Native Colleges Need Money Not Apologies

By John Gravley
(red61@me.com)

Economic Inequality is generally defined as the unequal distribution of income and opportunity between different groups in society.  Often the conversation is focused on the growing gap between the extremely wealthy and everyone else.  In the U.S. context, there is a growing debate about structural economic issues related to people forced to labor on land that never provided any economic opportunity for them.  The question is how can or should this historic economic injustice be addressed today.

However, a less-recognized historical economic injustice in the U.S. is the wholesale displacement of Native populations from their traditional land to land that has less economic opportunity than the land taken from them.  One solution offered to generate Native economic opportunity on their “new” land has been the introduction of the Gaming Industry onto “new” Native land.  But for most Native groups, this has not been a satisfactory solution.

Capital and wealth creation for Native Americans has not been solved through gambling. Of the 566 federally recognized tribes in the U.S., only 240 have casinos at all. And, much of this money does not stay in the community due to the nature of the working agreements with the casino management companies. A small percentage of tribes have had great financial success, no question, but there are still 100s of others where the standard of living is well below American averages. Native Americans have the least financial wealth statistically, even compared with other minorities.^[1]

More recently, post-secondary educational institutions, located on historic Native land have been moving to recognize the economic injustice inherent in their founding and current operation on this land.  These schools have adopted “land acknowledgment” statements.  The statements recognize that the land supporting the school and providing economic value to the school is not providing opportunity and value to the historic land stewards.  However, meaningful action to tangibly redress this long-term structural economic injustice is lacking.

Recently I saw this firsthand while attending the graduation ceremony of a family member from Bard College, a respected private New England liberal arts college.  As I was looking through the rather long program, I noticed the paragraph on the last page that stated an acknowledgment of the land on which Bard is built.  The school was clearly offering its recognition of the fact the school exists on land that had historically belonged to Native peoples and became the home of the college under a less than honorable process.  I was chatting with the family next to me about this irony. They too had been impressed when their daughter made her first official visit to the school because the initial tour began with a prayer of acknowledgment to the Native community for their land.  But as the many names of the graduates were called, I was somewhat surprised I didn’t hear any Native names being called.

Some weeks later, a friend was sharing about a college in Muskogee, Oklahoma, that had been working to educate Native students for over 140 years – Bacone College.  The friend was sharing the dire financial difficulties the school was facing.  The school had never been able to charge students full cost for their education because the Native students came from communities historically lacking in economic opportunity.  Bacone College had gone about its work, just getting by for all these years.  It did not have money set aside for an endowment and over the years it had liquidated assets just to pay the bills.  Now it faces the prospect of closing.

On the other side of Bacone’s deprivation, sits Bard’s abundance. The latter recently announced almost $100 million in gifts and grants secured for an Indigenous Studies program at the school.  This development was part of the school’s efforts to once again, acknowledge the legacy upon which it was established.  The economically advantaged school decided the appropriate solution to their acknowledged injustice was to offer a program of study about Native people for mostly non-Native students.  That way it could add to its economic potential and “do good.”

In stark contrast, Bacone College, (1) educates Native students, (2) participates with Native artists in Native Art, and (3) is one of a few places where work is being carried out on Native languages. Yet, this penurious school faces the prospect of closing because its “new land” lacks economic opportunity.  Sharing even 10% of the $100 million secured by the New England school would enable Bacone College to continue.  

Why do resources go to one place and not the other? Obviously, there are many reasons. First, money goes to places where people are known.  Second, funding flows to places with high-profile track records.  Third, money often finds its way to institutions that can afford the staff and time to search out the funding. In this case, it’s an example of money “for others” not going to “the others” but being held for study of “the others” by people who are not “other.”  Structural economic injustice continues in the “solution” to the problem.

This type of solution is most insidious for Native communities who have been forced off land, only to look from a distance and see the economic opportunity that THEIR land now affords to those who want to study “them.”  Why not share the power of economic opportunity and restore economic support for Native communities?   

That truly would be a “JUST” response to a recognition of stolen land. 

SOLUTIONS:

• Create ways to keep existing wealth in the Native communities – develop ways for Native communities to leverage existing resources without selling them off to others.
• Deploy creative financial solutions that put more capital in the communities through Native Community Development Finance Institutes (CDFIs) or Native Impact Investment Funds. CDFIs are financial institutions that provide credit and financial services to underserved markets and populations, primarily in the US but also in the UK.  One of the best tools available for a CDFI is tax credit financing. CDFIs can apply for tranches of Tax Credits from the Federal Reserve. Then the CDFI can use these to finance projects. The real magic is the ability of the CDFI to forgive a portion of the Tax Credit backed loan by using the tax credit to offset part of the loan amount. For example, AltCap is a CDFI based in Kansas City, Missouri. It has agreed to work with a bank in Oklahoma on a loan for Bacone. 
• Share economic opportunity educationally.  Create some type of economic/academic partnership that allows economic opportunity to flow to the people whose stolen land is generating this economic return.

^[1] https://greenmoney.com/impact-investing-4/