launch your own Limited Liability Company (LLC) and a Federally-Chartered Section 17 Corporation. Read step-by-step examples of codes, charters and by-laws that various Native nations have used to structure their businesses. Explore the breadth and diversity of award winning and internationally recognized programs built and managed by Native nations. Bring lessons to life with beautiful and innovative examples curated through Google Cultural Institute online exhibits. This easy-to-use tool supplies narrated videos, viewing notes, maps, and carefully selected online exhibitions to share the stories of successful business enterprise and programs.

Resource Type
Citation

Business Enterprises Toolbox. 2020. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and Native Nations Institute. https://sites.google.com/view/businessenterprisestoolbox. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. Retrieved on March 14, 2023.

Robert Joseph: History of Maori Governance and Self-Determination

Producer
Native Nations Institute
Year

In this interview, Māori barrister and Senior Lecturer at The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato, Dr. Robert A. Joseph offers his expert analysis of governance and law through the historical perspective of Māori self-governance. Dr. Joseph gives a summary of the complexities of colonization over Māori lands under New Zealand governments and in particular a thorough examination of the Treaty of Waitangi that lays the foundations for the governance relationships of the Māori people with New Zealand governmental relations and society. Included with his historical accounts are the ways that law and jurisdiction intersects with Māori economy that brings together a current context to the way colonization impacts the modern practices of Māori self-determination.

People
Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Native Nations Institute. "Robert Joseph: History of Maori Governance and Self-Determination.” Leading Native Nations, Native Nations Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, December, 2017

Transcript available upon request. Please email: nni@email.arizona.edu

Broken Promises: Continuing Federal Funding Shortfall for Native Americans: Briefing Report

Year

Since our nation’s founding, the United States and Native Americans have committed to and sustained a special trust relationship, which obligates the federal government to promote tribalself-government, support the general wellbeing of Native American tribes and villages, and to protect their lands and resources. In exchange for the surrender and reduction of tribal lands andremoval and resettlement of approximately one-fifth of Native American tribes from their original lands, the United States signed 375 treaties, passed laws, and instituted policies that shape and define the special government-to-government relationship between federal and tribal governments. Yet the U.S. government forced many Native Americans to give up their culture and did not provide adequate assistance to support their interconnected infrastructure, self-governance, housing, education, health, and economic development needs.

Resource Type
Citation

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Broken Promises: Continuing Federal Funding Shortfall for Native Americans. Briefing Report. (December 2018). The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights: Washington, DC. https://www.usccr.gov/pubs/2018/12-20-Broken-Promises.pdf

Dr. Karen Diver: Indigenous autonomy is the way forward

Producer
The Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG)
Year

Dr. Karen Diver spoke at ANZSOG's Reimagining Public Administration conference on February 20, as part of a plenary on International perspectives on Indigenous affairs. The Native American tribal leader and former adviser to President Obama, said that Indigenous communities had been inexorably changed by conflict, and needed to design systems to protect rights and land. She said that autonomy had been shown to be the best way to generate economic growth and address social issues. “Co-design, co-management only works when the other side follows through. Co-ordination needs to give way to autonomy, give us big buckets and freedom to solve problems our own way,” she said. “If the problem is juvenile delinquency, then we know the kids and their families, we know the schools. The solution that we might come up with acknowledges the broader picture.” “The solutions we design are the ones that work.”

People
Resource Type
Topics
Citation

Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG). Feb. 21, 2019. Dr. Karen Diver: Indigenous autonomy is the way forward [video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmYfuhK9JzA&t=2s

Transcripts are available upon request. Please contact the Native Nations Institute for a transcript of this video: nni@email.arizona.edu

Access to Capital and Credit in Native Communities: A Data Review

Year

As the second part of a two-part follow-up to the NALS, this report uses a range of datasets to document the evolution of Native Communities’ capital access since 2001. Its three main sections summarize data describing access to capital and credit for Native consumers, Native business owners, and tribal communities and governments. Its companion document, the Access to Capital and Credit in Native Communities (ACC Report), published in May 2016, identifies success stories within a more detailed topical analysis. The full two-part study is intended to provide research and analysis in support of further improvements in access to capital and credit in Native Communities.

Resource Type
Citation

Miriam Jorgensen and Randall K.Q. Akee. 2017. Access to Capital and Credit in Native Communities: A Data Review, digital version. Tucson, AZ: Native Nations Institute.

Sovereignty and Nation-Building: The Development Challenge in Indian Country Today

Producer
American Indian and Culture Journal
Year

The Indian nations of the United States face a rare opportunity. This is not the occasional business opportunity of reservation legend, when some eager investor would arrive at tribal offices with a proposal guaranteed to produce millions of dollars for the tribe--although such investors still appear, promises in hand. Nor is it the niche economic opportunity of gaming, although that has transformed some tribes' situations in important ways. This opportunity is a political and organizational one. It is a chance to rethink, restructure, reorganize--chance not to start a business or exploit an economic niche but to substantially reshape the future. It is the opportunity for nation-building.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Cornell, Stephen, Joseph P. Kalt. "Sovereignty and Nation-Building: The Development Challenge in Indian Country Today." Joint Occasional Papers on Native Affairs No. 2003-03. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management and Policy, The University of Arizona. Tucson, Arizona. 2003. JOPNA.

Determinantes del Éxito del desarrollo En las Naciones nativas de los Estados Unidos (Spanish)

Year

The poverty of indigenous North Americans, especially those living on reservations, has concerned Indian and federal policymakers for more than a century. After the treaty making phase and the establishment of the reservation system, federal policies to address Native poverty vacillated between cultural assimilation, forced urbanization, and asset privatization, on the one hand, and governmental reorganization, natural resource exploitation, and welfare assistance, on the other.

Recently, however, many resurgent Native nations have created economic growth and accompanying political and social development in their homelands. Despite the difficult road ahead, Native nations in the United States have found successful approaches, and their fortunes have never looked better. 

Resource Type
Citation

Taylor, Jonathan B. "Determinants of Development Success in the Native Nations of the United States." The Harvard Project for American Indian Economic Development, Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy, The University of Arizona. Tucson, Arizona. 2008. Introduction.

Determinantes de sucesso no desenvolvimentodas nacoes Indígenas dos Estados Unidos (Portuguese)

Year

The poverty of indigenous North Americans, especially those living on reservations, has concerned Indian and federal policymakers for more than a century. After the treaty making phase and the establishment of the reservation system, federal policies to address Native poverty vacillated between cultural assimilation, forced urbanization, and asset privatization, on the one hand, and governmental reorganization, natural resource exploitation, and welfare assistance, on the other.

Recently, however, many resurgent Native nations have created economic growth and accompanying political and social development in their homelands. Despite the difficult road ahead, Native nations in the United States have found successful approaches, and their fortunes have never looked better. 

Resource Type
Citation

Taylor, Jonathan B. "Determinants of Development Success in the Native Nations of the United States." The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy, The University of Arizona. Tucson, Arizona. 2008. Introduction