The Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) and Native American Community Development Corporation (NACDC)

These nonprofit organizations are sponsoring an initiative to help reservations in Montana and Wyoming move toward greater economic sovereignty. The two organizations will receive $300,000 each year for the next two years.

The heart of the ILTF/NACDC initiative is to aid tribes in the two states to regain the control of—and effectively manage—productive assets including land, financial and cultural assets. Indian reservations have traditionally been geographically, culturally and economically isolated from surrounding non-Indian communities. Working with tribal leaders, the initiative will sponsor a series of facilitated community meetings with tribes across the states, and encourage and support the development of action plans to achieve community goals.

Financial education, mentoring, homeownership counseling, leadership development, small business development assistance and land acquisition financing will be available. The goal is for tribes to eventually compete successfully in their larger geographic/political regions and to work closely with surrounding communities on issues of common concern.

The Indian Land Tenure Foundation is a nonprofit organization that is community-organized and community-directed. It includes Indian landowners, Indian people on and off reservations, Indian land organizations, tribal communities, tribal governments, and others concerned with Indian land issues. The focus of the foundation is to educate and support activities and raise funds to carry out goals related to Indian land tenure. Its mission is to ensure that land within the original boundaries of every reservation and other areas of high significance where tribes retain aboriginal interest are in Indian ownership and management. (www.indianlandtenure.org)

The Native American Community Development Corporation works to effectively address issues that inhibit the flow of financial capital to tribal and Native American projects and businesses. It focuses on six programmatic areas: the promotion of financial literacy, housing development and financing, small business development and finance, the recovery and effective utilization of Native lands, the enhancement of Native farming and ranching, and the development of innovative retail banking strategies for geographically remote Native communities. (www.nacdc.org)