"It will no doubt surprise some people that there actually are individual Native Americans who own significant material assets. They belong to an invisible group, along with African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and others of color with wealth. The stereotype holds that people of wealth by definition must be White. It is certainly true that the American economic system has long privileged White folks and has erected structural barriers to economic participation by people of color, including of course, seizing Indian land and in every way trying to destroy traditional economies. Nevertheless, there are individual Native Americans who have succeeded in accumulating wealth or who have become wealthy through tribal gaming or natural resource per capita payments. A recent blog post by Pam Pompey, executive director of The Ujamaa Institute in North Carolina and a recent post by Theo Yang Copley on Resource Generation’s website pushed me to reflect on how the invisibility of wealthy Native Americans can be a barrier to growing Native philanthropy.

Those precious few of us who are Native American and work inside institutional philanthropy believe it is time that we invited these individuals to participate as donors in helping to improve conditions in our communities. Many donors have learned through coming together that they can have a collective impact that may not be achievable alone. Many potential donors do not know where to start and may feel overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite range of possibilities of giving. Some are afraid of becoming visible as people of wealth because they might be treated differently or be viewed as just a potential source of funds. These are not uncommon feelings and fortunately, there are people out there who can help. Public foundations like my own can provide advice on philanthropic giving and help you network with other donors. First Nations Development Institute has a training program for wealth management specifically for Native people."

Get the Story:
Ron Rowell: Invisible Native Americans of Wealth (Indian Country Today 6/10)