Indian Country Media Network last week profiled the Southern Ute Growth Fund, which recently acquired a new leader, Raymond A. Baker.
The Utes, based in southwest Colorado, in the San Juan Basin, renowned for its resources, has, according to the profile “leveraged one of the most sophisticated and aggressive financial plans among Native American tribes.”
The Southern Ute Growth Fund, founded in 2000, operates numerous business over 14 states worth a total of several billion dollars.
The growth fund has enabled the tribe to provide vital services to its 1,450 members, as well as pay annual dividends to individuals. The tribe spreads across 1,059 square miles in three counties.
The tribe formed Red Willow Production Company, an oil and natural gas producing company in 1992 and soon acquired interest in a pipeline gathering system on the reservation. The tribe acquired majority share of Red Cedar Gathering Company.
Keenly aware that petroleum stocks can run dry, the tribe created the growth fund. Two years later the tribe established Aka Energy Group to do for natural gas what Red Cedar was doing for petroleum.
Currently 80 percent of the growth fund’s revenues derive from outside investments and its original companies are invested in 1,600 wells in four states, with more oil wells than members. Its most active wells are in the Delaware Basin of Texas, the Green River Basin of Wyoming and the Gulf of Mexico. It has been funding its own well exploration efforts since 2004, when it partnered with Delta House to do deep-water well production.
Oil and natural gas prices have fallen in recent years, which has caused the growth fund to become more conservative. However, Baker told Indian Country: “But with the national economy stabilizing, our plan is to still move forward in our current enterprises.”
Baker adds, “The Growth Fund has the ability to pull from our other enterprises and will continue to make forward movement down the road. I believe our portfolio is put together very well, but as the economics change at a national and international scale, we must be able to react when the time comes. Having diversity is key.”
Baker, a member of the Ute tribe, is retired from the U.S. Navy after a 30-year career. He has leveraged his worldwide perspective to a personal business philosophy: “Having served for over 30 years in the military, there is a point where in management, leadership and administration all come down to a few vital points: good communication, trust, accountability and integrity.”
He advocates diversifying beyond energy to acquiring land and buildings, although energy remains its core sector. The tribe’s real estate division has $800 million in holdings, including the Marriott San Diego Oceanside, a master-planned community in Durango, Colorado and a 700-acre community near Denver, plus multiple apartment complexes in many states.
While development energy remains forefront, the tribe is also very conscious of environmental issues such as air and water quality.
The tribe has joined other tribes in lobbying the federal government for the right to exercise control over its own lands, resources and economy. It has spent $1.6 million in lobbying Congress since 2012.
