Indian Economic and Community Development
OUTREACH TO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA TRIBES
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Please Contact Us:
Megan Rocha |
In keeping with one of the core values of Humboldt State University in believing the University is an integral part of our local and regional communities, Humboldt State created the Office for Economic and Community Development (OECD) in 2005. The purpose of OECD was to act as an economic development portal that would link the University’s expertise and resources to opportunities for economic development in northern California. Aligning with a key element of the University’s Vision Statement, to be exemplary partners with our communities, including tribal nations, OECD expanded to include the Indian Economic and Community Development (IECD) Program in 2007.
Jump ahead to:
- Services
- What is Tribal economic development?
- Some IECD Accomplishments
- Information Resources
- TED-Net
In 2008 the IECD convened a two-day Tribal Economic Development Summit to facilitate the formation of a regional Tribal Economic Development Network (TED-Net) that would inform the ongoing work of the IECD Program and link Tribes to other economic development partners on and off campus. In 2009, the Northern California Small Business Development Lead Center merged with the OECD/IECD Program, forming the Office for Economic, Community, and Business Development (OECBD). Since that time, IECD has collaborated with the OECBD, other campus and community-based organizations, and local economic development agencies to support their responsiveness to the needs of northern California Tribes and Indian entrepreneurs. IECD has also worked with and provided a variety of economic, workforce, and community development services to northern California Tribes.
Services
IECD has supported Tribal economic and community development initiatives and consulted with Tribal communities regarding their priorities for broader 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;
- Public forums (e.g., Tribal economic development summits);
- Grant writing; and
- Tribal economic development networking (TED-Net).
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 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 that have obstructed 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 internal capacity to govern 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 Development’s The State of the Native Nations: Conditions Under U.S. Policies of Self-Determination (2008):
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 IECD continues to work collaboratively with northern California Indian/Tribal communities to build and sustain their identified economic, community, and workforce development needs.
Some IECD Accomplishments
- Partnership with the Hoopa Career and Technical Education Program to create and deliver a Tribal Management Certificate Program through Humboldt State University’s Office for Extended Education
- TED-Net Strategic Plan developed under a contract secured through Humboldt County Workforce Development Board
- Developing a factual record of current or historical uses by the Wiyot Tribe for the California Fish and Game Commission related to the California Marine Life Protection Act
- Student internships from the School of Business with the Trinidad Rancheria
- Klamath-Trinity Joint Unified School District Strategic Planning
- Entrepreneurial Training through the California Indian Manpower Consortium and the Karuk Economic Development Corporation
- Community Needs Assessment Training
- Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy Training
- U.S. Census Decententialand American Community Survey Data Training
- The Tribal Economic Development & Nation-Building Summit
- Northern California Tribal Tourism Workshop in partnership with HSU Professor A. Bunten and Elk Valley Rancheria
- University of Indigenous Nations 501(c)(3) application
- Karuk Tribe acquisition of over $1.5 million total for Wildland Fire Prevention & suppression Workforce Development and to develop a new Tribal Health Clinic in Orleans
- Competitive Intelligence research and small business assistance to over 50 Indian entrepreneurs
- Several pending grant applications (Wiyot, Yurok, Karuk, and Hoopa Valley Tribes, as well as one to support the HSU Extended Education Tribal Management Certificate and other certificate programs)
Information Resources
The North Coast Small Business Development Center (SBDC) supports entrepreneurship and cultivates small business success in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties by providing high-quality technical support, training and in-depth financial analysis for start-up and existing companies. They offer a variety of free or low-cost trainings to assist you in developing, implementing and/or sustaining your small business.
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:
The 2005 electronic edition of The Indian Business Owner’s Guide [PDF] and The Tribal Enterprise Developer’s Guide [PDF] are both available here and can be printed and copied without author/publisher permission.US Census Bureau American Community Survey Data (2005-2009) on selected topics related to the economic, social, and demographic information for northern California Tribal lands may be found here.
The Northern California TED-Net Strategic Plan [PDF], which is a Tribally-driven plan, intended to support new Tribal training, technical assistance, and workforce development initiatives, as well as inter-Tribal and inter-agency collaborations that afford opportunities to leverage resources for mutually beneficial impacts.
