what are organizations like these doing to mitigate tribal poverty, and encourage prosperity?

Question

How well do you think Native American organizations, like the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), and the National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA), are helping Native Americans to advance? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

The BIA? They are notoriously disorganized, mismanaged, and generally unhelpful. They have a disreputable history ever since their inception as a subgroup within the U.S. War Department. (Yes, that's where the BIA began.) They're currently facing lawsuits from many Native nations because of their incompetence in record-keeping and fund management. I often hear the BIA referred to in extremely negative terms by Native folks. I once asked a class (with some Native students in it) what the letters BIA stood for, and one Native student chimed in with "Bossing Indians Around." Personally, I thought he was right on target.

NCAI? Extremely helpful, it seems to me. Mostly because it was started BY Native folks, FOR Native folks, in order to monitor the federal government, and inform the nations of federal legislation that was injurious to Native sovereignty and self-determination (termination policies, in particular). The NCAI is basically an umbrella coalition of nations that allows them to act in concert on issues of importance to Native peoples, like education, health care, the environment, housing, religious freedom, and sovereignty principles in general.

The NIGA -- well, it kind of depends on your stance on gaming. It is a non-profit organization designed to help Native nations that choose to use gaming as an economic tool. It's Native-run (mostly), and serves as an educational and legislative resource for these Nations. It's a critical source for nations that participate in gaming, and tries to help these nations preserve self-sufficiency by helping them negotiate the maze of gaming regulations, and establish non-exploitative working relationships with the non-Native corporations that finance initial investments. Even nations opposed to gaming recognize the need for such an advocacy and lobbying organization, though not all Native folks like the NIGA.

Answer 2

The BIA is, for absolute certain. They've kept us afloat long, long after they should have disbanded. As for the NIGA, I'm certain that they are not helping the tribes.

The Quichan outside of Yuma, Arizona (on the California side, by the little town of Winterhaven) had a tomato-growing greenhouse complex that was a productive point of pride. It was from their success that tomato growing became big for a while in the area (but dashed by McDonald's bankrupting the company that bought those tomatoes for a ketchup contract). But when the poker casino was built next-door to those award winning gardens, the gardens were essentially abandoned, becoming an embarrassing eyesore. Then, further south, the Cocopah had farmland preserved, some of the same farm land that white farmers then leased to grow cotton, wheat, onions, and lettuce and citrus and do so profitably. But the Cocopah never really farmed their own land, especially after the casino came in. They didn't want to work in the casino, just collect the royalties checks and buy whatever enebrienants they could, whereupon they trashed those houses that were only built because the BIA paid for them. How do I know? I've been there.