"Two business experts delivered powerful and poignant messages to Indian Country economic development advocates on Monday during the Montana Indian Business Alliance conference.

Manley Begay Jr., faculty chair of the Native Nations Institute for Leadership at the University of Arizona, and Andy Wells III, president of Wells Technology in Bemidji, Minn., provided keynote speeches about successful business ventures in tribal communities.

“The key to sustainable economic development in Indian Country lies in how Native nations govern themselves,” said Begay, who is also co-director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. “Self-determination is the only policy that ever worked.”

While Begay spoke of the critical need for tribal leaders to create optimum business environments, Wells, also named the 2008 American Indian Business of the Year by the National Center for American Indian Economic Development, served as a premier example of how to operate a successful business.

Wells owns a $58 million industrial tools manufacturing business, doing businesses with some of the country's most prominent corporations, including Boeing, Coca-Cola and General Mills.

The MIBA conference at the Hilton Garden Inn drew about 250 participants for the third annual event, which ends Tuesday. In addition to the keynote speakers, 34 additional presenters contributed to a two-day discussion on how to promote private Indian business development and entrepreneurship."

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Speakers tout Native economic strength (The Missoulian 4/21)

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