Saturday, November 27, is Small Business Saturday. Small Business Saturday organizers proclaim that “for every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures." While Indian small business owners do not pay taxes at the same level as non-Indian small business owners -- but they do still pay taxes -- this calculus is likely the same for every $100 spent at a tribal or Indian family owned businesses. Indeed, whether the idea is to Buy Local or Buy Indian, the concept is the same: keep your family's hard earned monies on your reservation and otherwise in your local community because by doing so, that $100 recycles and multiplies there, rather than elsewhere.
“Small Business Saturday recognizes the importance of small businesses to the overall economy and local communities. It’s a day to support the small, independently owned businesses we can’t live without.”
Buy Indian Day -- be it November 27 or any other day this holiday season -- should recognize the importance of small Indian businesses to the overall tribal economy and reservation communities. It's a day to support the small, tribally owned businesses Indian Country can't live without if we are ever to realize a vibrant tribal private sector.
Buy Local/Indian: what are we waiting for?
Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com, or via galandabroadman.com.
