Part of the Hoover Project on Renewing Indigenous Economies, the Indigenous Student Seminar is an intensive, four-day residential immersion program exploring federal policy, tribal governance, and indigenous entrepreneurship. The goal is to help Indigenous college students and recent graduates think critically about the interface between federal Indian policy and self-determination.

During the week, students will learn about the evolution of property rights and trade networks before European contact; the philosophical underpinnings of indigenous notions of individualism and governance; the effects of persistent colonial policies on indigenous people and communities; and the innovations in Indian Country that are restoring self-determination and spurring economic growth.

Session topics are selected because of their immediate relevance to the challenges and opportunities facing Indian Country. Particular attention will be paid to the building blocks of meaningful sovereignty: secure land title for indigenous people; clear jurisdiction recognizing tribal authority; customs and culture informing tribal governance; and fiscal power to set local priorities and meet community needs.

Participants will collaborate through class discussions and study groups that encourage diverse perspectives. Enrollment is limited, in order to facilitate maximum interaction with the faculty and other participants.

Learn more: https://indigenousecon.org/studentseminar2022

September 2020 to June 2021
Hoover Institution, Stanford University

How did indigenous peoples organize themselves before European contact?
How have persistent colonial policies affected indigenous communities?
How are tribal leaders rebuilding their nations and renewing indigenous economies?

The Hoover Institution student seminar on Renewing Indigenous Economies helps Indigenous college students and recent graduates think critically about the interface between federal Indian policy and self-determination.

Traditional Law and Governance
How did people govern themselves and resolve conflict before contact? What was the Northern Cheyenne approach to law and governance?

Sheldon Spotted Elk, Northern Cheyenne
Director, Indian Child Welfare Unit, Casey Family Programs

The Navajo Legal Ceremony: Curing Federal Indian Law
Why should Native nations, Native leaders, and Native people understand and know Federal Indian Law? What can other Native nations learn from the Navajo Nation judicial model and how can they use that in rebuilding their nations?

Joseph Austin, Navajo Nation
Co-founder, ACES School

The Law and Economics of Indian Country Crime
Why is law enforcement in Indian country so complex? Who benefits from Indian country's criminal framework? What will it take to improve public safety in Indian country?

Adam Crepelle, United Houma Nation
Southern University Law Center

Taxation and Tribal Sovereignty
Why is taxation important for tribal sovereignty? What can tribes do to assert tax jurisdiction?

Kelly Croman
Board Member Emeritus and Former Chair, National Intertribal Tax Alliance

Native Identity
Who defines Native identity? Why does it matter?

C. Matthew Snipp, Oklahoma Cherokee and Choctaw
Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Professor of Humanities and Sciences in the Department of Sociology

Indigenizing ESG Standards
Can Environmental, Social, and Governance standards (ESGs) be reimagined to include Indigenous rights, values, and priorities?

Mark Podlasly, Nlaka'pamux Nation
First Nations Major Project Coalition

Land Rights and Social Change
What countries are protecting or expanding the land and resource rights of indigenous people? How does secure land tenure affect indigenous communities?

Karol Boudreaux
Land Tenure Specialist, USAID

If you are interested in this webinar series, please email Wendy Purnell wendy@indigenousecon.org

How did indigenous peoples organize themselves before European contact?
How have persistent colonial policies affected indigenous communities?
How are tribal leaders rebuilding their nations and renewing indigenous economies?

The Hoover Institution student seminar on Renewing Indigenous Economies will help Indigenous college students and recent graduates think critically about the interface between federal Indian policy and self-determination. During the week, the students will learn about the evolution of property rights and trade networks before European contact; the philosophical underpinnings of indigenous notions of individualism and governance; the effects of persistent colonial policies on indigenous people and communities; and the innovations in Indian Country that are spurring economic growth.

COVID UPDATE

Given covid, we will be conducting the seminar in two parts: a short online course in August, followed by a two-day seminar at Stanford once we're able to return to campus.

Themes
Old Indigenous Institutions
Indian Removal & Colonial Institutions
Renewing Indigenous Economies

Faculty director: Daniel Stewart, Gonzaga University

Event details are here: IndigenousEcon.org/Seminar

Applications are online: IndigenousEcon.org/Apply2020

To recommend a student: IndigenousEcon.org/Recommend2020

COVID CONTINGENCY
We had hoped to gather approximately three dozen indigenous students from diverse communities for a seminar with a high ratio of faculty to students.

Given covid, we will be conducting the seminar in two parts: a short online course in August, followed by a two-day seminar at Stanford once we're able to return to campus.

The seminar content is geared toward advanced undergrads, recent grads, and first year grad students and law students. Please encourage students to apply.

For more information, please contact Wendy Purnell (wendy@indigenousecon.org)

3rd Annual All Roads Lead to Chaco Canyon Conference:
Creating Indigenous Law, Entrepreneurship, and Trade

March 11-13, 2020
Coushatta Casino Resort
Kinder, Louisiana

CLE Credits: 13.25

Conference Registration

Speakers Include:

Terry Anderson, Hoover Institution at Stanford University
Joseph Austin, Olea, Solórzano & Austin
Adam Crepelle, Southern University School of Law
Donna Feir, Center for Indian Country Development at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Robert Miller, Sandra Day O’ Connor School of Law at Arizona State University
Ernest Sickey, Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana

The Alliance for Renewing Indigenous Economies is proud to participate in All Roads Lead to Chaco Canyon, founded by Joseph Austin and Adam Crepelle, and sponsored by the ACES School in partnership with the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana. We hope you will join us.

An Academic Research Workshop
Co-directed by
Terry L. Anderson, Hoover Institution Senior Fellow
Dominic Parker, University of Wisconsin Associate Professor

Capital investment and property rights are generally considered Western concepts exported in the era of European empire building, but pre-colonial evidence from Africa and the Americas suggest that capital investment and property rights are part of the human experience. Europeans assumed the societies they encountered in the Americas lacked the institutions and intellect necessary to fuel economic growth. Careful examination of pre-colonial and colonial societies, however, offer a different perspective—a perspective that sheds light on how indigenous people around the world can renew their economies from the ground up, rather than answering the “siren call of federal handouts, as Alvin “A.J.” Not-Afraid, Chairman of the Crow Tribe, puts it.

In launching “new institutional economics,” Douglass North (1960, 53) emphasized that the “major role of institutions in a society is to reduce uncertainty by establishing a stable structure to human interaction.” That formula seems simple, but the fact that many countries remain poor today suggests that stimulating the necessary capital investments is not so easy.

For this reason and by North’s definition of institutions, there can be no question that American Indians had both informal and formal rules that promoted capital investment and productivity prior to European contact. At the individual level, Indians used varying degrees of private ownership or control of assets for everything from household goods, to horses, to hunting and trapping territories, to land. They marked territories with stones and trees, their horses with paint, their arrows with coloring, all designed to say this is mine and not yours.

Given the rich institutional history of Native Americans, why has capital investment lagged on reservations and what will it take to rejuvenate capital investment today? Put another way, what were the property rights structures in pre-contact American Indian societies, what happened to the rule of law that secures property rights that encouraged capital investment, and what will it take to rekindle the rule of law and property rights among Indian tribes?

AGENDA
November 18
Annenberg Conference Room

7:30 AM BREAKFAST
8:30 AM WELCOME
8:45 AM SESSION I
“Reciprocity as a Form of Hypothecation: Indigenous Capital Markets”
D. Bruce Johnsen, George Mason University

10:00 AM BREAK
10:15 AM SESSION II
"The Politics of Indian Property Rights”
Ilia Murtazashvili, University of Pittsburgh

11:30 AM SESSION III
“The Higher Price of Mortgage Financing for Native Americans”
Laura Cattaneo and Donna Feir, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank

12:45 PM LUNCH
1:45 PM SESSION IV
“The Effect of Land Allotment on Native American Households During the Assimilation Era”
Christian Dippel, UCLA and Dustin Frye, Vassar College

“The Costs of ‘Tenancy in Common’: Evidence from Indian Land Allotment”
Christian Dippel, UCLA; Dustin Frye, Vassar College; and Bryan Leonard, Arizona State University

3:15 PM BREAK
3:30 PM SESSION V
“Bargaining for American Indian Water Rights”
Leslie Sanchez, Tufts University; Eric C. Edwards, North Carolina State University; and Bryan Leonard, Arizona State University

6:30 PM DEPART FOR DINNER

November 19
7:30 AM BREAKFAST
8:30 AM SESSION VI
”White Tape and Indian Wards: Cutting through the Federal Bureaucracy to Empower Tribal Economies”
Adam Crepelle, Southern University Law Center

9:45 AM SESSION VII
“Comparative Secured Transactions Law and Renewing Indigenous Economies’ Access to Finance”
Dwight Newman, University of Saskatchewan

“Measuring Utilization Effect of Secured Transactions on Tribal Lands”
Marc L. Roark, Southern University Law Center

11:15 AM SESSION VIII
“Tribal Culture and Economic Prosperity: Complements or Substitutes?”
Dominic Parker, University of Wisconsin

12:30 PM BOX LUNCHES & DEPARTURE

The workshop is limited to a small group of scholars to ensure meaningful discussion of the papers. For more information, please contact Wendy Purnell: wendy@indigenousecon.org

Papers in Dropbox.

Removing Barriers to Economic Development and Entrepreneurship in Indian Country

Part 1: Policy Roundtable

PURPOSE

• To convene known policy allies.
• To identify key areas for reform and create functional working groups to advance those reforms.

AUDIENCE

• Tribal leaders and scholars focused on removing policy obstacles for renewed indigenous economies.
• People in a position to advance policy reform

Part 2: Public Forum featuring Hernando de Soto

PURPOSE

• To articulate the Alliance mission and vision for the D.C. policy community.
• To identify other potential policy allies.

AUDIENCE

D.C. policy makers, policy researchers, and journalists whose constituencies are
interested in economic development, civil rights, entrepreneurship, property
rights, indigenous communities, etc.

For more information, please contact Wendy Purnell: wendy@indigenousecon.org

Fostering the Philosophical Revolution for Renewing Indigenous Economies

The purpose of the inaugural leadership forum is threefold:

1. Gather tribal leaders and scholars working to rebuild tribal nations and renew indigenous economies;
2. Share best practices from successful tribal leaders; and
3. Prioritize the development of educational resources and workshops.

Presenters include:
Terry Anderson, Hoover Institution
Donna Feir, Center for Indian Country Development, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank
Manny Jules, First Nations Tax Commission
Mark Podlasly, First Nations Financial Management Board
James Robinson, University of Chicago
Te Maire Tau, Ngāi Tahu Research Center

AUDIENCE
Scholars and indigenous leaders focused on establishing jurisdiction in tribal communities.

For more information, please contact Wendy Purnell: wendy@indigenousecon.org

PURPOSE:
The purpose of this workshop is to explore how tribal governance structures, jurisdiction, property rights, and the rule of law integrate into a fabric for stimulating indigenous economies. The main focus will be on indigenous economies in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia because these four countries share a history of British colonization and have thus inherited a common institutional framework within which tribal economies operate.

We have commissioned original research in the areas of economics, political science, and law.

PAPERS TO BE PRESENTED:
"From Communal to Private Property Rights: Evidence from the Dawes Act and Native Americans"
Christian Dippel, University of California Los Angeles
Dustin Frye, Vassar College   

"Historical Treaty-Making and Long-Term Economic Prospertity of Indigenous Peoples"
Donna Feir, University of Victoria, Canada and Minneapolis Federal Reserve

"Land Tenure and Adaptation on Indian Reservations: Measuring the Effects of Property Rights from Space"
Bryan Leonard, Arizona State University
Dominic Parker, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"Land Ownership and Irrigation on American Indian Reservations: A Regression Discontinuity Approach"
Eric Edwards, Utah State University

"Employment Discrimination Against Indigenous Peoples in the United States: Evidence from a Field Experiment"
Patrick Button, Tulane University

"Income Inequality and Ethnicity on American Indian Reservations"
Dustin Frye, Vassar College
Dominic Parker, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"Assessing the Impact of the ANCSA Corporations on the Welfare of Alaskan Natives"
Keith Hankins, Chapman University

"Unravelling Latent Tribal Wealth"
Rakihia Tau, Canterbury University

AGENDA (with links to papers)

AUDIENCE:
The workshop is limited to a small group of scholars to ensure meaningful discussion of the papers.

For more information, please contact Wendy Purnell: wendy@indigenousecon.org

Our Lands. Our Jurisdiction. Our Institutions: First Nations Leading the Way.

A two-day meeting was held on May 16 & 17, 2018 at the River Rock Hotel and Casino in Vancouver, British Columbia. Attendees included 320 delegates from over 160 FMA and/or FNLMA First Nations communities across Canada.

The goals of the meeting were to bring First Nations leaders together to:

• Share institutions tools and support services
• Learn about First Nations success stories working outside of the Indian Act
• Unify a collective voice for First Nations led initiatives and innovations
• Set a clear path forward for building prosperous and vibrant First Nation communities

Organized by the Tulo Centre of Indigenous Economics, the FIrst Nations Tax Commission, the First Nations Financial Management Board, the First Nations Finance Authority, and the Lands Advisory Board.

Event Highlights