Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | M | Montana Business Quarterly

Reservation revenues: uncovering economic contributions of Montana's American Indian tribes.

Article Excerpt
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Director's note:

Montana's American Indian tribes have long been important components of the state's poetical and social landscape. Recently, the economic contributions of the tribes and associated activities (such as the Indian Health Service, school districts, and tribal businesses) to state and local economies have also received attention. This report is the first step (and only the first step) in estimating and quantifying the economic impacts of the tribes and their associated activities. The State-Tribal Economic Development Committee (STEDC) funded researcher Eleanor YellowRobe to review audited financial statements and government reports and documents, the most credible sources available, to obtain data concerning tribal and related activities. This information has never before been collected. This report is not an economic impact estimate. These impacts depend crucially on the exact sources of revenues and the precise way in which they are spent. For example, a tribal expenditure for wages and salaries is likely to have a greater local economic impact than a similar expenditure for office equipment. The wages and salaries are likely to be spent and re spent locally while the dollars for office equipment may quickly leave the area to merchants or wholesalers in Denver, Minneapolis, or elsewhere. STEDC is currently planning to fund a study to further refine and quantify the local impacts of our state's reservations. Finally, since this report is based on audited financial statements and other credible government reports, the revenue and expenditure figures reported in the following table may, in fact, be low. This article is a condensed and edited version of the report submitted to STEDC.

[ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

Economic contributions of state entities within Montana's seven reservations and the Little Shell Tribe are significant--$1,028,089,317 for fiscal year 2003. Montana's reservations encompass 5,520,940 acres, or 8,626 square miles, of the state's land base of 147,046 square miles. Tribal membership for the reservations and the Little Shell Tribe is 69,324, which constitutes 7 percent of the state's population.

This article presents a summary of tribal monetary contributions by reservation area, plus the Little Shell Tribe, which has no reservation. Table 1, page 4, shows total revenues by reservation area. Activities associated with the Flathead Reservation area accounted for the largest share at about $317 million, or 30.9 percent of the total. The Fort Belknap Reservation was the smallest, with about $76 million, or 7.4 percent. The Little Shell Tribe (with no reservation) reported $204,595.

Montana's seven American Indian reservations are precisely defined spatial areas. Many of the activities covered in this report may technically occur outside reservation boundaries, but reservations still provide a convenient and easy-to-understand way of presenting the data. Figure 1, page 5, presents a map of Montana's reservations along with nearby towns.

Revenue information is presented by source (see source definitions to the right). The tabulations distinguish between, for example, the dollars received from the federal government and those earned by tribal entities.

Detailed sources and uses of revenues are provided for each reservation area. Since each reservation area is different, table formats vary from one reservation area to another.

The data on revenue sources and uses reported in the following tables were collected from 72 audited financial statements and 61 government financial reports. All information refers to fiscal year 2003 because it was the latest information available through the Federal Audit Clearing House when the research began. The financial reports were received through Freedom of Information...