Unlocking the Wealth of Indian Nations

Unlocking the Wealth of Indian Nations uses the tools of economics, political science, and law to explain how top-down institutions have shackled reservation economies and why bottom-up institutions are necessary to unlock the human, physical, and natural capital of Native Americans. Most American Indian reservations are islands of poverty in a sea of wealth, but they do not have to remain that way. To extract themselves from poverty, Native Americans will have to build on their rich cultural history including familiarity with markets and integrate themselves into modern economies by creating institutions that reward productivity and entrepreneurship and that establish tribal governments that are capable of providing a stable rule of law. The chapters in this volume document the involvement of indigenous people in market economies long before European contact, provide evidence on how the wealth of Indian Nations has been held hostage to bureaucratic red tape, and explains how their wealth can be unlocked through self-determination and sovereignty.