Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye last week called for diversifying businesses away from gaming and noted examples of Indian entrepreneurial ventures taking root all over the world. Then he took an even bigger leap: advocating a tribal satellite that would gird the globe.
Speaking at the NIGA Convention & Tradeshow Begaye declared, “That way, every Navajo home will have the Internet, telephone and 911 service.” He also advocates using gaming profits to invest in aeronautics, robotics, bitcoin and medicine.
“If you are not diversifying, you are doing a disservice to your nation,” he said. “Now is the time,” said Begaye.
The Navajo, the largest tribe in America, encompasses parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico and has about 350,000 members.
Noting how Indian gaming had changed the relationship between tribes and states, he said, “We now have the attention of state legislators, governors and U.S. congressmen.” He credited Indian gaming with saving the economy of Arizona. “They had a huge deficit. Just think. No one would have ever said 30, 40 years ago that Indian tribes in that state would give the state more than $1 billion. I tell you today. We give $103 million a year to the state of Arizona, and we get very little of it back.”
He warned that federal officials in the Department of the Interior are changing the methodology for putting land into trust, making it harder for tribes to enter gaming. “Some of our top federal leaders working at departments are redefining how to take land into trust, saying they need the surrounding towns, cities and states to have a say,” Adding, “That policy right now today is being worked on. And that’s going to impact all of Indian country.”
