November 21, 2024
Marshall Plan for Tribal Nations
Executive Summary:
It is long past time for the United States to honor its promises to its first peoples. While absent from common historical narrative, the United States’ wealth and ability to transform into the international power it is today is a consequence of the theft and unjust taking of Tribal Nations’ lands and resources. These forced sacrifices created a perpetual debt owed by the United States to Tribal Nations—a debt the United States has yet to fulfill at any point throughout its history.
This failure has compounded year after year, resulting in the many shameful and unacceptable health, social, and economic disparities that exist for Native people and Tribal governments, as recognized by reports of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (2003, 2018). This failure has further resulted in the kinds of infrastructure deficiencies for Tribal Nations that are often only seen in the developing world. Despite the sacred promises made by the United States, these disparities and deficiencies exist within the domestic borders of one of the most wealthy and powerful nations the world has ever known. These realities are not only the consequence of centuries of ill-intended federal Indian policy, but they have also been intentionally suppressed so as to be invisible to the everyday American citizen.
The time is long past due for the United States to honor its promises. We are calling on the United States to make an immediate and significant financial investment in Tribal Nations after years of ignoring its debt. This investment will provide Tribal Nations with a foundation of economic and social stability to support our collective efforts to rebuild our governments so we may grow and prosper.
Analogies to post-World War II Europe are apparent, as are the potential remedies. The United States’ investment in European nations after World War II through the Marshall Plan offers a diplomatic example of a time when the United States understood that investment in rebuilding nations (damaged, in part, by its own actions) was favorable to its own interests. While the relationship between Tribal Nations and the United States shares similarities with the relationship between European nations and the United States, the federal government’s unique trust and treaty obligations to Tribal Nations serve as even greater reasons for a significant domestic diplomacy investment now.
Further, we are proposing a major reform to the current diplomatic model that guides how the federal government executes its trust and treaty obligations—currently, piecemeal across disparate departments and agencies. The requirements Tribal Nations must abide by for receipt and spending of federal funding should reflect our inherent sovereignty, with reporting requirements and prohibitions on use removed. Federal funding must also be delivered in its true form—a repayment on debt—such that funding amounts are adequate, funding is mandatory rather than discretionary within the appropriations process, and grant applications are not required. We also propose bundling delivery of trust and treaty obligations into a single cabinet level department, the Department of Tribal Nation Relations. This department would consult directly with Tribal Nations, report directly to the President, and coordinate the full execution of the U.S. trust and treaty obligations.
The time is long past due for the United States to keep its word and make good on the debts it owes to Tribal Nations and Native people through a Marshall Plan for Tribal Nations.
Read USET SPF’s Marshall Plan for Tribal Nations.
Learn more about Native American Heritage Month.