Creating Private Sector Economies in Native America: Sustainable Development Through Entrepreneurship

Native nation economies have long been dominated by public sector activities - government programs and services and tribal government-owned businesses - which do not generate the same long-term benefits for local communities that the private sector does. In this work, editors Robert Miller, Miriam Jorgensen, Daniel Stewart, and a roster of expert authors address the underdevelopment of the private sector on American Indian reservations, with the goal of sustaining and growing Native nation communities, so that Indian Country can thrive on its own terms. Chapter authors provide the language and arguments to make the case to tribal politicians, Native communities, and allies about the importance of private sector development and entrepreneurship in Indigenous economies. This book identifies and addresses key barriers to expanding the sector, provides policy guidance, and describes several successful business models - thus offering students, practitioners, and policymakers the information they need to make change.

Robert J. Miller is a Professor at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University and the Faculty Director of the Rosette LLP American Indian Economic Development Program. He is a member of the Navajo Nation Council of Economic Advisors and the American Philosophical Society. He is also the Interim Chief Justice for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe Court of Appeals and a citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe. He sits on the Grand Ronde Tribe and Northwest Inter-Tribal Courts of Appeals. He is the author of Reservation 'Capitalism': Economic Development in Indian Country (2012).

Miriam Jorgensen is a Research Director of the Native Nations Institute at the University of Arizona. She is co-founder of the University of Arizona Indigenous Governance certificate program and editor of Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development (2007). Her work – in the US, Canada, and Australia – focuses on Indigenous governance and development and has addressed issues as wide-ranging as welfare policy, policing and justice systems, natural resources, cultural stewardship, land ownership, enterprise management, financial education, and entrepreneurship.

Dan Stewart is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Director of the Hogan Entrepreneurial Leadership Program at Gonzaga University. He is an enrolled member of the Spokane Tribe of Indians and the co-editor of American Indian Business: Principles and Practices (2017). In addition to his academic work, Dan is president of Dardan Enterprises, a diversified commercial construction firm.