New data provides first look at tribally owned businesses

NINA MOINI: New data from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve is giving a first look at tribally-owned businesses across the country and their impact on economic development. The data was collected by the Center for Indian Country Development, which is within the Minneapolis Federal Reserve. Joining us to learn more about this research is Vanessa Palmer, who's data director for the Center for Indian Country Development. Thanks for being with us this afternoon, Vanessa.

VANESSA PALMER: My pleasure. Happy to be here.

NINA MOINI: And we're also really thrilled to have Jake Robinson, vice president of business and economic development with Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures and a Red Lake Nation tribal member. Thanks for being here as well, Jake.

JAKE ROBINSON: It is my pleasure to join you today.

NINA MOINI: Oh, it's my pleasure as well. I'm so glad that we have both of your perspectives today. And Vanessa, I want to start with you. Tell us a little bit about your role and why the Center for Indian Country Development wanted and felt it was needed to collect data on these tribally-owned businesses.

VANESSA PALMER: Sure. So we here at the Center for Indian Country Development help support the mission of the Minneapolis Fed to pursue a growing economy that works for all of us. And we can't have all of us without Indian Country. One of the many things that makes tribal governments unique is the fact that they own and operate business enterprises. So I'm really excited to hear more about Mille Lacs today.

So by contrast, we wouldn't think of the city of Minneapolis or Hennepin County as running a business. But the reason for that is that they have access to public financing mechanisms, like taxes, that generate money for public goods, like roads, schools, and fire departments. But tribal governments typically don't have access to those same public financing tools. So to provide services to their citizens like other governments, they use revenues, in part, from tribally-owned businesses. And there's this distinctive part of the US economy, but it's really understudied. So that prompts this work and a lot of the other work that we do to address data gaps affecting Indian Country.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And Jake, tell me a little bit about your work with Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures, because there may not be data, but you're probably seeing firsthand some of these trends in real life, right?

JAKE ROBINSON: Yeah, absolutely. So Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures is unique in that we are a three-pillar company that focuses on profit, place, and people. As the vice president of business and economic development, most of my work is focused on development within the Mille Lacs tribal economy. So we tackle various economic development projects, like workforce housing, access to child care and broadband, as well as developing profitable businesses that serve the communities around us and the Mille Lacs Band members.

NINA MOINI: Would you talk, Jake, a little bit about what types of businesses you're focused on and serving?

JAKE ROBINSON: Absolutely. So Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures, or MLCV, is not unique in the sense that we have a large footprint in tribal gaming. But as we have focused on diversifying and building out our portfolio of businesses, we really, really look for areas where there are tribal advantages that are scarce, in demand, and appropriable. And gaming has been a real leader of that and has provided sustenance for the Mille Lacs Band, as well as fueled the growth for our diversification efforts.

And that, I think, is one of the really interesting things about the CI/CD data is that it shows while gaming and hospitality is a vital part of Indian Country, nearly three out of four tribally-owned businesses are not focused in those industries.

NINA MOINI: Huh. What do you think about that, Vanessa? Tell us more about that.

VANESSA PALMER: Yeah, that's exactly right. I would build on that and say we see in the data, too, that of the businesses that are more recently started, so in the last five years, leisure and hospitality, in which gaming is situated, is not the leading sector. So we do see evidence in the data of that diversification Jake is talking about.

NINA MOINI: And where are they-- where's the diversification happening? Just in every type of business, or what are some of the other business areas?

VANESSA PALMER: So interestingly, tribal businesses are found in all major sectors. But of those most recent businesses that we're talking about, the top sector is professional and business services. So these would be things like consulting.

NINA MOINI: OK. And what is your hope, Vanessa, that would be done with this data? What does it show? And then what is the hope that people would take and use it for?

VANESSA PALMER: That is a great question. So in contrast to other sectors, there's really not a comprehensive overview of tribally-owned businesses that's publicly available, as far as we're aware. So we're not-- up until now, investors, policymakers, community members don't have access to the answers to foundational questions like, how many are there? Where are they? What sectors are they in? How many employees do they have?

And so with this foundational information, we're really hoping to inform, number one, policy conversations at all levels, so that's tribal, local, state, and federal. Because Native communities and tribal businesses are all over the US. It's also going to be key information for business decision making. So banks and other financial institutions, for example, want to understand market characteristics when they're making investments and loans.

NINA MOINI: And Jake, I mean, what do you think about the future? What are these numbers showing about the future of tribally-owned businesses in the state of Minnesota, but also beyond?

JAKE ROBINSON: Yeah. So any insights and data about the impacts and trends within tribal businesses is really, really helpful. And one of the things that I really took away from that report is the recognition that tribally-owned businesses are tools of self-governance. They fund civic and social services, in addition to the economic development. And that is a huge step forward in educating the public and stakeholders and financial institutions about the critical role that tribal businesses play in the US economy.

One of the things that we would love to take a closer look at with the CI/CD are the regional trends and data sets. So this has been a great step forward in establishing how to collect this data, how to interpret this data, and how to use this data. Tribes are not monolithic. And there are a variety of community priorities, governance structures all across the United States, and even within the state of Minnesota that impact tribal business.

So really being able to zero in region by region is something we would hope to be able to take to the next step with reports like this, as well as looking at the impacts of programs like ARPA on the short, medium, and long-term impacts for tribal nations, tribal members, and regional economies. It would be a great way to take this research one step further.

NINA MOINI: And just remind everybody what ARPA is.

JAKE ROBINSON: That was the American Rescue Plan. So that was--

NINA MOINI: For COVID.

JAKE ROBINSON: Yep, yep, during COVID.

NINA MOINI: Right. And so, Vanessa, when you're collecting this data-- and some of it really doesn't even exist-- how is that process working? Can you describe that? Is it word of mouth? How is that? How are you finding everybody?

VANESSA PALMER: So it was very much both art and science. So it looked a lot like old-fashioned research. So many tribes maintain lists on their websites of the businesses they own. So you can visit the tribe site and see their holdings. There's also tribal consortium organizations that have directories of member tribes businesses. From there, we're looking at annual reports. We're looking at newspapers.

So most of the compilation was from publicly available information. So just rolling up our sleeves and getting into it. You'll see a lengthy list of acknowledgments at the bottom of the article. We really-- we had a lot of collaboration on this piece. And then we had a remainder of the information that came from subscription-based commercial data sources as well, but mostly, just elbow grease and publicly available info.

NINA MOINI: Yep. And Jake, I'll kick this last question over to you. I know you want to dive in more on regions and get as specific as possible. Were there some indicators about businesses just in different areas of Minnesota? I had read that East Central Minnesota in particular stood out to you.

JAKE ROBINSON: Yeah. So that is where MLCV is the most active. That's where the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe is located. And those are the six census tracts that we define as being the Mille Lacs tribal economy. And that has been one of the really innovative approaches that MLCV has taken to economic development is recognizing that economic development doesn't just stop and start at the borders of the reservation. The best way to have thriving tribal communities and thriving tribal businesses is to have thriving communities around us. So that's where having those regional looks and even local looks to really be able to drill down and see where the areas of expansion are for tribal businesses and really discern what that data means, so we can maximize its impact.

NINA MOINI: Wonderful. Jake and Vanessa, I appreciate you both so much. Thanks for coming by and sharing this data with us. I appreciate it.

VANESSA PALMER: My pleasure.

JAKE ROBINSON: Thank you.

VANESSA PALMER: Thanks so much.

NINA MOINI: Vanessa Palmer is the data director for the Center for Indian Country Development, and Jake Robinson is vice president of business and economic development with Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures.