Tribes can encourage entrepreneurs, expert says

By Heidi Bell Gease, Journal staff | Wednesday, February 21, 2007

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RAPID CITY -- American Indian entrepreneurs can bring great benefits to reservations, but an expert in economic development in Indian Country said Wednesday that tribal leaders must do their part to help entrepreneurs succeed.

“Citizen entrepreneurs cannot make this happen on their own,” said Stephen Cornell, director of the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at the University of Arizona and co-director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

Cornell was the keynote speaker at the South Dakota Indian Business Conference, which continues today at the Ramkota Best Western Inn.

Cornell said he and others are seeing a shift in Indian economies from a longtime dependence on “transfer funds” from the federal government to productive economies that are generating jobs and income from within.

“It’s about Indian nations finding new ways to give their peoples opportunities” to live satisfying lives in Indian Country, Cornell said.

According to the Census Bureau, there were 197,300 native-owned firms in the U.S. in 1997, a figure that included tribal enterprises such as casinos. In 2002, there were 206,125, a number that did not include tribal enterprise.

Indian-owned businesses on reservations can generate jobs, build wealth throughout the reservation, diversify tribal economies, retain local talent, improve quality of life and strengthen tribal sovereignty by reducing dependence on outside resources, Cornell said.

Those businesses can also send an important message to residents, especially youths. “When they see businesses sprouting up, they see hope,” Cornell said.

But instead of making it easy for people to go into business on the reservation, tribal governments often make it more difficult. Cornell gave the example of a reservation with high unemployment, many would-be entrepreneurs and a large local market.

Most reservation land was owned by the tribe, which had a site leasing procedure that involved more than 100 steps. As a result, Cornell said, Indian entrepreneurs chose to open businesses in a nearby border town where they could open their doors within 30 days.

Cornell listed three key things tribes can do to support entrepreneurs: change attitudes, make investments and change institutions.

Changing attitudes could mean regarding tribal entrepreneurs as partners in meeting reservation needs, rather than as competition for tribal enterprises. It could also mean changing cultural attitudes so that residents see locally owned businesses as helping rebuild communities and families.

Cornell said tribal investment in local business includes such things as improving infrastructure, providing loan funds and offering ongoing support to new businesses.

But the most important thing tribes can do is make institutional changes, Cornell said. A big part of that is providing independent tribal courts that can settle business disputes fairly, without influence from tribal politics.

Tribes also need to set sensible business regulations and adopt commercial codes that outline things like legal responsibilities and business requirements, Cornell said.

According to a news release from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, people attending the South Dakota Indian Business Conference will be asked immediately after the conference to help build a new coalition dedicated to the growth of thriving Indian businesses. For more information, call Dani Daugherty at 225-2232 or Kim Tilsen-Braveheart at 430-3535.

Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com