Small businesses can have big impact

As nearly everyone is aware, there are sobering economic statistics facing our country at the present time. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the current unemployment rate in the United States is 9.6 percent (August 2009), and the unemployment rate for Native Americans is generally believed to be at least two times the national rate (according to the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development). Some sources estimate the figure of Native American unemployment to be as high as eighty or ninety percent in some states.

Hand-in-hand with those alarming statistics is the startlingly low number of businesses that are Native American or Alaska Native-owned. Out of the nearly 2.5 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States, only 206,125 were reported as owning a business in 2002 (Source: Native Americans in Business, Economics and Commerce).

Thus, in the current treacherous state of the American national economy, it is our opportunity as Native Americans to embrace these statistics as an impetus for change. In light of the fact that a lack of capital is often cited as an obstacle in the formation of Native American businesses, the creation of small businesses can be an effective answer.

Stephen Cornell and Joseph P. Kalt, authors of "What Can Tribes Do? Strategies and Institutions in American Indian Economic Development," recognize "Private (Micro) enterprise with tribal member ownership" as "an economic system based on the individual, family, or small group entrepreneurship of tribal members. In the face of scarcity of capital in Indian hands, it envisions a reservation economy consisting primarily of small businesses (‘microenterprises') that are started, owned, and operated as private businesses ... it recognizes that raising large amounts of capital is inconsistent with the generally low level of savings in Indian Country..."

Small business growth is vital to the restoration of our economy, through the creation of local jobs and the stimulation of local economy. And if we consider that within the demographic of the Native American and Alaska Natives we have over two million opportunities for new small businesses, we have the prospect of truly influencing the American economy in an extremely positive way.

"Small and minority-owned businesses must play a significant role in our efforts to restore economic growth. Small businesses employ half of the nation's private sector workforce; create a large share of the Nation's new jobs; and introduce many groundbreaking ideas into the marketplace," said President Barack Obama in August 2009.

If we consider the fact that less than 10 percent of Native Americans and Alaska Natives are involved with their own business, it is indeed exciting to imagine the impact we could have on the national economy if 50, 60, or even 70 percent of us were able to begin small businesses.

Aside from the tremendous impact that this type of goal would have on individual business owners, let's not overlook the extended influence that these businesses would have on others in the Native American community. With businesses that are Native American-owned and operated, discrimination would no longer be a factor for Native Americans applying for positions of employment. We would not feel disadvantaged when applying for a job at a company that would recognize our unique talents and aptitudes as Native Americans.