Welcome to the NAC Newsroom

Here you can find news articles from all over the country that will provide up-to-the-minute information on everything that’s going on in the Native American business community, from new startups and industries in your area, to changes in legislation that affect your business. The NAC team recognizes the value of keeping on the forefront of changes that influence Native American businesses and Indian Country, and provides one-stop business news to our clients as a tool to increase their competitiveness.

Please select a news category on the menu to the left to learn more about what NAC is doing now, Tribally-owned businesses, and important legislation.

Financial Times features NAC client and Managing Director in Native American business report

May 22, 2011

NAC client the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma was featured prominently in a Financial Times article illustrating the lack of available funding to businesses located in Indian Country.  In the article, titled "Lights go out for Native American Hopes," the FT describes the Delaware Nation's inability to secure financing for a tribally owned lighting manufacturing business created to increase employment opportunities for tribal members.  Delaware Nation President Kerry Holton is quoted describing banks' unwillingness to lend into projects necessary for a functioning economy, and the uselessness of the tax-exempt bond allocation program.  Kerry explains, “Banks won’t take any risk whatsoever with us.  Unless you have twice as much in assets than what you are loaning, they are not interested”. 

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Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Wins New Markets Tax Credit Allocation - NAC provided strategic advice and assistance

Lower Brule, SD (May 1, 2011) – Lower Brule Sioux Tribe (LBST), a federally-recognized Indian Tribe located in South Dakota, has received a New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) allocation of $18 million.  The allocation was received through the Lower Brule Community Development Enterprise, LLC (LBCDE), the Tribe’s certified community development entity.  The award was made by the US Department of the Treasury Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund under the 2010 competitive allocation round.  The award will serve to provide loans, including those with equity-like features, to both real estate and non-real estate businesses. The NMTCs will be paired with Tribal Economic Development Bond (TEDB) leveraged debt, and the combined financing will target projects and businesses located on tribal lands throughout predominantly non-metropolitan counties in Indian Country.  The goal of the financing is to maximize job creation, encourage private investment, initiate community development, and increase economic opportunity for Native Americans.

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Tribal Bonds: Statuatory Shackles and Regulatory Restraints on Tribal Economic Development

North Carolina Law Review

By Gavin Clarkson

Upwards of $50 billion in capital needs go unmet each year in Indian Country in such vital sectors as infrastructure, community facilities, housing, and enterprise development, in part due to the restrictions imposed on tribal access to the capital markets, specifically the ability of tribal governments to issue tax-exempt debt. Section 7871 of the Internal Revenue Code requires tribal tax free bond proceeds to be used only for “essential governmental functions,” a restriction not applicable to state and municipal bonds, and § 7871(e) further limits the scope of available tax-exempt bonding to activities “customarily performed by State and local governments with general taxing powers” without providing any guidance as to when a particular activity becomes “customary” for a non-tribal government.

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Information Assymetry and Information Sharing

Government Information Quarterly

By Gavin Clarkson, Trond E. Jacobson, and Archer L. Batcheller

Although much digital divide research focuses on access to technology, another cause of the divide is the lack of information awareness that we call information asymmetry. Information asymmetry often stems from inadequate information sharing and can result in negative consequences for both the information poor and the information rich. Information asymmetry has been insufficiently studied as a possible cause of underdevelopment and inequality. In response, we develop a typology to classify information asymmetry into two categories, horizontal and vertical, and then identify those information sharing practices that cause the imbalance.

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