On the Laguna, Pojoaque and Santa Ana Pueblos, tribal members are making decisions about how business will be done within their boundaries. They define their goals in terms of building capital, providing jobs, or establishing independence, with a shared assumption that they can and should determine their own futures.

They have all negotiated legal solutions for the barriers non-Indians may perceive with their sovereign status. They've worked out leases on lands held in trust and granted limited waivers of sovereign immunity for business. They have all established corporations to handle business matters separately from political matters. They have judicial systems that are functionally separate from politics, or they are working on ways to formalize that separation so that businesses will be reassured about a fair judicial process. Their governmental organization is consistent with the beliefs of tribal members about leadership.

The tribes have all worked with partners--to learn from people with expertise, to expand their options for the kinds of business they can do, and to give them diversity in viewpoint and in their workforce. All encourage education. All reinvest most of their income, rather than disbursing it to individual tribal members.

Nation-building is a process of creating the future [tribes] want for their people.

The tribes all have a tradition of community ownership and community benefit, rather than individual business or profit. Except for arts and crafts businesses, the pueblos had few businesses owned by individual Indians. While there was some support of the idea of more individually owned businesses, it isn't a priority, and most individuals do not have start-up money or property that can be used as collateral.

The story we heard about doing business on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border reflected concerns similar to those of the pueblos. In Mexico, too, the government's ownership of land makes it difficult for businesses to borrow money, and the uncertainty about the rules and their enforcement impair investment and add to the cost of doing business. Unpredictability is frustrating. Incentives are an attraction--but leave a bitter taste when promises are not fulfilled.

Although communities such as Palomas in Mexico can often find ways to incorporate mandated policies into their own approach to doing business, contending with policies that do not fit local culture and customs is a barrier to doing business for people and communities around the globe.

At the Laguna, Pojoaque and Santa Ana Pueblos the tribes are, in Stephen Cornell's words, in the process of nation-building. A strong sense of personal and tribal values has allowed them to leverage their strengths and their sovereignty to their economic advantage. They don't have a formula for doing it and they're not all doing it the same way. For all of them, however, sovereignty is a tool they are using to do business, and nation-building is a process of creating the future they want for their people.