NCFCA Notes: Advancing Freedom Across Indigenous Economies
Notes and resources for the resolution:
The United States Federal Government should significantly reform its policies regarding federally recognized tribes in the United States.
The Alliance for Renewing Indigenous Economies (indigenousecon.org) outlines problems with colonial policies and the importance of institutional reform to enable entrepreneurship and enterprise:
Before European contact, indigenous peoples thrived. With colonial policies still on the books, many indigenous communities are struggling to survive. As tribal leaders rebuild their nations, this series explores indigenous traditions of entrepreneurship and prosperity, the persistent colonial policies that plague tribal communities even today, and how successful tribal leaders have fostered economic growth and human dignity.
The Alliance has a “Chief Joseph Freedom Index” and interactive map:
“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.”
— Chief Joseph, 1879
And the Alliance “tools” page has first edition of the Tulo Centre’s open text book, Building a Competitive First Nation Investment Climate.
See also Restoring Tribal Economies (Hoover Institution, December 20, 2017).
At Policyed, three videos with overviews: Native Americans prospered for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. Today they are America’s poorest minority.
From the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC)
• Native Americans Loved Private Property (October 10, 2016)
• It’s Time to Let Native Americans Manage the Land (March 10, 2020)
• U.S. Should Show Native Americans Proper Respect (October 10, 2016)
From the Independent Institute
• Native Americans Deserve Better Than Socialized Medicine (January 3, 2019)
• Institutions and Economic Development on Native American Lands (Independent Review, Fall, 2019)
Cato Institute
• American Indians: Washington Post Misses the Real Story (Cato at Liberty, May 28, 2019)
• The Federal Government and American Indians (Cato at Liberty, September 29, 2014)
• Elizabeth Warren’s Plan to Keep American Indians Wards of the State (Cato Commentary, September 15, 2019)
American Enterprise Institute
• COVID-19 is swamping Native Americans, (August 17, 2020)
• How federal policy affects Native Americans: Naomi Schaefer Riley on her book, ‘The New Trail of Tears: How Washington Is Destroying American Indians’ (January 30, 2017)
John Stossel discusses with Chief Manny Jules and economist Terry Anderson the importance of property ownerships and How Government Perpetuates Native American’s Cycle of Poverty