Why Are Indian Reservations So Poor? A Look At The Bottom 1%

[Chris_]

Why Are Indian Reservations So Poor? A Look At The Bottom 1%

When customers who live and work on the nearby Crow Indian reservation don’t make their car payments, there’s not much Square One Finance of Billings, Montana, can do. Going to state court to repossess the car or garnish wages is not an option. Instead, Square One enters the murky realm of international affairs. The reservation is a separate nation—judgments in American courts can’t be enforced. And the chances of finding the customer and the car on the sprawling rural reservation, or winning in the unpredictable Crow courts, are slim. “We take on such a huge extra risk with someone from the reservation,” says Square One’s Nancy Vermeulen. “If I knew contracts would be enforced, then I could do a lot more business there.”

“Markets haven’t been allowed to operate in reserve lands,” says Manny Jules. “We’ve been legislated out of the economy. When you don’t have individual property rights, you can’t build, you can’t be bonded, you can’t pass on wealth. A lot of small businesses never get started because people can’t leverage property [to raise funds]. This act would free our entrepreneurial spirit, but it’s going to take a freeing of our imagination. We have to become part of the national and global economies.”

Forbes

Capitalism works if you let it.  Imagine that.

[thundley4]

How much of that is caused by the Indian laws and how much is caused by restrictions imposed by the federal government?  Just guessing, but I'd say they both share the blame somewhat.

[Chris_]

The article goes into more detail, but you're right.  It's a lack of enforcement by the native "courts" and generations of bureaucratic self-preservation by the Indian Affairs Bureau.

[thundley4]

Capitalism is considered threatening to our identity, our traditions. Successful entrepreneurs are considered sell-outs, they’re ostracized. We have to promote the dignity of self-sufficiency among Indians. Instead we have a culture of malaise: ‘The tribe will take care of us.’ We accept the myth of communalism. And we don’t value education. We resist it.”

This sounds like the same causes that result in most socialist communes failing.

[NHSparky]

Yup--I went to HS on the edge of the Navajo Reservation.  A lot of the automotive dealers and people who dealt in "big ticket" items wouldn't finance anyone who lived on the reservation.

Cash only.

[TVDOC]

Yup--I went to HS on the edge of the Navajo Reservation.  A lot of the automotive dealers and people who dealt in "big ticket" items wouldn't finance anyone who lived on the reservation.

Cash only.

A friend of mine was a new car dealer on the Navajo Rez (Tuba City, AZ), also a judge on the tribal court.  Never had a problem with finance contracts.  Had a similar situation with a dealer in Parker, AZ.

Did a good number of projects on various reservations, and never really had any issues.

I think it depends on the tribe and how protective they tend to be.  My overall impression in working with tribes is that if one is fair and straightforward with them, they tend to reciprocate.

It CAN be complicated from a legal/paperwork perspective however.......

doc

[longview]

I think it depends on the tribe and how protective they tend to be.  My overall impression in working with tribes is that if one is fair and straightforward with them, they tend to reciprocate.

I will agree to that, to an extent.  When involved contractually on a larger scale, I too, have never experienced a problem.  When dealing with buying and selling livestock, vehicles, things valued at less than $20,000, I have had problems.

The access granted at my area reservations (Crow, N. Cheyenne, Lakota, Arapahoe, Shoshone) for settling rez/off-rez disputes is getting better, but can take a lot of time.  My kids are part Lakota, but not being active on the rez it doesn't help me at all.

[Cyrus]

If there is a God I pray that he helps the Native Indian-American man to be strong and proud!