The Challenge

American Indians are largely underrepresented in high growth and high demand sectors of the economy. The Twin Cities Metropolitan American Indian community is also experiencing demographic shifts. Population aging and population growth are creating fresh challenges for service providers. There are significant pressures on the population as it outgrows its surroundings with a resulting dispersion of American Indian people into several city neighborhoods and the suburbs.

American Indian community investment in businesses and financial activities that compete in the global economy is, by-and-large, miniscule. Instead, the primary employers in the American Indian community are social service nonprofits and government entities. Indian jobs, income and quality of life are connected to focusing on deficits and poverty within the community. The result is a weak economy based on providing services to fill gaps, creating long-term dependency on those services – both for those who provide the services and those who receive them.

At the same time, significant numbers of American Indian people wish to remain within their historic/recognized community area. There remains a strong desire to preserve and strengthen community and place for American Indians, and yet two challenges persist: A lack of strategic alignment and investment among American Indian nonprofits to work on collaborative projects that leverage their assets; and a lack of community and economic development capacity to create the new prosperity envisioned by Indian residents and businesses.

Nationally, the Minneapolis American Indian community is a respected and well-known model of urban American Indian development — a place where American Indian people have created a sense of community identity and place. Much of that work has been done through non-profit organizations including the Indian Health Board, Little Earth of United Tribes, American Indian OIC, MIGIZI Communications, Minneapolis American Indian Center, Heart of the Earth School, American Indian Community Development Corporation and American Indian Business Development Corporation (now AINDC).

Currently, as South Minneapolis, including the neighborhoods of Phillips, Ventura Village, Powderhorn, and Seward undergo significant growth as a result of light rail and other urban development, the American Indian community is, for the most part, not a viable or respected player at the development table. This must change. An organized effort is required to develop and bring Indian economic power into the ongoing stream of development opportunities.

Further, the metro area offers less land and housing development at an affordable price that will benefit the American Indian population in the future. The positioning of new enterprises within the American Indian community needs to occur soon to generate gain on investment for existing and new opportunities. Significant benefit to the Minneapolis American Indian population will be realized only if an asset building strategy is part of the changes that are coming to the area. Failure to act will result in exacerbated poverty and lack of opportunity with no change in the current conditions.

E-mail