Gabe Galanda Republishes Tribal Economic Diversification Paper

Gabe Galanda published an updated version of his paper, "The Business Case for Private Investmentand Development in Indian Country," at the 12th Annual Native Nations Law Symposium that was held on the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas on September 14th. He added new topics such as several federal Indian Country tax incentives that Congress has allowed to expire, as well as the HEARTH Act. He originally published the paper at RES 2011, at the request of the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development.

[W]hile state and local governments struggle to make ends meet [amidst the Great Recession], tribal governments have largely avoided economic catastrophe. Fueled by the $26 billion Indian gaming industry, Indian Country is generally faring much better than neighboring local economies since the recession took hold in 2008. Ironically, not having property tax bases to begin with, most tribal governmental revenues have remained stable. Many tribes are avoiding complacency; they recognize that the Indian gaming industry will not sustain its exponential growth over the last decade. The inevitable legalization of Internet gaming and, in some jurisdictions, commercial land-based gaming, will eventually put a major dent in Indian Country’s bottom line. As such, tribal governments are more than ever looking to diversify their economies.

Where tribes bring a staggering array tangibles like land and location, and intangibles like sovereignty, relaxed red tape and tax exemption, their corporate business partners bring proven industry expertise and new capital to the reservation. Whether through a joint venture between a tribe and a non-Indian business, a tribal land lease to a non-tribal company, or a tax credit investment – all of which are contemplated below – there are an abundance of very advantageous reservation development deals for Corporate America to symbiotically explore with tribes at this time in our nation’s history. The time is now for tribes to leverage these advantages to create new economic and job opportunities on their reservations.

Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian owned law firm.  He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California.  Gabe assists tribal governments and businesses in all matters of tribal economic development and diversification, including entity formation and related tax strategy. Gabe can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com.

Pechanga.net and Indianz.com feature "Dear Santa, Please Buy Indian Again"

Victor Rocha's Pechanga.net, and Indianz.com have both posted "Dear Santa, Please Buy Indian Again (2011)." Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda, a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California.

Dear Santa, Please Buy Indian Again (2011)

Dear Santa, I've been good again this year and am very excited for Christmas.

Thank you for all of the wonderful Native-made presents you brought my family and me last year. Will you please do the same this year? Since none of this stuff is made at the North Pole you'll have to buy it again from Indian Country -- you know, Buy Indian -- OK?

For my mom, please bring her a purse or scarf made by Dorothy Grant. She will feel so good wearing something so beautiful.

For my dad, please bring him all the Umqua Indian Foods beef jerky he can eat. He’s easy to please.

For my oldest brother, please bring him a Louie Gong print Psycho Killer Whale Linocut Print. It will look cool in his college dorm room.

For my older sister, please bring her a Litefoot action figurine, with flat-billed lid, high tops and beat-box accessories. She has a major crush on him. If he is out of stock, please bring her a Litefoot gift set.

For me and all of my brothers and sisters, please bring them something from Native Threads, Nakota Designs, HYDZ Gear, or Haida Shoes. All of that Native-made gear is awesome.

For me and my cousins, please bring us Gyasi Ross' new book, "Don't Know Much About Indians."

For the singers and drummers in my family, please bring them a JBear Rawhide hand drum.

For my great aunties, please bring them something authentic from the Quileute Nation. They are huge Twilight fans and would love anything made by Quileute People.

For my mom, aunties and grandmas, please bring them Sister Sky indigenous bath and beauty products. I know they’ll love the stuff's smell and feel.

For my uncles and grandpas, please bring them Tanka Gift Baskets. They’ll love the buffalo snacks.

For everyone, please put Tanka Bars in our stockings. Another great stocking stuffer: Star Nayea’s Christmas Dream CD. Life’s Beautiful Journey holiday cards by Linley Logan would also be a nice touch.

Finally, for my tribe’s and all tribes’ leaders, please give them the tools to build vibrant small Indian business sectors and inter-tribal economies so Indian Country will prosper for generations to come, especially when Indian gaming fades away. Unfortunately you must have run short on these tools last Christmas, as Buy Indian still isn’t a reality in Indian Country in 2011. Hopefully that will change in 2012.

Oh, and although I left you homemade chocolate chip cookies last year, I hope you will try the Tanka Bar I left you this year. It should allow you to squeeze down those chimneys a bit easier.

Thank you, Santa!

Jimmy Indian, age 9

Small Business Saturday Another Opportunity to Buy Indian

November 26, 2011, "Small Business Saturday" -- AND Native American Heritage Day! -- presents another opportunity for Indian Country to buy Indian -- to walk the walk.

The 2nd annual Small Business Saturday® is a day dedicated to supporting small businesses on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year.

On November 26, we're asking millions of people to Shop Small® at their favorite local stores and help fuel the economy. When we all shop small, it will be huge.

Today, and throughout the holidays, shop small and buy Indian on your reservation or via the Internet.

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.

Buy Indian, Buy Local This Black Friday

Indian Country, especially its new middle class, wields formidable purchasing power, spending millions upon millions of dollars annually on goods and services. Yet “[o]n most reservations, there are few retail stores and tribal members must go off reservation and pay state taxes on everything they buy. Nationwide, this amounts to $246 million annually in tax revenues to state governments.” Although the infrastructure needed to support a robust reservation retail sector is largely still lacking in Indian Country, tribal citizens can still buy Indian/local, most notably via the Internet, where all varieties of tribal retail goods and services are available for sale. Indeed, "when you buy from an independent, locally owned business, rather than a nationally owned businesses, significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers and farms -- continuing to strengthen the economic base of the community." This is especially true in Indian Country.

To the extent there are retail stores and/or tribally authorized sales taxation on a reservation, "locally-owned businesses generate a premium in enhanced economic impact to the community and our tax base."

Indian Country, starting this Black Friday and throughout this holiday season, buy Indian, buy local; buy early and often. Hopefully if you give Indian, you shall receive Indian.  Either way, make the effort to buy from your tribal community or to buy from the inter-tribal economy via the Internet, rather than buying from non-tribal economies. Yes, we can.

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.

The Business Case for Private Investment and Development in Indian Country

On Wednesday, at RES 2011 in Las Vegas, Gabe Galanda presented a paper titled, "The Business Case for Private Investment and Development in Indian Country" (updated March 31, 2011). The paper was commissioned by the U.S. Interior Department's Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development, for presentation to representatives of Corporate America in attendance at RES.

There has never before been a better time to develop businesses on Indian lands or otherwise in partnership with tribal governments. The Great Recession has taken a disastrous toll on state and local governments. State tax revenues have plummeted, causing state and local governments to cut programs and reduce workforces. Local development impact fees have spiked. Tax assessors are assessing property and excise taxes with reckless abandon, as many state legislatures having withdrawn various tax exemptions and incentives that were designed to catalyze local business development and job creation. Obtaining building permits now takes even longer. It is getting more and more difficult, if not impossible in some jurisdictions, to develop new businesses in traditional commercial sectors.

But while state and local governments struggle to make ends meet, tribal governments have largely avoided economic catastrophe. Fueled by the $26.4 billion Indian gaming industry, Indian Country is generally faring much better than neighboring local economies since the recession took hold in 2008. Ironically, not having property tax bases to begin with, most tribal governmental revenues have remained stable. But tribes are not getting complacent; they recognize that the Indian gaming industry will not sustain its exponential growth over the last decade. The inevitable legalization of Internet gaming and, in some jurisdictions, commercial land-based gaming, will eventually put a major dent in Indian Country’s bottom line. As such, tribal governments are more than ever looking to diversify their economies.

Where tribes bring a staggering array tangibles like land and location, and intangibles like sovereignty, relaxed red tape and tax exemption, their corporate business partners bring proven industry expertise and new capital to the reservation. Whether through a joint venture between a tribe and a non-Indian business, a tribal land lease to a non-tribal company, or a tax credit investment – all of which are contemplated below – there are an abundance of very advantageous reservation development deals for Corporate America to symbiotically explore with tribes at this time in our nation’s history.

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.

Dear Santa: Buy Indian Christmas List

Dear Santa, I've been good this year. Please bring all of this stuff for me and my big Indian family:

For my mom, please bring Sister Sky bath and beauty products made from natural indigenous ingredients. They will make her feel so good.

For my dad, please bring him all the Umqua Indian Foods beef jerky he can eat. He loves the stuff.

For my younger brother, please bring him a pair of custom-made Eighth Generation shoes, size 8. Louie Gong is awesome.

For my older brother, please bring him Sherman Alexie's book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I don't like to read but he does.

For my older sister, please bring her Gyasi Ross. She really needs a boyfriend and he's pretty cool. If Gyasi's out of stock, please bring her a Litefoot CD.

For my cousins, please bring them cool gear from Native Threads. They'll be psyched with a new hoodie or hat.

For my aunties, please bring them fine Indian made jewelry from any of the vendors with the Indian Arts and Crafts Association. They like those big, dangling ear rings.

For my uncles, please bring them prime cuts of all-natural, native grass-fed, free range beef and buffalo from Native Grasslands Beef & Buffalo Co. You can't go wrong with a big steak for all of my big uncles.

For my great aunties and uncles, please bring them gourmet, indigenous harvested coffee from Native Coffee Traders. Coffee is gross but they love the stuff.

For my grandmas, please bring them each a quilt from Concow Quilts in Covelo, California. They are the finest Indian quilts around.

For my grandpas, please bring them each a gift certificates for a Quinault Indian guided fishing tour. They would love to get out of the house for a day.

For my teachers at school, please bring them Indian smoked salmon from First American Natural Foods.

For my tribe and our tribal leaders, please bring them the tools to build a vibrant small Indian business sector so my tribal will thrive for generations to come.

As for me, I just want my own per capita.

Anyway, I hope you like the cookies I made for you.

Thank you, Santa.

Jimmy Indian, age 8

Buy Local = Buy Indian

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.

Buy Indian Part II: Calling All Casino Managers!

Tribal Casino Managers: As you know, fueled by a stable $26 billion in annual gross gaming revenues, tribal governmental gaming operations wield hundreds of millions of dollars in Indian purchasing power.  You wield the tribes’ enormous purchasing power.  You hold the purse strings.

Before tribes might pass Tribal Buy Indian Acts that mandate their casinos’ procurement of Indian goods and services, Indian Country needs your help.  We need you to dedicate tribal casinos’ purchasing power to Indian goods and services, not because you have to but because “it’s the right thing to do.”  Buying Indian really is the right thing to do, for Indian Country.

As the post, Calling All Tribal Leaders! explains, Buy Indian is critical to the development of a tribal small business sector.  It is important for you to understand the reality of not having Native family-owned businesses flourishing on the reservation you are helping improve through the tribe’s gaming enterprise.

Without a reservation private sector:

• Indian job opportunity is lost. The “Indian brain drain” – the drain of tribal talent from the reservation – will continue.
• Reinvestment in tribal businesses and homes, and the modernization of reservation infrastructure, does not happen at acceptable levels, if at all.  As a casino manager, you of course want there to be aesthetically pleasing roads, sidewalks, streetlights, landscaping and parking lots, as well as other businesses, surrounding the gaming enterprise.
• Opportunities to diversify tribal economies away from cigarettes, fireworks and gaming, towards more sustainable industries, and for tribes to tax Indian business activities to enhance governmental programs and services, do not flourish.
• Tribal quality of life – for example, not having to drive hours to go shopping – cannot improve.
• Indian sovereignty and self-determination is not fully realized.

With the goals of a vibrant private sector and in turn a better way of reservation life in mind, Indian Country needs your help buying Indian.  The tribal community you serve needs you to focus the tribe’s procurement power on Indian goods and services, which are increasingly available to your casino.  To give you a few examples: Sister Sky, a business owned by two Spokane sisters, manufacturers hygiene products made from traditional Indian botanicals, which they sell at shopping malls and to hotels and spas. Yakama Juice, America’s first Native-owned juice plant, produces organic juices that are fine enough for Costco to sell wholesale, as well as purified water and sports drinks.  Caddo Solutions, a Caddo Indian-owned enterprise out of Denver, provides a wide variety of office services and supplies to businesses all over the country.

Unfortunately, at virtually every Indian casino, hotel or resort in America, the bathroom products are still furnished by the likes of Sysco, not Sister Sky; the beverages are provided by Coke or Pepsi, not Yakama Juice; and the office supplies are purchased from Costco or Office Max.  Indian Country needs your help to change that reality.

That said, does buying Indian come without any challenges?  No.  Might Indian goods and services, as with those of any other local business competing with national or multi-national companies, come at a higher price?  Sure.  Could Native family-run businesses need a little bit of help from you to get integrated into your casino’s sophisticated way of procurement and doing business?  Maybe.  Yet should any excuses be made for tribal small businesses that do not provide you service at the level you expect from Corporate American?  Absolutely not.  Buying and selling Indian will most certainly take effort, patience and resolve from everyone involved.

Like my grandfather always preached to me: “Where there is a will, there is a way.”  Indian Country needs you, as stewards of tribal economic resources, to instill in your mind and heart, the will to buy Indian.  With your and your management team’s will to buy Indian, there is a way towards equipping your casino with the Native goods and services you need to succeed – and Indian Country with the hope it needs for the future.

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.