creating indigenous economies and sustainable communities
DESCRIPTION
By Robert MillerTRANSCRIPT
CREATING INDIGENOUS ECONOMIES ANDSUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
Professor Robert MillerLewis & Clark Law SchoolPortland, Oregon
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Traditional American Indian property regimes & rights
• Successfully supported for centuries with agriculture & hunting & fishing
• Private & community property rights• Trade networks & economic systems• Intellectual property rights• Self-sufficiency is self-determination
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Euro-American impacts
• Land dispossession• Dependency theory• U.S. legal claims –Discovery Doctrine• U.S. constitution, laws, treaties• Removal, Reservation, Allotment, Termination
eras
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BUSINESS OWNERSHIP PER CAPITABUSINESSES PER THOUSAND POPULATION
STATE OF OREGON
81.8
28.37
27.86
56.96
14.3
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
RATE/1,000
WHITE
BLACK
HISPANIC
ASIAN/PI
NATIVEAMERICAN
Source: 1992 Census of Business© ONABEN 1997
COMMUNITY EFFECTS
• Poverty-related education, economic, social & health issues
• Community cohesion• Family stability• Long term perspective• Self-Determination
Community Benefits
• EARNED INCOME
• CONTAINING “LEAKAGE”
• EMPLOYMENT and TRAINING
• INFLUENCE
Onaben’s conclusions
• Small business ownership is a critical element in community stability
• Small business ownership is unequally distributed• Everyone benefits from equality of ownership• Creating business ownership depends on thoughtful
adaptations of prevailing models
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Self-Determination and effective governance creates
environments in which individuals (tribal citizens &
others) will invest time, energy, ideas, & money.
What does effective governance involve?
Stability in the rules & lawsSeparation of politics from business managementEffective and non-politicized dispute resolution A bureaucracy that can get things done
Economic development obstacles
• Attracting investments $$, time and laws• Rural areas• Land in “trust” & federal approvals• Credit & potential • Tribal courts & U.S. & tribal bureaucracies• Sovereign immunity• Political instability• Economic education & experience
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Potential
• Poverty is not an Indian cultural trait• Improved education & health levels• Tribal gov’ts – to assist & be clients – “Buy
Indian Acts”• Onaben, 4 Bands Comm. Fund, Lakota Fund• U.S. government – Buy Indian Act (1910).• Multiplier effect & stop “leakage” (Montana
tribal study)
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U.S. “Buy Indian” Act – 25 USC 47
• 1910- “That so far as may be practicable Indian labor shall be employed, and purchases of the products of Indian industry may be made in the open market in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior.”
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