Background

The two million Native Americans in the United States have the highest poverty and unemployment rates in the country. They are the poorest population group in the US. Ironically, Native Americans own significant assets, including an amount of land almost the size of California. Along with timber, grazing and crop lands, their other natural resources include 5% of the US oil reserves, 10% of gas reserves, 30% of low sulphur coal reserves and 40% of privately held uranium. For any group of people, these assets would mean significant wealth, but Native Americans lack the control over their assets and therefore the opportunities to develop them into an income source.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has the responsibility to administer the land held in trust by the United States for American Indians. In practice, the BIA has leased land to non-Indians at below market rates and has set up bureaucratic hurdles, achieving the opposite of what it was set up to accomplish. Any decision to set up a business or develop a piece of land requires the approval of the BIA, which takes 5 years on average.

Similar problems extend to the 300-400 million indigenous people around the world. They represent 5% of the world’s population, but own 30% of the land. Enabling these groups to make productive use of the land and other assets they own is a powerful tool for poverty alleviation.