ns, the Seneca Nation also used tobacco sales to create fertile opportunities in an otherwise desolate economic landscape. As the business model matured, we created our own brands and utilized the internet to open up new distribution channels. Unfortunately for us, this took away precious slivers of market share from tobacco conglomerates like Phillip Morris. Retribution was swift. Federal legislation was quickly enacted to immediately halt our shipments, which killed our businesses overnight and put many of our people out of work.
The government’s latest attack on Native economies is focused on federal government work performed by tribally and Alaska Native-owned companies. Although these companies account for a tiny fraction of government contracts, contracts that generate desperately needed revenue for its communal owners, some members of congress have launched legislative attacks in an effort to nullify our contracts. One of the main congressional gripes is that these companies are eligible to receive some sole source contracts. Some legislators have positioned this as somehow “not fair.” What they fail to point out, however, is that 10 multi-national corporations dominate the federal market and routinely receive the vast majority of all government sole source work. Specifically, in 2008, eight of the top 10 federal contractors each received more than 60 percent of their federal contracts through non-competitive mechanisms, and these top 10 contractors received approximately $170 billion (30 percent) of the roughly $525 billion spent by the federal government. In stark contrast, tribally and Alaska Native-owned companies received less than one percent of the same spending. Once again, agreements with Native nations are fragile when they remotely interfere with government or corporate bounty.
The termination era continues, although now with a more subtle economic bent. Instead of physically taking land or paying cash for dead Indians, the current approach is more refined and politically palatable. Choking down on revenue streams and economic progress is just as effective as wholesale killing. Economic blight furthers the dependency and bleakness that ultimately leads to extinction. Occasionally, non-Natives get a fleeting glimpse of this in action—Diane Sawyer recently took TV viewers on a shocking tour of the deplorable conditions facing the Oglala Lakota Sioux on the Pine Ridge reservation. The general public expressed concern, albeit for a moment. Surprise and compassion flowed through the Facebook and Twitter worlds, but emotions were quickly squashed by apathy.
History does repeat itself, but sometimes in a veiled, and often sinister, way. When market share replaces land resources, overt termination takes on more covert forms. Native people understand this and see through the veil. Like the generations before us, we will continue to fight to survive and carry our people and cultures forward. The only request is that simple agreements finally be kept.
David Kimelberg is an enrolled citizen (Bear clan) of the Seneca Nation of Indians and is the CEO of Seneca Holdings, the Nation’s investment arm. His views are his own and not necessarily those of the Seneca Nation of Indians or Seneca Holdings.
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