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• 1 2021-04-19T17:19:58+00:00 Tribal Businesses 1 plain 2021-04-19T17:19:58+00:00

  Tribally-owned businesses became fairly common after the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. The federal government encouraged, funded, and supervised cooperatives that sold wild rice or beadwork, for example, but these businesses were short-lived. During the War on Poverty in the 1960s and early 1970s, tribes could receive federal funds to establish “industrial parks” with water, sewer, and electrical services to attract outside investors, but non-Indian firms were reluctant to invest on reservations where they would be subject to Indian sovereignty. And the federal government was pushing manufacturing enterprises at a time when the national economy was moving toward service industries. By the 1980s and 1990s, tribes began to exert economic sovereignty, making their own decisions about the kinds of businesses they wanted and how these businesses would be managed. In the Great Lakes area, casinos opened on all the reservations, but so did a variety of other kinds of businesses, many of which now compete in a global market.

  Tribal businesses operate on tribally-owned “trust” land, where the profits are not taxable by the county, state, or federal government. When land is in trust status, it cannot be used as collateral for loans for capital to start or expand a business. The tax exemption in effect serves to offset the problem tribes have in raising capital. Tribes use their own funds (from business profits, for example) or apply for planning grants to start new businesses. Today businesses are thriving, in large part because tribal members view them as culturally appropriate, supportive of their community, and under Native management. Tribal businesses provide jobs for tribal members, helping to relieve a significant unemployment and underemployment problem on reservations. The income earned on the reservation is now more likely to be spent on reservations, where tribes and individual tribal members operate gas stations, convenience stores, and other small businesses. And tribal businesses make a major contribution to the wider, local economy, often as the largest employer in the region. Tribal businesses also pay a state excise tax on products sold to non-members.

  What kinds of tribally-owned businesses are there?

  Menominee Tribal Enterprises (Menominee-owned sawmill), Neopit, WI

  After the Menominees succeeded in gaining control of their forest land and their sawmill in 1976, they changed management practices there, although the federal government remains as trustee, since the forest is on trust land. Under tribal management, there is a policy of retaining a stock of older, large trees instead of cutting the high-quality trees for maximum profit. They support all 16 species of trees, not just the most commercially profitable ones. The goal of forest management is to preserve the forest resources and protect the sawmill business for future generations of Menominee, as well as to support the health of the ecosystem generally. This sustainable management philosophy resulted in the Menominee Tribal Enterprises (the elected board of directors) receiving the United Nations's Award on Sustainable Development in 1995. The sawmill produces 14 percent of the sawmilling output in northern Wisconsin. Lumber, wood products, saw logs, and veneer are sold, and the forest products are certified as sustainably harvested. The business contributes over a million dollars a year to the local economy and hires 300 people (160 in the mill alone). Photo by Dale Kakkak, courtesy of College of Menominee Nation.

  Oneida Nation Farms, Seymour, WI

  The business started in 1992 with 300 acres and 30 head of cattle. Today, it is one of the largest cash crop farms in northeast Wisconsin. The Farms employs tribal and non-tribal members and produces income for the Nation. The Oneida Nation owns over 10,000 agriculture crop acres in corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and winter wheat. Some is used for feed for the Farms's stock and most is sold to local markets and farmers through the Oneida Orchard Retail Store, which also sells 30 varieties of apples grown in the Nation's orchards. Oneida Nation Farms raises 150 Black Angus cows with calves at side and about 150 head of feeder stock. The herd is fed no steroids, hormones, antibiotics, or animal byproducts. Feeder stock is sold as processed beef at the Retail Store. All processed meat is state inspected. The Farms also raises 100 head of buffalo and sells individual cuts of meat at the Retail Store. The herd is grass fed, supplemented with hay and grain feed. Tanned hides also are sold. Photo courtesy of Oneida Nation Farm.

  Red Lake Fisheries, Redby, MN

  Members of the Red Lake Nation are employed as fishermen and as workers in a processing plant. Six fishermen are hired to use nets to pull walleye in the summer when the fish move to deeper water, and tribal members sell fish caught by hook and line to the processing plant. Anglers can bring in up to 100 fish a day. Fishing for walleye is the result of a massive restocking project on Red Lake, financed by the tribe and the state. Tribal members began fishing commercially with gill nets in Red Lake in 1930. Hundreds earned a living this way until the 1990s. The fish had practically disappeared due to overfishing and poor regulation. The recovery project restored the walleye population, and now the tribe and the state cooperate to regulate fishing. The Red Lake Nation controls 83 percent of the upper and lower Red Lake, and only tribal members are allowed to fish there. The northeast corner of the lake is under state jurisdiction. At the processing plant, 24 employees fillet walleye on the plant's processing line (shown above). Red Lake Nation Foods (another tribally-owned business) markets the fish, selling close to 30,000 pounds of fish and frozen walleye to wholesale markets, grocery stores and restaurants in the upper Midwest. The fastest growing market is direct sales to a global market on the Internet. Photo courtesy of Tom Robertson, Minnesota Public Radio.

  Golden Eagle Strawberry Farm, Lac du Flambeau, WI

  The Lac du Flambeau Tribe operates a Pick Your Own vegetable and fruit farm on tribally-owned land. The farm plants 6 acres in 12 varieties of strawberries, a half acre in two varieties of blueberries, and a half acre in 3 varieties of pumpkin. Local people and tourists pick strawberries from June into August, then blueberries are ripe for about two weeks. Pumpkins are picked in September and October. The farm was started in 2000, is managed by the tribe's forestry department, and employs tribal members. Profits go to the tribe. Photo courtesy of Lac du Flambeau Chamber of Commerce.

  Parching Native Harvest Wild Rice

  This rice is entirely hand harvested, parched, processed, and sold by Native people under the Native Harvest label for the White Earth Land Recovery Program. The rice is purchased from local Anishinaabeg (Ojibwa) who harvest the rice by canoe from the lakes in the region. Native Harvest sells Native harvested food, including maple syrup and wild fruits, as well as birchbark, beads, and other items created by Native artisans. The WELRP facilitates recovery of the original land base of the reservation and preserves traditional practices. One of the goals is to combat the genetic manipulation and misrepresentation of wild rice locally, nationally, and internationally. Photo courtesy of White Earth Land Recovery Program.

  Dacotah Ridge Golf Club and Wabash Creek Restaurant, Morton, MN

  This course was built in 2000 and is owned by the Lower Sioux Indian Community. The greens, fairways, and tees are bentgrass and the secondary roughs are of native fescue, blue stem, and prairie grasses. Rees Jones designed the course. It blends with the surrounding prairie landscape and includes natural wetlands, a 14-acre lake, and Wabasha Creek, which winds through 8 holes. The 18-hole course sits on 240 acres of tribal land, and the club has a pro shop. The golf course is part of the Lower Sioux Indian Community's Jackpot Junction casino and resort. Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons, user mtellin.

  Mole Lake Gas Station

  This is one of the tribal businesses on the Sokaogon (Mole Lake) Reservation. Photo courtesy of Mary Wiltenburg.

  Listen to Gaiashkabos, a Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe leader, discuss the tribe’s outdoor recreation resort

  Lac Courte Oreilles Resort. Video courtesy of Indian Country TV, 2009. View transcript

  Listen to Marshall Pecore, Menominee forest manager, discuss the tribe’s forestry program and lumber business

  Menominee Forestry. From Since 1634: In the Wake of Nicolet. Video courtesy of Ootek Productions, 1993. View transcript

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  Grand Market, Mille Lacs Reservation, Minnesota, 2009

  This tribally-owned grocery store is the first built on the reservation. Before, Mille Lacs residents had to drive 10 miles to the nearest off-reservation store. The store’s design reflects Ojibwa heritage: the aisles are numbered in the Ojibwa language and an elder painted a floral design on the walls. To encourage good food choices in a community where the levels of diabetes and heart disease are higher than normal, the store carries sugar-free items and fresh fruit and vegetables. Profits from the store will go to the Mille Lacs Band to be used for health education and other services to the community. The Grand Market employs 20, half of whom are tribal members. The casino at Mille Lacs brings in millions of dollars in income, and the tribal leadership uses some of that to diversify their economy by starting small businesses, such as the Grand Market. Photo by Tim Post, Minnesota Public Radio.