A Native Alliance enterprise(s) can directly benefit our Native communities

A Native Alliance enterprise(s) can directly benefit our Native communities

By

Terrance H. Booth, Sr. Tsimshian

For our Native communities formation of Native Alliances would be a natural for it incorporates our traditional Native ways of functioning in trade and bartering of goods. It only modernizes our ways into commercial and economic benefits for all Nations of North American. We in Indian Country Canada and USA have many pockets of successes and making a marked impact upon tribal economies.

Native Communities Benefits
Formation of a Native Nations Alliance brings and establishment of Tribal Enterprises that benefit our Native Communities in several ways:
• Socially, they bring our tribal people together, encourage them to use their growing diverse skills and talents, and often provide them with the opportunity to develop new tribal capabilities. They create a returning to our tribal people a sense of belonging, unite and build close tribal relationships among ourselves as a people, and we as tribes empower ourselves to make decisions to develop our tribal communities.
• All this promotes tribal community spirit that is missing in some of our tribal communities. Creation of long range plans by working together, a tribal community is able to accomplish much more and because of our own tribal economies instead of staying within their own tribal setting many tribal members out-migrated and we see talented individuals go their separate ways.
• Economically, potential Tribal Alliances can produce numerous types of goods locally, can provide local services, create employment, circulate money within the tribal communities, and make our tribal communities economically self-reliant. Because Alliance enterprises are owned by tribal members themselves, the profits tribal members generate stays in the local tribal areas. Alliances thus build the wealth of the community for current picture of tribal economies is much tribal revenues leaves our tribal settings paying for goods and services and we see our poor tribal economies.

In essence, successful Native Alliances and the development of several tribal enterprises our Native communities can begin to prosper and eliminate poverty from our midst making use of our own resources with full control by value adding, creation of a Native niche marketing, Native labeling, start of our own Native Stores with Native Produce and Products, take advantage of the diversification programs of grocery store chains where minorities can put on the store shelves their produce and products. In recent years some of the grocery store chains have ethnic food sections due to the diversity of America have several Indigenous from other parts of the globe moving to America.

We in Indian Country of Canada and USA all know that our tribal economies needs to improve and together we can join together using our own tribal expertise, bring back home some of our talented people, our skilled people, and those of us in specialty areas who have left us due to no work within our tribal communities. Most tribal enterprises are collectively owned by tribal members of their tribal settings. So it’s a natural to move into the formation of Native Nations Tribal Alliances. It is already know our tribal economic conditions of our own tribal settings. It is to transform our tribal needs into realistic tribal workable enterprises and work collective with ourselves for we see our own relatives moving far away from home working elsewhere instead of being home. This can become possible by developing it ourselves as tribes growing from our tribal perspectives, established from our tribal needs economically, and once established the earnings are distributed to the tribal owners including the tribal people. As a Native Alliance we have many advantages like government contracting, making use of all the federal government programs to enhance our tribal opportunities in the market and sales of our own tribal produce and products.

Example of why we need an Alliance like in our Native fisheries area. Native fisheries have been established clear back since 1916. In recent years they have worked with other companies and fisheries tribes only benefit in the harvesting and processing. Tribes have not benefitted in the marketing and sales and seafood buyers or brokers gain far much value by value adding salmon products with portion sizing, company labeling, seafood specialty stores, gift packaging, selling to specialty seafood stores, high end restaurants, fast food stores, and markets in different countries. A Native Nations Fisheries Alliance needs to be developed for purpose of taking complete control of all of the economics of seafood. We are already doing the harvesting and processing, those companies in the seafood industry make far more with the seafood products that we Natives work hard to harvest all available seafood. And the same companies we as tribes work with are stuck with the establish prices of our salmon harvest. With our own Native Fisheries Alliance we ourselves can dictate our own prices where everyone of our tribal members benefit for we can as tribal members benefit in the profits of the marketing and sales of our salmon product. From 1996, 2008 and 2011 American Indian and First Nations tribes have been introduced to prospects of establishing globalization economy for their particular tribal setting. In 1996 Alaska Native and Native American Tribes in Agriculture, lumber and timber, beef and cattle and citrus embarked upon Hong Kong, China and Tokyo, Japan and found a very receptive Asian market places in both countries. There was a keen interest in working with Natives by both Asian countries and a deep interest in any longevity involvement of established Native Businesses. The trade mission to both countries brought out significant accomplishments with introduction to a global economy by the Indigenous of the globe. The Yakima Nation established a trade office in Singapore, China and is a very busy office in receiving referrals and ensuring the orders are filled. Today this writer still gets seafood referrals from both countries.

How do we as Natives start the process of implementing a Native Nations Fisheries Alliance:
Preliminary meetings to outline purpose of funding which is to expand existing fisheries develop capability to implement a year around fisheries.

1. Outline short term needs of the seafood industry of Alaska Native, First Nations and Native American Tribes
2. What needs to be put into place to work more effectively and efficiently?
3. Commitment to payment of loan collectively and see how we can pay our debt together.
4. What State of the Art Equipment needs of existing seafood processing plants; 5. Ways to value add seafood products;
6. What improvements do we implement to establish Native Niche Marketing?
7. Taking advantage of Diversification Programs of Grocery Store Chains having our own Labeling of our Native Seafood Products
8. How do we establish a presence in the industry for global marketing?
9. How do we establish a presence in the industry for domestic marketing in Canada and USA?
10. Purchasing of State of the Art fishing boats with capability of year around fisheries both in Alaska and British Columbia
11. Purchasing of Floating Processing Plants for Haida Nation and Port Alberni
12. What recommendations for professional staffing to make it all work
13. What other Recommendations from those participating
14. Implementation of Five year Plan for all participating and for those that wish to join.

Over all purpose is to be in full control from harvesting to marketing and sales. Have the ability to purchase more seafood permits to establish full time work opportunities that works year around. Empowering the Tribes for full control we begin to take realistic steps to tribal progress. Fisheries is not the only area we have lumber and timber, tribal tourism, potential to develop tribal alternative energy parks to sell energy to utility companies, transportation for shipping and establish air cargo facilities, establish working partners to greatly enhance our business efforts and take steps to create financial independence, become self-reliant, and above all establish a presence in the global economy with tribal successes competing with the successful Indigenous of the global. We have the natural resources and our raw product is value added by our buyers. We have the available man power, our own tribal expertise, our people need to be elevated to new status of wealth our ancestors paved the way for us and some of us in the very recent past had successes and should research how we gained those successes. It is very common in today’s world that via the Internet we gain friends around the globe. We can fit into this global economy by just looking at our ancestors not to many generations ago traveled far and wide trading and bartering for goods or other foods. The time is now to do nation building and establish our global presence with our goods, produce and products. The way is being paved lets strive for a better economy for all our tribal people and bury poverty and think substantial tribal wealth development.