HSU-OECD OUTREACH TO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA TRIBES

An image of Sue Burcell, associate director for Indian Economic & Community Development.HSU’s new Associate Director for Indian Economic & Community Development works with the OECD Director and staff to ensure that the goals and objectives of the OECD work plan include activities that address the identified needs of targeted northern California Indians and Tribes. In addition to facilitating Indian/Tribal participation in ongoing OECD projects (e.g., digital media, green manufacturing, economic gardening/competitive intelligence research, entrepreneurial training), the Associate Director for IECD will consult with Indian/Tribal communities regarding their priorities for OECD and broader University assistance in:

  • Comprehensive community needs assessments;
  • Comprehensive economic development strategies (CEDS), also known as “overall economic development planning”;
  • Collaborative project planning and development;
  • Applied research;
  • Training and technical assistance;
  • Data collection, analysis, and dissemination (e.g., California Center for Rural Policy); and
  • Public forums (e.g., Tribal economic summit).

Because the Associate Director for IECD is a .6-time position—and OECD staff resources are limited—staff work collaboratively, leveraging resources with other campus and community-based service providers, to address needs identified by targeted communities.

What is Tribal economic development?

Historically Tribes have focused their economic development efforts on creating new jobs and generating increased revenues by recruiting new industries, promoting entrepreneurship, training/retraining their work forces, and developing essential infrastructure (e.g., roads, shopping centers, and telecommunications systems). Increasingly these efforts have taken into consideration Tribal cultural values, environmental impacts, and long-term economic sustainability. Tribal economic development in rural/reservation communities tends to be a lot more complicated than in larger population centers because Tribes continue to struggle with the historic legacies of hundreds of years of genocidal, paternalistic, and assimilationist federal policies in their efforts to become self-determined, self-governing nations. Owing to this history, Tribes are striving to reacquire and reclaim their lands and rivers (often contaminated or otherwise deteriorated by decades of poor mining, logging, and other resource extraction practices); to develop basic physical infrastructure (e.g., roads, water/sewer/solid waste management systems, power and telecommunications systems); to provide basic community services (e.g., health, education, housing, safety/security, and child/ family services); and to develop their own capacities to govern their Tribal nations and manage complex Tribal organizations.

Until the advent of Tribally-operated casinos in the 1980s, these kinds of Tribal community development efforts generally preceded Tribal efforts to attract new industries, support local entrepreneurship, and develop Tribally-owned enterprises (other than natural resource extraction). Between 1990 and 2000, the per capita incomes of Tribal communities grew at two to three times the rate of the nation as a whole, yet remained at less than half the national average. This is true for both gaming and non-gaming Tribes. According to the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Developmenti:

Indian nations are taking hold of self-determination and making the most of it. At the same time, Indian Country has had such large deficits to make up, such extremes of unemployment, low income, and lack of personal and community wealth accumulation to overcome, that 10-20 years of economic growth is not going to eliminate poverty and its accompanying social distress (2008, p. 112).

According to the Harvard Project, the key to successful Tribal economic development has not been solely the cash flowing from casinos or natural resource endowments (many successful Tribes have neither), but rather a strong belief in self-determination and a “focus on developing the legal, regulatory, and physical infrastructure that rewards productivity, holds decision makers accountable, and holds down the risks of political instability for individuals and businesses” (2008, p. 113). Tribes that create favorable conditions for economic investment—and fully utilize their human capital—can be as successful as those with far greater natural resource bases. “On many reservations, comprehensive and multifaceted development approaches are supplanting single-strategy interventions that are project-driven or focused on a specific sector such as resource extraction, manufacturing, or tourism” (Harvard Project, 2008, p. 114).

While some northern California gaming Tribes have realized significant economic gains in recent years, others—particularly in remote rural/reservation communities—have not benefited significantly from gaming. Yet the Harvard Project points out:

The gaming revolution in Indian Country is but one manifestation of Indian nations’ assertions of self-determination and the development payoff to those assertions….perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the economic growth that is taking hold in Indian Country is the thickening of the economic fabric of many Native nations. These nations are beginning to develop sustained economies, often generating export-oriented enterprises that seek to build upon tribal comparative advantages based on natural resources, labor costs, regulatory flexibility, human capital, and/or geographic position. They have also sought to diversify their local economic bases by fostering small business creation that supplants off-reservation retail sectors (2008, p. 117).

HSU’s OECD will work collaboratively with northern California Indian/Tribal communities to build on their identified economic development strengths and meet their identified economic development needs. As a first step, we seek to identify those Tribal leaders and/or designated economic development personnel who will be our principal contacts for OECD information dissemination as well as identifying Tribal needs and economic development priorities. It is our hope to convene a Tribal economic summit during the summer of 2008 so that Tribal community representatives can share economic development success stories, challenges to be overcome, and opportunities for HSU faculty, staff, and students to support the economic development efforts of northern California’s Indian/Tribal communities.

Information Resources:

The publicly accessible HSU Library holds numerous books and reports relevant to Indian/Tribal business and economic development. The following links will give you an idea of current holdings:

i The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development (2008). The State of the Native Nations: Conditions Under U.S. Policies of Self-Determination (NY: Oxford University Press).