Rez Biz – Growing Native Economies

Despite the recent relative economic success of casino gambling on some Indian reservations throughout America, Indian Country and Native individuals generally remain low on the nation’s economic ladder, with many tribes mired in seemingly perpetual poverty, facing unemployment rates as high as 60 percent, and their physical infrastructure in shambles. That’s the bad news. The good news is that after a century of struggle and limited opportunities, many tribes are beginning to create viable economic engines, and thousands of Indian individuals are taking the plunge into the realm of business start-ups and economic development. These range from mom-and-pop entepreneurial operations to multinational corporations traded on the NASDAQ exchange.

by: Rob McDonald (Confederated Tribes of the Salish and Kootenai) is the higher education reporter at The Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, Washington.

http://www.nativepeoples.com/

"I am encouraged by what we see. There is a long history of tribal enterprises working with federal agencies, but today tribes are increasingly seeking to diversify their economies and are making smart moves to create healthy business environments," says Andrew Lee (Seneca), executive director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

"I think the picture is very promising," says Caleene Jones-Newman (Lumbee), vice president of the Native American Business Alliance, who directs her own personnel management company, Arrowhead Resources, near Detroit. "But Native Americans have come to the minority-owned business table late-in fact, we are the last minority to do so. Why is this? I would suggest a factor is that traditional cultural standards do not encourage us to succeed in business-our attitude has always been, ‘We only need enough to get by now,’ which is not a good business model. But, we are learning-fast."

Statistics from the U.S. Small Business Administration bear this out. There are a surprising 197,000 businesses owned and operated by Native Americans in the U.S., totaling some $34 billion in annual sales and employing some 300,000 people.

Oklahoma is perhaps the heart of private Indian-owned and -operated businesses. "I’m very pleased by what we see here in Oklahoma," says Dan Bigby (Cherokee), president-elect of the American Indian Chamber of Commerce of Oklahoma. His own a film and video company, Bigby Production, was launched 10 years ago. "The chamber’s membership, currently 600 members, continues to grow, and we’re seeing more start-ups and a higher survival rate. A lot of Native businesses are prospering here, running from A (appraisals) to W (wiring). I would suggest we are suited for business, as Natives were once tremendous traders and hunters-activities that take planning, group interaction and good execution. The skills are there. It’s a question of attitude."

Some Native companies are actually thriving on an international level, such as the Indigenous Global Development Corp. of San Francisco, led by Harvard University graduate Deni Leonard (Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon). The NASDAQ-traded company just concluded negotiations to purchase $1.7 billion in natural gas from Canadian First Nation governments for a power plant to be built in Washington. "We see a tremendous potential for a common market with Indigenous governments throughout the world," he says. "Good leadership with economic vision can and will overcome inadequate resource bases and historic poverty. But as we succeed, I expect we will face a political and social backlash."

Other classic impediments still face tribal development, such as the fact (for better or worse) that tribal lands are held in trust by the federal government and cannot be used as business collateral, historically hindering tribes’ access to financial resources. "We’re land rich, but often dirt poor," notes Pete Homer, founder and director of the National Indian Business Association of Washington. "But we’re very encouraged-we’ve seen a 76 percent increase in the number of Native businesses over the past decade, and we are becoming a significant portion of the nation’s economic picture."

These business span a tremendous range, including small businesses. Kabotie Software Technologies in Lakewood, Colorado, specializes in software development and applications; Lakota Express under Karlene Hunter in Kyle, South Dakota, focuses on direct mail and marketing services; Nakota Designs of Denver provides fine graphic design and production; DataCom Sciences of Albuquerque provides information systems, collection and analysis; Indians and Cowboys, under Mary Jane Banfield and Eric Thomas (Narragansett) of Rhode Island, operates a production facility specializing in Native-themed dinnerware; and Native American Photovoltaics of Winslow, Arizona, is providing PV systems to off-grid homes on the Navajo Reservation on both a for-profit and nonprofit basis.

And there are tribal endeavors. The Morongo Band of Mission Indians in California has partnered with Nestle to open a $26 million Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water plant; the Chickasaw Tribe of Oklahoma owns and directs the very successful Bank2; and the Jicarilla Apache of New Mexico recently opened a full-service supermarket and hardware store. In Canada, the Cree have owned and operated a regional airline, Air Creebec, since 1982 that employees 185 people today. Almost everywhere you look, a new dawn is breaking over Indian Country in which Native people will control their own economic destiny.

Now join us for a look at 11 leading Native American business leaders and 10 Native-owned businesses that show the strength, diversity and promise of economic development of Native American tribes, entrepreneurs, nonprofits and other parties, both on and off the reservations. -Daniel Gibson

Phillip Martin (Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians)
by Barbara Powell

It was 1955, and 29-year-old Phillip Martin was coming home after 10 years traveling the world as a member of the U.S. Air Force. A decade had passed, yet nothing had changed on the reservation of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

Despite having become a sovereign nation the same year Martin enlisted in the Air Force, the tribe remained desperately poor, among the poorest groups in arguably the poorest state in America. Picking cotton in the brutally humid Southern heat for a few dollars a day was the closest most tribal members came to a real job. "I was looking for a job, but there were no jobs on the reservation," Martin remembers. "I went all over, from Memphis to Pascagoula, looking for employment."

Almost half a century later on a recent weekday morning, the chairman of Hard Rock International, known for its string of successful restaurants, stood next to Martin inside the newest Hard Rock Café. The setting: Pearl River Resort, a shimmering $600 million gaming and outdoor entertainment mecca owned and operated by the Choctaw on their Mississippi reservation.

Still raven haired at 77, Martin, the tribe’s elected chief and head of its tribal council since 1979, handled the traditional launch of a Hard Rock Café that day, vigorously smashing a Gibson Epiphone Special guitar on the café’s polished concrete floor. "Who would have thought that Hard Rock Café would be in Neshoba County? Not me," a broadly smiling Martin said as he held up the mangled guitar by its broken strings.

Poverty to Economic Powerhouse
More important, who would have thought the 9,000-member tribe could remake itself in less than two generations into an economic powerhouse whose string of self-sustaining businesses generates $450 million a year and provides a job for any tribal member who needs one? Martin, recently elected to his seventh consecutive term as tribal chief, offers a four-word explanation: "We developed an economy."

Specifically, what the tribe did was embrace Martin’s vision that entrepreneurship could make the Choctaw self-sufficient. Fueling the Choctaw’s renaissance was Martin’s unyielding drive backed by the tribe’s governing structure, under which the council functions as a corporate board of directors with Martin as CEO and tribal members essentially shareholders.

The tribe also became more savvy at attracting federal aid. Business profits are leveraged by federal subsidies to provide improved services for the Choctaw community, including a 43-bed hospital, eight schools, 3-percent mortgage rates and free college. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government ranks the tribe among the most economically successful of the nation’s 559 federally recognized tribes. "They were in economic shambles, but now this is a tribe that is doing it all and doing it right," says Andrew Lee, executive director of the Harvard Project. "Self-determination is a vision that has served them well."

Just 40 years ago, tribal unemployment was 80 percent, 88 percent of households had annual incomes under $3,000 and only about two dozen tribal members could say they had at least some college. But Martin noticed that Mississippi was beginning to attract small industries, and he thought the Choctaw’s development of their own industries was an attainable goal. "I said to the council, ‘If we don’t create jobs, we will always be on welfare and our young people will always be leaving.’" The tribal council agreed. But it took more than 20 years for the Choctaw to open their first business.

In 1979, Packard Electronics was looking to partner with a minority supplier to make wire harnesses for General Motors Corp. The tribe, which had built an industrial park but hadn’t been able to attract businesses to it, was interested in Packard’s project, but it needed money. Martin haunted the corridors of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, lobbying for a business loan under the Indian Finance Act. The act guarantees repayment of up to 90 percent of a loan. After six months, Martin-who jokes, "They got tired of seeing me in Washington"-got a $2 million federally backed loan. And the Choctaw had their first business venture.

25 Businesses and Counting
Today the tribe oversees 22 businesses and is majority owner in three additional joint ventures. Its biggest endeavor is Pearl River Resort, whose two casinos make the tribe the third-largest Indian gaming operator, behind Connecticut’s Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans. The tribe has created 8,000 jobs, more than 60 percent of which are held by non-tribal members, and estimates its annual economic impact on Mississippi at $1.2 billion.

Furthermore, more than 400 tribal members were enrolled in college by 2003. In fact, times are so good that the tribe’s young adults-the majority of whom choose to live and work for a tribal enterprise or government service-know the hard times only as tales told by their parents. "I heard all the stories about how our whole family had to go out and pick cotton," says Jason York, 28, who works at the tribe’s Golden Moon Casino/Hotel as an assistant general manager and whose father is now a school principal. "But when I was growing up we already had an industrial park and the wire harness plant, so the lifestyle was already a lot better than for my parents."

Within the tribe, members don’t always agree. Of the seven distinct Choctaw communities, two have chosen to not enter into the tribe’s constitution. Martin himself says of his tribe that "everybody is not 100 percent" behind the council’s decisions. But Martin handily won re-election in June. Tribal members apparently agree with Andrew Lee that Martin’s leadership has played a crucial role in the tribe’s success.

"Look around you," says Bob Tubby, an employee at the Choctaw health care center. "In a small place like this, to put together something like this-he’s a visionary, and the right man for the right time."

Barbara Powell lives in Jackson, Mississippi. She has been a professional journalist for 15 years, working for major daily newspapers in Louisiana, Texas and Florida. She is currently a business reporter for the Associated Press.

Dave Anderson (Chippewa/Choctaw)

After a medley of business successes and failures, Dave Anderson found the right recipe when he opened his first Famous Dave’s BBQ Shack in Hayward, Wisconsin, in 1994. His smoked-rib restaurant echoed the feel of America’s back-road barbeque joints, and, combined with his award-winning food, the smiling face of "Famous Dave" quickly became a recognizable icon of casual dining coast to coast.

Today Anderson, founder and chairman of Famous Dave’s of America, owns restaurants in 43 locations and has franchised another 41 restaurants in 23 states. The company also has development agreements under way for an additional 148 restaurants.
The self-made man, a strong believer in the power of the Lord and making one’s own goals a reality, was nominated in in September to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Details: 952/294-1300 or http://www.famousdaves.com

Howard Frederick (Turtle Mt. Band of Chippewa)

A college degree launched Howard Frederick’s career, because at the time few other tribal members had attained the same level of education. The CEO of Uniband, a data "capture," entry, coding, scanning, formatting, etc. service company on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota, graduated with a business administration degree from Minot State University in 1967.

Frederick worked as an IRS agent for two years before coming home to run a U.S. Department of Labor Manpower program with 400 employees. In 1975, he began a 24-year career with a local school district as a finance director. He first joined Uniband at 53, then left it briefly to start his own business, eventually selling it and returning to Uniband.

The tribally owned company has 80 employees, $5 million in projected sales for 2003 and the opportunity for growth. "The community has taken on a whole new complexion," Frederick states. "We have an abundance of young people coming back with educations." Details: 800/254-0650 or http://www.uniband.com

Marie Greene (Inupiaq)

Marie Greene grew up listening to reports from the president of the NANA Corporation, one of Alaska’s 13 Native-owned regional corporations (see Sept./Oct. 2003 issue), not knowing that one day she would be its president. NANA’s performance affected just about everything in the Nana region, 38,000 square miles in northwest Alaska, mostly north of the Arctic Circle, home of the Inupiaq.

Greene never left her small village until high school. When she attended business school in San Jose, California, she’d say hi to everyone she met, like at home. "My upbringing was living off the land," says the 57-year-old. "I credit the whole village for raising me."

Now at the helm of the billion-dollar corporation, with some 29 companies on board, Greene is the one presenting the NANA reports. A mentor once urged her to run for mayor, and an Alaska senator offered her a job in Washington, D.C. "Everything was lined up for me." She chose to serve at home. "I don’t regret it." Details: 907/442-3301 or http://www.nana.com

Ray Halbritter (Oneida)

Ray Halbritter has led the transformation of the Oneida Tribe of central New York from perpetual poverty to economic and political powerhouse.

As the Nation Representative since 1975 and tribal CEO since 1990, he negotiated the first tribal gaming compact with the state of New York and oversees the tribe’s Turning Stone Casino Resort, Indian Country Today (the country’s leading weekly Native newspaper), a television/film production company called Four Winds Media, Inc., a chain of gas stations/smoke shops, three marinas, and a herd of black angus beef cows. He’s also launching an air charter service called Four Directions Air.

Turning Stone alone is a major endeavor. It employs about 3,300 people and is estimated by the tribe to inject some $310 million annually into the regional economy in spending on payroll, goods and services, and capital and construction projects. The resort’s income has also funded a new tribal elders center, community center and health facility, as well as the purchase of 16,000 acres of ancestral land.

Yet the Harvard Law School graduate is a controversial business and political figure. Critics, who include his first cousins, paint him as a power-hungry bully who’s lost touch with his traditions. "Our members don’t need the Indian Health Service anymore," Halbritter responds. "That’s sovereignty." Details: 315/829-8399 or http://www.oneida-nation.net

Don Kelin (Caddo)

The key to running Caddo Office Products, says company president and CEO Don Kelin, is putting Native Americans in crucial leadership roles. The Denver-based company competes nationally against the likes of Office Depot, Staples and Boise Cascade, but is carving out a niche in this tough field. His company, founded in 1990, employs 20 people, contracts with another 50 and is looking to expand to 300 employees.

"I call myself an ‘Indiantrepreneur,’" says the former college football player, who today also makes a point of speaking to groups of Indian youth on the fact it’s okay to be financially successful. "It’s okay if you want to go into the business world," I tell them. "It’s okay if you have a three-car garage. It’s okay if you weren’t raised on a reservation. It doesn’t mean you aren’t Indian. Indian is in your heart." Details: 303/534-3252 or http://www.caddosupplies.com

Gene Keluche (Wintu)

Gene Keluche grew up a foster child, unaware of his roots among the Wintu people of northern California. Eventually, however, he met the woman who had translated for his grandfather, a spiritual leader, and was reunited with his tribe. Elders in his re-claimed family advised him to sell the business he had built into a very successful enterprise, International Conference Resorts, which he did in 2001.

Today, Keluche is chairman of two enterprises, Native Communities Development Corp. and Native American Resorts, and one nonprofit organization, the Native American Sports Council.

He’s also pursuing a doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania to focus on creating natural resource planning models to help tribal leaders negotiate development deals. "On a continuing basis, I’ve seen tribes, through BIA leadership or lack of leadership, being piecemealed in negotiations," Keluche explains. "The tribe is often left with a checkerboard land mass and no way to go forward in developing it." But change is coming. Tribes and non-tribal entities are "becoming much more aware of their economic interdepedance." Details: 719/632-5282 or http://www.nascsports.org

Lance Morgan (Ho-Chunk)

Lance Morgan wanted the trappings of success that he never had as a child. With education-oriented parents, the 35-year-old Morgan earned an economics degree at the University of Nebraska and then a law degree at Harvard.

The CEO of Ho-Chunk, Inc., the Nebraska Winnebago corporation overseeing the Ho-Chunk tribe’s non-gaming businesses, says, "I got lucky. I earned my law degree just as Indian gaming took off [which provided the tribe with its first economic development funds]. I got to lead early, and I was fortunate not to have totally messed it up."

Ho-Chunk Inc.’s revenue topped $100 million in 2002, with diverse companies including home manufacturing, construction, a chain of retail stores, an Internet material goods business (www.AllNative.com) and an Internet news site (www.Indianz.com).

"We’re a tribe that makes only a few million a year on the casino side," Morgan notes. "There is an economic renaissance in Indian county right now and it’s all over the country." Details: 800/439-7008 or http://www.hochunkinc.com

Anthony Pico (Kumeyaay)

"People have asked me about our success," says Anthony Pico, chairman since 1982 of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, located near San Diego, California. "As if I’m going to tell them something they don’t know. After working 16-hour days, six and seven days a week," he jokes, "You just get lucky."

Among the tribe’s economic ventures are the Viejas Casino, RV parks, the Viejas Outlet Center and a majority interest in Borrego Springs Bank. In April 2003 the band formed Four Fires LLC with three other tribes to build a 13-story Residence Inn by Marriott in Washington, D.C.

Building tribal economies is a tough slug, but public relations is the ultimate battleground, Pico says. "I strongly believe that in the end, the voting public will decide the fate of Native Americans." Details: 619/455-3810 or http://www.viejas.com

Kenneth Reels (Mashantucket Pequot)

Kenneth Reels, 43, has led one of the wealthiest Indian nations, the Mashantucket Pequot tribe of Connecticut, owner of the Foxwoods Resort Casino, through the thickets of despair into the sunlit meadow of success-but it hasn’t been an easy stroll.

Reels, elected tribal chairman in 1999 and today tribal council economic development chairman, notes, "We have been attacked by everybody. What we’re doing is trying to educate the world that we’ve always been here."

With its gaming income, the tribe has donated $10 million to the National Museum of the American Indian, built a community center and a Child Development Center, and purchased back former tribal lands. The tribe also built and operates a $193 million museum that details the Mashantucket Pequots’ history-history that’s proven vital to reasserting their identity.

"The western tribes are starting to look at what’s happened in the East," Reels says. "They’re coming for your land now. They’re coming fast. Pay attention. If you don’t, you’ll lose it." Details: 860/396-6500 or http://www.pequotmuseum.org

Tracy Stanhoff (Prairie Band Potawatomi/Choctaw/)

Tracy Stanhoff’s grandfather, a full-blood Choctaw, wanted her to start a greeting card business because she often drew pictures. "He had a plan for us that we would all be self-sufficient and on our own," she recalls.

At age 26, this middle child of five started a public relations firm out of her home in southern California, where she grew up. Now, 15 years later, her Ad Pro clients range from start-ups to the Walt Disney Company and the National Congress of American Indians.

In 2000, Stanhoff was named Indian Business Owner of the Year by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. But experience has taught her that success does not come easily. "Get a good education and find a good mentor," she advises. Details: 714/898-6364 or http://www.adproweb.comDogrib Tribe: Diamonds Are a Tribe’s Best Friend

Young people in the village of Rae-Edzo in the Northwest Territories of Canada are wearing T-shirts these days stating "Diamonds are a Dogrib’s Best Friend." The Dogrib tribe (also known as the Tlicho First Nation) has a business enterprise, Deton’Cho Investments, which owns 13 companies; but its newest-a diamond venture-could prove to be a real jackpot for the formerly impoverished nation.

Under General Manager Neil McFadden, Deton’Cho is now operating a diamond cutting and polishing business using diamonds from two mines located on tribal lands with new global partner Schacter and Namdar.

The company, Canada Dene Diamonds, is expected to gross $35 million (Canadian) in 2003. "It just takes a small handful of diamonds to make a million dollars," McFadden notes. Foreign technicians are currently working the rough diamonds, which come to the plant looking like pieces of a broken windshield, but over time Aboriginal workers will learn to master the trade, McFadden says.

In addition, the 4,000-member tribe recently signed an agreement with the Canadian government that gives them complete control over hunting, fishing and industrial development on the 15,000-square-mile reserve, as well as all resource royalties. This includes a stake in the proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline project worth an estimated $4 billion. Details: 867/873-8951

Jamestown Seafood: A Natural Enterprise

Geoduck, anyone? Divers plunge 70 feet down to the seafloor to retrieve an increasingly popular shellfish, a giant clam called a geoduck, for the Jamestown Seafood company. The company, owned by the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe of northwest Washington state, ships about 300,000 pounds of geoduck a year.

Plant manager Klayton Waldron supervises dives off the Olympic Peninsula from April to November, as well as the collection of Dungeness crab and Manila clams, which are distributed live to retail and wholesale clients from San Francisco to China and New York.

"All the divers are tribal," says the 24-year-old Waldron, but crab and clams are also purchased from local fishermen. The experienced voice, he tries to keep everything running smoothly. "You can plan all you want, but everything is by the seat of your pants. That’s just the nature of working with live seafood." Details: 360/683-2482 or http://www.shellfishnw.com

Native American Bank: The Buck Starts Here

The Native American Bank was launched in 2001 by a handful of tribal governments to provide sorely needed economic resources and tools for development in Indian Country and to highlight the economic power of tribes.

It began with the purchase of Blackfeet National Bank in Browning, Montana, and today includes investments by the Arctic Slope Regional Corp., the Blackfeet Nation, the Eastern Shoshone, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, the Navajo Nation, the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin, Sealaska Corp., the Three Affiliated Tribes, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Mashantucket Pequot Nation.

As of July 2003, the enterprise had lent some $9 million to more than 525 borrowers, helping to launch several successful businesses. "In five years, Native American Bank will be the most active provider of financial services to Indian communities, with offices throughout Indian Country," predicts John Beirise, company president and CEO. Details: 303/988-2727 or http://www.nabna.com

Red Man Pipe & Supply: Delivering America’s Energy

Founded in 1977 by Lewis B. Ketchum (Delaware), Red Man Pipe & Supply has grown from a small Oklahoma distributor of pipe, valves, fittings, consumable industrial supplies, oilfield products, and tubular goods to a major business employing over 800 people in 78 locations. This year, projected gross sales will exceed $500 million.

Ketchum, a former Delaware tribal chief, died in 1995 but his eldest son, Craig Ketchum, carries on as CEO and President. He joined Red Man in 1979 and served the company in assignments at Ardmore, Oklahoma, Denver, and Dallas before coming to the corporate headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

"Craig is dedicated to the tribe and staying close to them," says Randy Adams, vice president of sales and marketing. While the company does not do a lot of business directly with tribes, they do service many oil companies drilling on tribal lands. Details: 918/250-8541 or http://www.red-man.com

Zuni Furniture: Carving Out a Niche

For 11 years, Zuni Furniture Enterprises, a consignment business owned and operated by Zuni Pueblo of New Mexico, sold custom woodwork pieces like dressers and card holders adorned with handpainted Zuni designs. Then, about 18 months ago, Sterling Tipton, a tribal member, oilman and international consultant, came home with his family and took over the shop.

By upping some prices and creating a more productive work area, annual sales shot up from $40,000 to about $150,000 a year, Tipton says, with sales being made as far away as Pittsburgh. Recently, a Connecticut man visited the shop and put the company’s work on the cover of Wood Shop News magazine. "We’re building up our stock and trying to get all this stuff copyrighted," Tipton says, with the goal of appealing to collectors of fine furniture. Details: 505/782-5855

Native American Botanics: a Wealth of Possibilities

Bill Quiroga (Pascua Yaqui) is eyeing Mother Earth as a natural source of healthy income. For 20 years, he ran nonprofit organizations like the Tucson, Arizona Indian Center before returning to the University of Arizona to earn an MBA. Now he’s nurturing a start-up business-Native American Botanics-inside an old trailer on his home ground, the Pascua Yaqui Reservation southwest of Tucson.

The tribe financed the business by supplying low-interest loans, Quiroga says. His infant company is researching how to grow traditional herbs using the latest hydroponic technologies (plants grown solely in water) in order to achieve consistent potencies, in an effort to help tribes preserve their traditional medicines. At this point, most grown products are given away to promote the quality of the herbs, and the company is seeking investors to kick-start the company. "We’re ready to turn a corner here with investor dollars," Quiroga says. Details: 520/883-8300

Red Deer Ranch: Money on the Hoof

Some tribes are raising buffalo as a source of income, but several years ago the Potawatomi Tribe of Wisconsin chose to focus on "farming" deer. Judging by the success of a new marketing campaign begun in July, it’s beginning to pay off.

The deer ranch operates on 380 acres of tribal lands within the Nicolet National Forest and currently has 740 red deer, a European breed that grows larger than American breeds. The deer are processed by an off-site butcher who produces choice cuts, summer sausage and jerky. These are then sold by distributors to local grocery stores and the tribe’s casino restaurant.

"We’re hoping to hit $100,000 in sales this year," says Guy Quimby, sales and marketing director. "It’s been a long time in the making. There’s been a couple times when we thought they were going to pull the plug on it, but this year things have fallen into place." Details: 715/674-4502 or http://www.reddeerranch.com

Colville Tribes: A Regional Economic Power

The Colville Tribal Enterprise Corporation, which employs 1,000 people, is the third-largest minority-owned firm in Washington state and the largest in eastern Washington.

CTEC, a venture of the 12 confederated Colville bands, grosses about $100 million annually from a variety of enterprises, including timber-based industries, casinos, a credit union and tourism ventures on Lake Roosevelt.

For example, they’ve just completed a $20 million renovation of an old sawmill to start a veneer and plywood manufacturing operation, which will simultaneously generate electricity through incineration of wood waste products.

"The last two years have been very busy and full of challenges, but I think we are getting to the point of almost being on top of everything and starting into smoother times," states Sharon Holmbahl, chief financial officer and tribal member. Details: 509/633-2822 or http://www.colvilletribes.com/ctec.htm

Rosebud Sioux Tribe: Putting the Wind to Work

A 190-foot-tall windmill spins on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation of South Dakota, generating enough energy to power 250 homes a year. For now, the electricity is fed into the local power grid and sold, generating revenue for the financially strapped tribe.

The towering structure, dedicated in May 2003, is a monument to the partnership formed by the tribe and NativeEnergy, a non-tribal, Vermont-based business. The environmentally friendly company, led by Tom Boucher, stepped in when the U.S.’s Department of Energy grant failed to cover the project’s costs. NativeEnergy paid the tribe up front in exchange for the project’s "green tags," energy certificates that were sold to Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, the Dave Matthews Band and other parties wanting to support renewable energy use.

The tribe hopes this endeavor is but the first breath in a much larger wind-energy development. It is estimated that the two dozen Indian reservations on the northern Plains have a combined wind power potential exceeding 300 gigawatts-about half the current electrical generation capacity of the entire nation. Details: 800/924-6826 or http://www.nativeenergy.com

Sitting Bull College: Where Education Builds Business

In the mid-1990s, Sitting Bull College of Fort Yates, North Dakota, one of the 35 U.S. tribal colleges, was successfully graduating students in construction trades, but few were landing jobs in the field. So, four years ago, Ron McNeil, college president, boldly decided to build a college-owned construction company to employ these students and serve as an economic catalyst for the Standing Rock Sioux Nation.

The resulting Sitting Bull Construction Company doesn’t yet turn a profit, but it’s helped in the building of a cultural center and new housing on the reservation, says Sterling St. John, director of development for the college. "Initially, it was not designed to bring a profit," he explains. "The real profit was in landing community projects that also give students building experience. A few of them still leave the reservation, but most learn their skills here." Details: 701/854-3861

Rob McDonald (Confederated Tribes of the Salish and Kootenai) is the higher education reporter at The Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, Washington.