News
National Indian conference focusing on economic development
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – American Indian tribes must move beyond reliance on government programs but
they need federal help to do it, a national Indian leader says.
Delegates to the National Congress of American Indians midyear conference say the goal could be difficult
to reach in tough economic times.
By BLAKE NICHOLSON
Associated Press Writer Billings Gazette
"Economic development is essential to tribal self-determination and self-governance," said NCAI President
Tex Hall, chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota.
"We need to move from our grant-dependent mentality" and toward self-sustaining economies on
reservations, he told the hundreds of tribal leaders who gathered at the conference Monday. But federal help
also is needed, he said.
The NCAI, based in Washington, D.C., is the largest tribal government organization in the country,
representing more than 250 tribes. The focus of the midyear conference, which runs through Wednesday, is a
strategy for development on reservations that the NCAI can present to Congress and the Bush administration.
It also is a warm-up for a national conference on tribal economic development Sept. 16-19 in Phoenix.
Unemployment on reservations typically runs at about 50 percent. One of the NCAI’s main goals is to create
100,000 new jobs for the nation’s 4 million Indians by 2010, something Hall acknowledges is "admirable but
aggressive."
W. Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in Washington state, said he thinks the goal can
be reached, even in a tight budget environment.
"Congress has many responsibilities. Without a doubt, fighting terrorism and homeland security are
priorities, but there are other priorities," Allen said. "It has to balance to meet the needs of society, which
American Indians are a part of.
"Nothing is more important than economic development," Allen said. "The current (budget woes) the
government is struggling with is because of the diminished economic base."
Thomas Farquhar, a member of the Tlingit and Haida tribes in Alaska, said tribes across the country must
band together to come up with a development plan.
"Everybody’s cutting back – it’s not just the federal government, it’s also the private sector," he said. "The
economy right now is just not very good. It’s not going to be easy."
Proposals at the NCAI conference include a call for President Bush to require a certain percentage of
federal contracts for tribes, and a call to Congress to pass a national economic stimulus bill for Indians.
Last year, a dozen tribes and Alaska Native corporations formed the Native American National Bank, which
opened its first branch office on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northwest Montana. Many tribes across the
country also have profitable casinos.
"The more we can sustain ourselves, the stronger we become as a sovereign community," said Marcia
Warren Edelman, economic development consultant for NCAI. "The more we’re self-dependent, the more
control we have over how we define ourselves."
Jacqueline Johnson, NCAI executive director, said tribes must take advantage of the power they do have
and ensure "that our era is not the one in which self-determination slipped away."
"Now is not a time when we can afford to be lukewarm in our work," she said.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises
Indians look for U.S. help
The Associated Press
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – Tex Hall has a sweeping vision for the future of the nation’s 4
million American Indians – starting with government investment to jump-start
development on reservations rife with poverty.
Hall, a 45-year-old rancher and former school administrator, was elected president of
the National Congress of American Indians last November. The Washington, D.C.-based
organization is the largest tribal government group in the country, representing more than
250 tribes.
Hall’s plan involves congressional action, a White House initiative, a national bank for American Indians
and 100,000 bison on the Great Plains.
"This is about jobs," Hall said. "This is about getting people off poverty. This is empowering people once
and for all."
He hopes to win support for his plan from 1,500 tribal leaders during the National Congress of American
Indians’ midyear conference in Bismarck, which starts Monday.
Kevin Gover, who headed the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the Clinton administration, said he doubts the
federal government will come up with a development plan for reservations on its own.
"If the tribes are waiting for the BIA to establish self-sustaining economies on reservations, they’re going to
be waiting a long, long time," he said. "This has sort of been the daunting problem that I don’t think any
administration has been able to solve."
Hall is chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes in central North Dakota, which has a thriving casino and
plans for other businesses, including an oil refinery and health care center. He said access to financing is the
biggest roadblock to Indians trying to improve their local economies.
Unemployment on reservations typically runs at about 50 percent, he said, a problem that will only worsen
as tribal populations continue to increase.
He proposes an economic stimulus package that calls for President Bush to mandate a certain
percentage of federal contracts for tribes, and for Congress to aid development projects on reservations. He’s
hoping to meet with either Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney later in the year.
Gregory Gagnon, an associate professor of Indian studies at the University of North Dakota, said he thinks
that tribes have more credibility with Congress than does the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
"The best ideas in Indian policy have always come from the reservations," he said.
Still, he said, there are many roadblocks to economic development on reservations, including lack of
capital, unskilled labor pools and inconsistency in tribal governments.
"If you can get Congress to accept its trust responsibility to provide for the well-being (of tribes) … then
you’ve got a major effort being undertaken, kind of like a war on poverty," he said.
Gover said an economic stimulus package could help, but "in the current budget environment, I don’t see
good prospects for major federal spending to assist the tribes."
Tribes are not looking solely to the government for answers, Hall said. Last year, a dozen tribes and Alaska
Native corporations formed the Native American National Bank, which opened its first branch office on the
Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northwest Montana.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs, which helps tribes with financing, has "too many bureaucratic obstacles," Hall
said.
"Private banks are more willing to lend to individual Indians or Indian tribes if they know there’s a
guarantee," he said. "Right now the only game in town is the BIA. Millions of dollars of loan guarantees are not
utilized. We strongly believe that we have to have our own banking system."
Hall also wants to cultivate a new generation of Indian leaders connected to the modern world but also with
ties to the past. He does not rule out a possible run for Congress or statewide office.
Previous efforts to improve the economies of reservations have failed because lawmakers had no
connection to the Indian lifestyle, Hall said. He vowed to change that.
"For once in our lifetime, we’ll get it right," he said.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises
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