Competent and Capable
Published February 2, 2023
Imagine a country where the federal government dictates that people are incompetent and incapable. Those words sound out of place in the United States, and yet that is the way the federal government describes American Indians under current federal law. This has prevented American Indians from being able to own land or assets on US reservations without permission and has left them impoverished. Some tribes have been able to have success thanks to negotiations with the government, but why not remove the legislation entirely and allow American Indians to be free?
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Imagine a country where the federal government dictates that people are incompetent and incapable until the government deems them to be competent and capable. Those words sound out of place in the United States, and yet that is the way the federal government describes American Indians under laws from 1887 and again in 1906
Those laws said that until they're deemed competent and capable, Native Americans can't own their land and they can't own assets. That just seems unfathomable in a free country like the United States, but it is part and parcel of what has created Native American poverty in the sea of American wealth.
It's really the heavy hand of the federal government that dictates what can be done on trust land that determines just how much tribes can either thrive or hopefully survive.
The good news is that some tribes are regaining control through special legislation or agreements with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
One example is the Flathead Reservation in Montana. That reservation now has total control of the tribe’s forests. Those forests sit right next to the Lolo National Forest, managed by the United States forest service.
On its land, the federal government earns 98 cents for every dollar it spends on timber management. The tribe however earns two dollars for every dollar it spends.
Tribal land has better quality water, better wildlife habitat, better age and species distribution of trees; you name it, it is managed better than the United States forest lands. And that’s because they have a stake in the game. They own it, so they take care of it. *And they earn a profit from it.
More and more tribes are beginning to understand the importance of self-governance, the importance of their own sovereignty, and the importance of—as one tribal leader put it—getting away from grants and permission from the federal government and moving toward revenues.