Economic Development
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- By Chez Oxendine
- Economic Development
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Navajo Nation telecommunications workers have secured wage parity after Frontier Communications agreed to raise pay in a new three‑year union contract.
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- By Chez Oxendine
- Economic Development
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Federal agencies are expanding shared decision-making agreements with tribes, but gaps in authority and capacity continue to limit tribal control over federal land and water management, a new Government Accountability Office report found.
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- By Tribal Business News Staff
- Economic Development
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January brought significant leadership changes across Indian Country, from new directors at major philanthropic and federal programs to promotions at tribal corporations and financial institutions. The MacArthur Foundation and the Department of Energy announced new leadership for programs serving Native communities, while Huntington Bank and Chugach Alaska Corporation elevated executives to expanded roles.
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- By Brian Edwards and Chez Oxendine
- Economic Development
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At the end of 2024, with the election decided and a new administration headed to Washington, we laid out four areas we expected would shape Indian Country’s economic story this year: artificial intelligence, agriculture policy, clean energy and access to capital. The choices weren’t speculative. They reflected active programs, bipartisan commitments and billions of dollars already in motion.
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- By Chez Oxendine
- Economic Development
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The Cherokee Nation has launched a new initiative to drive job creation and private investment in distressed areas of its reservation by deploying its State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) allocation through a targeted lending program.
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- By Brian Edwards
- Economic Development
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2025 was a year of unprecedented challenges to tribal sovereignty and economic self-determination, as the Trump administration's sweeping policy changes — from proposed budget cuts to federal grant freezes to office closures — tested the durability of treaty obligations and tribal-federal relationships.
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- By Brian Edwards and Chez Oxendine
- Economic Development
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These were our favorite stories of 2025 because they reflect Indian Country as it actually is — and the kind of journalism we’re committed to doing. Not aspirational. Not abstract. Just stories grounded in decisions tribes and Native people are making right now about land, labor, capital and culture.
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- By Chez Oxendine
- Economic Development
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After more than a century of advocacy, the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina secured full federal recognition in late December, when Congress included the Lumbee Fairness Act in the annual National Defense Authorization Act. With President Donald Trump’s signature, the Lumbee became the 575th federally recognized tribe in the U.S., opening access to federal programs administered by agencies including the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Service.
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- By Brian Edwards
- Economic Development
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There are federal policies that move slowly because they’re controversial. And then there are policies that move slowly because everyone agrees — but no one knows how to act.
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- By Tribal Business News Staff
- Economic Development
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This month's People on the Move highlights new directors, officers and board members at organizations including Cherokee Nation, the Alaska Native Heritage Center, Cook Inlet Region Inc., North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems and the University of Arizona Comprehensive Cancer Center.