South Dakota Public Broadcasting, sdpb.org | From the Dakota Digest | November 17, 2011

The issue of economic development in Indian Country took center stage in front of the United States Senate Banking Committee late last week. Senators heard testimony from Native American business leaders about which measures are needed to spur economic development in some of the nation's poorest areas. On today's Dakota Digest SDPB's Charles Michael Ray speaks with a successful Native American business owner who testified before congress. 

For decades there's been an exodus from small towns and rural areas in South Dakota.  But South Dakota's Indian Country is bucking that trend.   Reservations are the only place in the state where the rural population is actually growing.   Mark Tilsen says this growth should be seen as a positive.

"It's only in Indian Country that when we have population growth people say oh we have a problem the Indian population is growing.   Everywhere else in the world it's looked at opportunity--why isn't it an opportunity that the fact that young people are staying in the community and they want to be part of it and they want to live here why isn't' that considered opportunity," says Tilsen.

Tilsen is a long time Indian Country entrepreneur.  He's one of the founders of the Pine Ridge based company Native American Natural Foods. They make the Tanka Bar. It's a snack food made of buffalo that is sold in over five-thousand stores nation wide.  Tilsen notes that Indian Country sees faster job growth than the state of South Dakota in general -- but with an upwards of 80 percent unemployment on some reservations he says there is still a long way to go.  US Senator Tim Johnson agrees. He outlined some of the challenges in his opening remarks at a recent Senate Banking Committee hearing in Washington DC. 

"While progress has been made many native communities continue to face significant challenges including staggering unemployment rates, inadequate health care, crowded and unsafe housing conditions, high crime rates and educational inequalities. this is unacceptable.  Fostering small business growth is a vital step toward increasing employment opportunities," says Johnson.

While all sides seem to agree that job creation and economic development are the best ways to tackle these problems--there are several hurdles to overcome on the way.  Mark Tilsen says one of the main barriers is a lack of access to capitol.  He says even very successful reservation businesses have a very hard time accessing the loans they need to keep growing. 

"Because the economic infrastructure ie. capitol is not here to drive it and we're not able to have access to capitol to have an economy that builds momentum," says Tilsen.

Tilsen says Native business owners are not asking for a handout, just the same access to credit historically offered to entrepreneurs.  But he goes on to say in this economic crisis--it's an even bigger issue than creating equal opportunity.

"Now what's happening is the economic neglect that's been going on historically in Indian Country and all small businesses are having a problem and we see it statistically in the separation and the income in the middle class is going down and the income in the super rich is going up," says Tilsen.  

In his written testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last week Tilsen offered a number of solutions to build the economies of rural America and Indian Country.  He wants to see support for small business growth by making lending to small businesses a priority. Tilsen notes the failure of incentives like the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010.   He says the 30 million dollars in this act given to banks has seldom made it into hands of actual small business entrepreneurs.  He calls for a renewal of the American Indian Employment tax credit for job creation.  He also proposes a four-year tax holiday for all profits made from investments on reservations where the unemployment rate is more than 30 percent.   But overall Tilsen is critical of congressional inaction on these issues.

"An America has the creativity and the courage and the resources to solve this problem but when one side decides to filibuster every decision that means nothing is getting done and no jobs are getting created,"  says Tilsen.

For his part Republican US Senator John Thune is proposing a new bill called the Access to Capital for Job Creators Act.  Thune says it's aimed at helping small businesses get access to investors. He says it will remove a Security and Exchange Commission provision that currently prevents small businesses from attracting capitol for investors.  

"And it's yet another way for us to reduce regulations and help small businesses create jobs and so it's what I think is a very common sense approach to job creation and I look forward to moving it quickly through the senate and hopefully eventually on to the President's desk," says Thune

Critics point out that Republicans continue to block current and new government programs that are making actual improvements.  Thune says he is open to new approaches that can create jobs in Indian Country.  Native Business owner Mark Tilsen argues that investment in economic development saves taxpayer dollars in the long run.

"Let's face it poverty is expensive, keeping the health impact of poverty and the law enforcement impact of poverty  and economic development sustainable economic development is the only solution and we have to break down these barriers where people think all spending is bad -- but we're paying for the cost of poverty now - we have to pay for the solution," says Tilsen.

As the economic crisis continues Tilsen says small businesses outside of Indian Country are starting to see some of the same barriers to growth traditionally found on reservations.  Tilsen argues that without robust small businesses growth everywhere, there is little chance the economy will see real recovery.