Tribal Bonds: Statutory Shackles and Regulatory Restraints on Tribal Economic Development

Stó:lō Community Entrepreneurship and Economics: Rebuilding the Circle

“…14 Typically, those tribal enterprises that fail have been poorly planned, ill-conceived in their fit with tribal culture, skills, and available markets, overly ambitious, and undercapitalized. 15 Successful efforts, on the other hand, tend to fit well with existing skills, historical social patterns, and cultural trends; start small and with a clear market in mind; and have good financial, managerial, and technical support bases. 16 A number of fundamental issues have been repeatedly targeted as necessary for successful tribal enterprises to develop or as possible obstacles to success.…”

“…In addition, generally low incomes and low net worth among individuals and families limits the money available to invest in business. 17 Collective ownership is common, sometimes including single-family homes, which means that using this property as collateral for loans is often difficult to arrange. 18 Poor physical facilities (such as waste treatment, power, roads, and other transport), especially in more rural areas, make it hard both to attract private businesses to Native communities and for Native companies to function effectively and competitively.…”

Fungibility: Florida Seminole Casino Dividends and the Fiscal Politics of Indigeneity

“…More generally, money structures indigeneity in the United States, and tribal gaming is only the most recent chapter in this much longer story. This was true, for example, for the late‐19th‐century allotment and mass dispossession of Indian lands based on assessments of economic “competence,” for the subsequent federal accumulation of American Indian income in mismanaged “trust” accounts that are now being challenged in a multibillion‐dollar lawsuit, and for Internal Revenue Service limits placed on the issuance of tribal (vs. nontribal) municipal bonds (Clarkson n.d.). Governmental distributions of cash to citizens are never simple matters, of course, as illustrated in ongoing political controversies surrounding state welfare programs and oil royalties in the United States and beyond.…”