Warren's Old Ideas Won't Yield New Results

No More Socialism for Native Americans
Tribes don't need more federal grants, they need more revenue

Elizabeth Warren set a higher bar for wooing the Native American vote by calling for $10 billion in spending to stimulate economic development, build infrastructure and restore tribal sovereignty. She and her fellow Democratic presidential candidates who met with tribal leaders in Sioux City, Iowa, earlier this week, fail to recognize that tribes don’t need more federal grants, they need more revenue.

Across Indian Country, a philosophical revolution is growing among tribes that realize help from the federal government has held them in colonial bondage. As Native Americans were relegated to reservations in the late 1800s, the federal government stripped tribes of their rich heritage of self-governance, religious freedom and property ownership. In the words of the 1906 Burke Act, Indian lands and resources must be held in trust by the federal government on the premise that Native Americans were not “competent and capable” to manage their own lives and affairs.

Read more in the August 27, 2019 Analysis/Opinion section in The Washington Times.

Reservation Capitalism

"We've taken control of our destiny, gotten a taste of independence, and don't plan on giving it up. Government-led economies have been a total failure. I refuse to believe the Winnebagos are Karl Marx's last hope.” —Lance Morgan

Lance Morgan is the CEO of Ho-Chunk, Inc., a $100 million tribal economic development corporation that employs nearly 400 people. Tribal leaders and entrepreneurs such as Morgan are part of an economic civil rights movement emerging in indigenous communities around the world. The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, which owns Ho-Chunk, Inc., started with a casino, then diversified to earn the revenue needed to build the necessary infrastructure for prosperous tribal economies. Winnebago and other tribes following the same path have found a way to unlock the economic potential of their communities in ways of returning to their roots, consistent with their cultures and customs, while integrating into the modern global economy.

As explained in an earlier Defining Ideas essay, tribes are drawing on  their history that is rich with the ideas defining a free society based on individualism, community, governance, and liberty. The indigenous peoples of what we now call the Americas were diverse, but they all had effective forms of property rights and governance structures that allowed them to specialize, trade, and prosper. These institutions and traditions of trade and treaty-making helped them to adapt and prosper before the Columbian Exchange and then to adapt and trade with the European newcomers.

After the Civil War, as America expanded west with its new standing army, indigenous institutions were undermined by the imposition of colonial institutions. Under these regulations, the federal government outlawed historic governance structures, rituals, and property rights and imposed cookie-cutter constitutions, modeled after the U.S. Constitutions, and held Indian resources—namely land—in trust on the premise that Native Americans were not “competent and capable” to manage their own lives and affairs. Despite a rich heritage of indigenous institutions that allowed them to prosper prior to and during early European contact, today’s American Indian communities, still locked in a type of colonial bondage as trustees of the federal government, are struggling economies.

Federal trusteeship in the 21st century is absurd, especially given that tribes have proven to outperform the federal government. Consider the land itself. When tribes manage their own natural resources, they do better than the federal government….

Read More at Defining Ideas • August 16, 2019

The Bonds Of Colonialism

“They [Indians] are in a state of pupilage; their relation to the United States resembles that of a ward to his guardian.”
Chief Justice John Marshall, 1831

These words of John Marshall in the 1831 Supreme Court opinion on Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia stand in stark contrast to Chief Joseph’s appeal to “be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself.” The dissent of Justices William Johnson and Smith Thompson are even more demeaning than Marshall’s ruling. They doubted that tribes could be elevated to the status of nations because Indians were “so low in the grade of organized society.”

Though people today would abhor the idea that any group of Americans would be treated as wards of the state, that is precisely what Marshall’s ruling and subsequent laws have made American Indians. On reservations, where tribal governments are supposed to be sovereign, persistent colonial institutions have subjected Native Americans to incomplete property rights, weak governance structures, and dependency on appropriations from the U.S. government…

Defining Ideas • April 26, 2019

Washington State Department of Licensing v. Cougar Den, Inc

Imagining U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Neil Gorsuch agreeing seemed impossible during Gorsuch’s confirmation hearing, but that happened in the case of Washington State Department of Licensing v. Cougar Den, Inc. Their agreement, in an opinion written by Justice Gorsuch concurring with the three other liberal justices, is the result of both the liberal Ginsberg and the libertarian Gorsuch standing for individual rights.

The case pitted a gasoline transport company owned by Yakama Nation tribal members against Washington state taxing authorities. The state wanted to tax Cougar Den for importing gasoline from out-of-state to stations on the reservation using public highways. Cougar Den refused to pay the $3.6 million tax bill, citing an 1855 treaty between the Yakama Nation and the U.S. government reserving the Yakamas’ “right, in common with citizens of the United States, to travel upon all public highways.”

Most Native American taxation cases center around whether tribes or states have taxation jurisdiction. Without taxation authority, tribal governments must depend on the federal government which now supplies, albeit poorly, public services  As legal scholar Robert Miller asked at a recent conference, “how do you exercise sovereignty if you have no money? Who pays the tribal police? Who builds the tribal courthouse?” 

Had the Court focused on tax jurisdiction, it is unlikely that Ginsburg, with her record of opposition to tribal sovereignty, would have joined Gorsuch.

Because the defendant was a company, not the tribe, the case was, in words of Justice Gorsuch, about “the ability of tribal members to bring their goods to and from market” and the court’s job was to adopt an “interpretation most consistent with the treaty’s original meaning.” The Gorsuch-Ginsburg concurrence concluded that “the treaty doesn’t just guarantee tribal members the right to travel on the highways free of most restrictions on their movement; it also guarantees tribal members the right to move goods freely to and from market using these highways.”

In writing the concurring opinion in Cougar Den, Gorsuch affirmed two important freedoms. First, it recognizes that the freedom to travel was vital to the Yakamas who were careful to ensure that “they would not be made prisoners on their reservation.” Second, it preserves the Yakamas’ “preexisting right to take goods to and from market freely throughout their traditional trading area.”

These same freedoms were articulated by Chief Joseph in 1879: “Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think, and act for myself.”

A recent conference co-hosted by the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana focused on these same themes. The conference title — All Roads Lead to Chaco Canyon—might confuse anyone not familiar with pre-contact Indian economies. Coushatta Tribal Chairman David Sickey explained that Chaco Canyon, in New Mexico, “was a cultural center with far-reaching commerce,” Just as Chaco Canyon was an important trading hub between AD 900 and 1150, Chairman Sickey dedicated the conference “to helping tribal nations re-engage with the global economy ... We are here to share forward-looking ideas for tribal entrepreneurship and trade.”

Barriers to trade in Indian Country go beyond taxes on gasoline transported on public highways. On reservations, property rights are incomplete. Indian land is held in trust by the federal government, making it off limits as a source of collateral for the loans most entrepreneurs rely on for start-up capital. Patrice Kunesh, a vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis explained to the conference that "Property systems provide a fundamental framework for how markets and economies operate. Well defined property rights are pre-conditions to successful economic development.” 

The rule of law is also unclear on reservations, making outsiders hesitant to do business in Indian Country. Nancy Vermeulen, whose finance company in Billings, Montana, makes loans to Indians, told Forbes Magazine, “We take on such a huge extra risk with someone from the reservation. If I knew contracts would be enforced, then I could do a lot more business there.” This is why Raymond Austin, Justice Emeritus of the Navajo Nation Supreme Court, advised conference participants that “it is important to work toward an independent tribal justice system.”

As Native Americans work to renew Indian economies from the ground up, the decision reached by Gorsuch and his liberal colleagues in Cougar Den is significant because recognizes the importance of individual freedom for Native Americans. Whether conservative, liberal, or libertarian, justice begins with the individual.

This op-ed originally appeared at Indian Country Today.

Native American Heritage: It's More Than Identity, Language, and Song

Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself — and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty. Chief Joseph, Washington, D.C., 14 January 1879

From protests and politics, to pop culture, Americans have begun to pay more attention to the continent’s indigenous peoples. The recent PBS series Native America offers a glimpse of the advanced civilizations that existed before European contact. The documentary film Rumble finally gives Native Americans “credit for influencing a vast amount of popular music.” A record number of Native American candidates were on mid-term ballots across the country, and Kansas and New Mexico elected the first two Native American women to the U.S. Congress. To recognize “the remarkable legacies and accomplishments of Native Americans,” as Senator John Hoeven (R-ND) put it, the Senate passed its annual resolution declaring Native American Heritage Month. The legislation’s co-sponsor, Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), described Native American Month as an opportunity to “celebrate the indelible mark that Native American arts, languages, cultures, and peoples have left on New Mexico and the United States.” The emphasis on language, culture, art, and religion is integral to Native American heritage. But Native American heritage is not just about language and song; that heritage is also about the institutions that once governed and even now could help govern Native American daily lives.

This is the first of three essays aimed at a better understanding of how Native American heritage provides a foundation on which tribes can renew their economies with far less dependence on the “siren call of federal handouts,” as Alvin “A.J.” Not-Afraid, Chairman of the Crow Tribe, puts it. Honoring that heritage begins with realizing that “old indigenous economies” were built of tribal jurisdiction, governance structures, property ownership, and trade. Unfortunately, old indigenous economies were supplanted with “colonial indigenous economies” (essay 2) that made tribes and individual Indians wards of the state. Extracting themselves from colonial bondage will require “renewing indigenous economies” (essay 3) by clearly defining tribal jurisdictions, establishing new governance structures built on a rule of law and tribal heritage, and securing property rights (both collective and individual) that help tribes fully participate in and benefit from the modern, global economy.

Read the full essay, co-authored with Terry Anderson, in Defining Ideas.

Restoring Tribal Economies

In the nineteenth century, the young nations of the United States and Canada enacted laws designed to undermine indigenous governance and economic independence. North America’s indigenous institutions—like tribal councils, sun dances, and potlatches—had evolved over centuries, but were suddenly declared illegal and replaced by federal programs. In both countries, a diverse set of indigenous governance structures, property rights, and trade networks was replaced by a monolithic system that centralized the provision of goods and services and fostered dependence on federal governments. “The indigenous population of the hemisphere was deprived not only of land and freedom,” observes Hoover fellow Thomas Sowell, but also of “the underlying foundation of cultural traditions on which any society is based.”

Colonial-era policies and paternalistic attitudes continue to restrict economic activity on reservations and most indigenous economies remain dependent on the federal government. Government programs, however, have done little to alleviate the poverty and social ills prevalent on reservations. Indigenous peoples are thus locked in a type of colonial bondage that stifles their integration into modern economies.

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Despite its very real troubles, the future of Indian Country is not bleak. There are bright spots. Throughout North America, indigenous leaders and entrepreneurs are innovating to lift their communities out of poverty. What’s especially remarkable about these bright spots is that they are examples of people and communities overcoming huge obstacles to close the institutional gap. 

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There is much to learn from the innovation taking place in indigenous communities. The Hoover Institution’s Renewing Indigenous Economies research initiative, in partnership with the Alliance for Renewing Indigenous Economies, has already undertaken work to understand what institutions work best for local peoples, economies, and cultures. Along with our allies at the Tulo Centre of Indigenous Economics and the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, we will support academic research, foster communication among tribal leaders, educate policy makers, and share indigenous success stories with the public.

Read the full article at Defining Ideas.

Source: https://www.hoover.org/research/restoring-...

The Hidden Genius of Amy Tan

I've always loved this passage to help illustrate the beauty (and difficulty) of communicating across cultures.

To begin, I told her my name was Nunumu. She called me Miss Moo. We used to sit in the courtyard and I would teach her the names of things, as if she were a small child. And just like a small child, she learned eagerly, quickly. Her mind wasn't rusted shut to new ideas. She wasn't like the Jesus Worshippers, whose tongues were creaky old wheels following the same grooves. She had an unusual memory, extraordinarily good. Whatever I said, it went in her ear then out her mouth.

I taught her to point to and call out the five elements that make up the physical world: metal, wood, water, fire, earth.

I taught her what makes the world a living place: sunrise and sunset, heat and cold, dust and heat, dust and wind, dust and rain.

I taught her what is worth listening to in this world: wind, thunder, horses galloping in the dust, pebbles falling in water. I taught her what is frightening to hear: fast footsteps at night, soft cloth slowly ripping, dogs barking, the silence of crickets.

I taught her how two things mixed together produce another: water and dirt make mud, heat and water make tea, foreigners and opium make trouble.

I taught her the five tastes that give us the memories of life: sweet, sour, bitter, pungent, and salty.

One day, Miss Banner touched her palm on the front of her body and asked me how to say this in Chinese. After I told her, she said to me in Chinese: "Miss Moo, I wish to know many words for talking about my breasts!" And only then did I realize she wanted to talk about the feelings in her heart. The next day, I took her wandering around the city. We saw people arguing. Anger, I said. We saw a woman placing food on an altar. Respect, I said. We saw a thief with his head locked in a wooden yoke. Shame, I said. We saw a young girl sitting by the river, throwing an old net with holes into the shallow part of the water. Hope, I said.

Later, Miss Banner pointed to a man trying to squeeze a barrel that was too large through a doorway that was too small. "Hope," Miss Banner said. But to me, this was not hope, this was stupidity, rice for brains. And I wondered what Miss Banner had been seeing when I was naming those other feelings for her. I wondered whether foreigners had feelings that were entirely different from those of Chinese people. Did they think all our hopes were stupid?

In time, however, I taught Miss Banner to see the world almost exactly like a Chinese person. Of cicadas, she would say they looked like dead leaves fluttering, felt like paper crackling, sounded like fire roaring, smelled like dust rising, and tasted like the devil frying in oil. She hated them, decided they had no purpose in this world. You see, in five ways she could sense the world like a Chinese person. But it was always this sixth way, her American sense of importance, that later caused troubles between us. Because her senses led to opinions, and her opinions led to conclusions, and sometimes they were different from mine.

From The Hundred Secret Senses

Fighting Fire with Fire

Innovative financial tools allow land managers to address wildfire risk.

Landowners learn fire management at a Burn Workshop, hosted by the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Oklahoma State University, and the Oklahoma Prescribed Fire Council.

Landowners learn fire management at a Burn Workshop, hosted by the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Oklahoma State University, and the Oklahoma Prescribed Fire Council.

Humans have used fire to shape the environment for millennia. Around the world, fire is an important tool for managing forests and preparing fields for crops.

Fire also plays an ecological role. Many forests evolved with frequent, low-intensity fires that remove trees damaged by storms or insects. Forest or field, ash from burned vegetation also returns valuable nutrients to the soil.

In the United States, as development creeps into the wildland-urban interface, fire is increasingly seen as a threat. At the same time, drought and decades of fire suppression and reduced timber harvests on public forests have led to a fuel build up that contributes to catastrophic wildfires.

Precisely because humans have managed fire for thousands of years, we know how to mitigate wildfire risk. Prescribed burns are used by ranchers, farmers, and foresters to clear vegetation and create buffer zones to protect property. When a land manager determines there is a fire risk on or adjacent to her property, she can apply for a prescribed burn permit from local or state agencies.

But there’s a problem: Landowners are often deterred by the potential cost of a fire that burns out of control. To help Oklahoma landowners manage liability, the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation teamed up with the Oklahoma Prescribed Burn Association and brokers at the Bramlett Agency to provide prescribed burn insurance. If an insured landowner follows prescribed burn protocols but the fire accidentally spreads, Bramlett will cover the costs of fire damage. By sharing best management practices and pooling risk across the state, prescribed burn insurance is helping landowners reduce fire hazards. The Foundation is also working to make prescribed burn insurance available across the country, but scaling up means navigating legal and regulatory environments that vary by state.

On public lands, the story is similar. Public land agencies often lack funding to conduct prescribed burns or manage for fire. PERC Enviropreneur David Groves has designed an Environmental Impact Bond (EIB) allowing the Forest Service to borrow against future wildlife suppression funds. In a pilot project in California last year, private investors provided capital for restoration practices to make forests more resilient to wildfires. The future of the project is unclear, but given that much of the fire risk in the West comes from public lands, innovative solutions like the EIB are critical.

Stay tuned for PERC’s forthcoming wildfire policy report and Wildfire Solutions Summit on July 22nd in Bozeman by visiting live-perc-wp.pantheonsite.io/wildfire.

For more prescribed burn resources, visit noble.org/fire.

Originally appeared in PERC Reports, Vol. 35, No. 1, Summer 2016

Life in the Plasticene

Crowdsourcing data to remove plastic from waterways—and (one day) earn a profit.

Mr. Trash Wheel scoops up floating debris in Baltimore"s Inner Harbor. Photo credit: Adam Lundquist/Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore

Mr. Trash Wheel scoops up floating debris in Baltimore"s Inner Harbor. Photo credit: Adam Lundquist/Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore

“There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it.” Mr. McGuire’s career advice to Dustin Hoffman’s character in the 1967 film The Graduate was spot on. By 2007, the average American was purchasing more than 220 pounds of plastic each year.

Invented to replace natural occurring substances like ivory and rubber, plastic might once have been seen as a means of relying less on nature for material goods. Now plastic is considered one of the worst offenders among pollutants in waterways. It’s so pervasive that some scientists briefly flirted with the notion of the Plasticene era, imagining future geologists unearthing evidence of an age dominated by the presence of plastics.

Those who have participated in beach clean-ups are acutely aware of the pervasiveness of plastics. Frustrated by floating plastic debris, a group of surfers, swimmers, and marine conservationists came up with a plan to crowdsource pollution data and identify hot spots. Launched in April, the Global Ocean Alert System geotags floating debris, maps pollution, and helps prioritize clean ups.

The idea is for plastic recyclers to use the data to determine profitable locations to drop booms in waterways and harvest plastic before it makes its way to sea. With oil prices down, however, recycled plastic can’t compete with new plastic, so we are unlikely to see thousands of booms drop soon.

But the technology is ready. In Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, a floating installation known as Mr. Trash Wheel uses good old-fashioned riverboat technology to scoop up floating debris and drop it on a dumpster barge. Since May 2014, Mr. Trash Wheel has prevented 257,070 plastic bottles and 173,600 plastic bags from reaching the Chesapeake Bay.

In Guatemala, AGEXPORT collects plastic from landfills and industries and then recycles it at a profit. They group is currently developing a new source in the Lake Amatitlan basin, where two million residents produce 1,800 tons of solid waste per day. In the future, they hope to also harvest debris from the Motagua river delta, stopping plastic before it reaches the Atlantic. So perhaps there is a great future in plastics after all.

GlobalAlert.png

To geotag litter in your local waterway or download the Global Ocean Alert app, visit GlobalAlert.org.

[Full disclosure: Before joining PERC, Wendy Purnell organized beach and harbor clean ups in Nicaragua and was a member of the Global Ocean Alert System’s advisory committee.]

Originally appeared in a PERC Reports Vol. 1, No. 35, Summer 2016