Considerations for successful tribal economic development

In the past 15+ years, Northern California Tribes have emerged as significant political powers and economic contributors to the region. Several, including the Smith River Rancheria, Hoopa Valley Tribe, Karuk Tribe, and Yurok Tribe are self-governance Tribes. They provide direct services to their citizens and are integrally involved in regional, state, and national decision-making bodies concerned with regulation and use of public lands, transportation, infrastructure, police services, healthcare, education, and/or natural resources.

The majority of Tribes make significant contributions to the broader community as well, often in the form of monetary contributions to non-profits, police, and emergency services; developing community infrastructure; providing healthcare and social services; and by leveraging Tribal dollars effectively. Tribes are also major employers in the region. Of the top 50 businesses in Del Norte and Humboldt Counties (by numbers employed) Tribally-owned and operated businesses comprise nearly 20 percent.

Despite these considerable strides in economic development and governance, there continues to be a significant need in Indian Country to ameliorate extremely high rates of unemployment and poverty. The 2005-2009 American Community Survey conducted by the US Census Bureau demonstrate that it is the most remote rural communities that face the biggest economic challenges. It also is the remote communities of Del Norte, Humboldt, and Siskiyou Counties with the largest American Indian populations where poverty is the most pervasive. For example, on trust land of the Karuk Tribe, located in Humboldt and Siskiyou Counties, where 81.5 percent of the population is American Indian, 58.3 percent of families live in poverty-over three times as many as in each of the two Counties (18.2 percent and 15.4 percent respectively) and of the State as a whole (18.4 percent). Similarly, the rural Hoopa Valley Reservation, where 75.9 percent of residents are American Indian, 27 percent live below poverty. Only three Tribal communities-the Blue Lake Rancheria, Elk Valley Rancheria, and Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria-currently have median family incomes that compare favorably to their respective county. Each of these Tribes has a casino, less than 200 residents, and is located in close proximity to the most populated areas in their county.

In my work, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with eleven local Tribes in Del Norte, Humboldt, and Siskiyou Counties. It is apparent that economic development is a strong desire by all of the Tribes and a challenge for most. This is particularly true for the most rural communities as they move away from natural resource extraction-based economies, in the aftermath of the "boom years" of mining, fishing, and timber production. There is also a recognized need for increased opportunities for education and workforce development for their citizens that operates in tandem with economic, community, and governance development.

Perhaps what is not as immediately realized, however, is the need for politics to be separate from business and for increased support for Native entrepreneurship. These two critical components of a healthy and successful Tribal economy are evident in the over 25 years of research conducted by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

As Dr. Stephen Cornell, co-founder of the Harvard Project states, "[Indian] nations don't succeed because they have good assets-people, location, natural resources, education, etc. They succeed because they have organized themselves effectively to make those assets pay off." How this effective organization takes places is by insulating political interference from economic development. This most commonly takes the form of developing an independent Community Development Corporation that is separate from the Tribal Council and political structure to develop, operate, and manage tribal enterprises. Across Indian Country nationally, this has found to be a major key to success noting that "Nation-owned enterprises insulated from political interference are nearly five times as likely to be profitable as those that are not."

Another finding is the importance of small business development through increased entrepreneurship. This involves the Tribe acting in a supportive capacity to provide small business development training, retail space, leverage marketing opportunities, infrastructure, and creating small business incubators. Rather than a Tribal nation seeking out that nation-owned enterprise that provides the "silver bullet" that will remedy all unemployment woes-the old Tribal economic development approach-what has been found to be more successful is having the Tribe support individual citizens to develop their own economic ventures. This can then lead toward community self-sufficiency through increased local purchasing and employment opportunities.

By effectively organizing themselves and supporting small business entrepreneurship, local Tribes will continue to expand their governing and economic independence as a means to move down the desired path of increased self-governance and true nation-building.

Megan Rocha is the Indian Economic and Community Development Specialist at Humboldt State University and previously worked in Self-Governance for the Yurok Tribe. If interested, you may contact her at