Unlike corporate newcomers such as high-tech industries, American Indian tribes are underrepresented on the national political and economic scene and have very limited participation in the major financial markets, including Wall Street.
Tribes are investing on and off their Native lands in ventures such as hotels, golf courses, manufacturing, entertainment venues, solar and wind technology, tourism and the hospitality industry, health care, and gambling enterprises, all of which have begun to generate significant revenues, particularly compared with tribes’ past economic conditions and the lack of resources, infrastructure, market, and economic opportunity.
In the past few decades, some of the 500-plus tribes in North America have made strides to diversify their economies and improve the quality of life for their people, but challenges remain. Even in their government role—tribes are legally sovereign nations—they have not always been afforded the same or similar authority and rights as state, county, or other municipal governments. In the absence of a tax base, market, and infrastructure, tribes have had to become more entrepreneurial in creating sustainable economies to support their governments and provide basic services to their people,
Although some of the most successful Native American enterprises qualify as Fortune 500 companies, tribes are virtually invisible politically and economically. Few people know the extent of tribal lands. They are scattered throughout the United States, with tribes, nations, communities, and bands holding over 50 million acres (20 million ha), or about 2 percent of U.S. land. These lands are mostly concentrated in rural areas, away from population centers. In the western United States, nearly all tribal land was once remote, but as the populations of cities grew, some tribes found themselves surrounded by urban sprawl.
Tribal Land
The concept of tribal land is a modern one. Since before the arrival of the Spanish explorers, Native American people hunted, farmed, and traded over all of what is now the United States, as well as the rest of North and South America. Believing he had sailed to India, Columbus called the indigenous people “Indians,” setting the course for the misunderstanding that tribal communities continue to face today. As explorers began to arrive in North America, European countries competed for political and military alliances with North American tribes through nation-to-nation treaties that are the basis of U.S. Indian law today.
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