{"id":452079,"date":"2017-10-28T11:02:16","date_gmt":"2017-10-28T17:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=452079"},"modified":"2017-10-28T11:02:16","modified_gmt":"2017-10-28T17:02:16","slug":"could-navajo-businesses-stabilize-a-boom-and-bust-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/10\/could-navajo-businesses-stabilize-a-boom-and-bust-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Navajo businesses stabilize a boom-and-bust economy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_452123\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-452123\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/102517Jensen_Story1-771x589.jpg\" alt=\"Stacey Jensen\" width=\"771\" height=\"589\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/102517Jensen_Story1-771x589.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/102517Jensen_Story1-336x256.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/102517Jensen_Story1-768x586.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/102517Jensen_Story1-1170x893.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/102517Jensen_Story1.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Marisa Demarco \/ KUNM<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">North Leupp Family Farm Manager Stacey Jensen pulls peppers from plants in the greenhouse.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Oil and gas drilling and mining companies come to rural areas offering jobs and cash, but they also dig into the land, pull resources out of it and create pollution. There are some folks in these regions who say the trade off isn\u2019t fair in the long run.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.grandcanyontrust.org\/native-american-business-incubator-network\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">One organization<\/a>\u00a0is working on the Navajo Nation to stabilize the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texasmonthly.com\/articles\/this-time-itll-be-different\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">boom-and-bust<\/a> economy of extraction by boosting local entrepreneurs and small business.<\/p>\n<p>When you\u2019re standing on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/North-Leupp-Family-Farms-Inc-385826951446247\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">North Leupp Family Farm<\/a>, you can see for miles. There are not many other people or houses nearby &#8212; just\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/San_Francisco_Peaks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the mountain<\/a>\u00a0in the distance. Stacey Jensen is the manager of the nonprofit farm. &#8220;These are sweet corn here, heirloom sweet corn here. And they were really delicious,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article\u00a0is part of the State of Change project, a multi-newsroom examination of\u00a0the challenge of building resilient rural communities \u2014 and what some\u00a0in New Mexico are doing right.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/series\/state-of-change\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Listen<\/h3>\n<p>Listen to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/102517sjnWEB_Story1.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">an audio version of this report<\/a>:<\/p>\n<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-452079-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/102517sjnWEB_Story1.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/102517sjnWEB_Story1.mp3\">http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/102517sjnWEB_Story1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Thirty or more families around here farm cooperatively and bring home fresh food to their families. Most of the crops have already been harvested. &#8220;You should see it,&#8221; Jensen said. &#8220;It\u2019s quite a sight to see all the children, and the folks out the fields on weekends or in the evenings when it cools off.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Small businesses like this farm could help the struggling economy on the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/navajobusiness.com\/fastFacts\/Overview.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Navajo Nation<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 one that rises and falls with the ups and downs of the fossil fuel industry.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think this farm can be duplicated elsewhere,&#8221; Jensen said. &#8220;But, again, it depends, you\u2019ve got to have water, you\u2019ve got to have land, OK, and then you\u2019ve got to have community to really make this thing grow.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Jensen\u2019s been able to hire local people to work on the farm, and he\u2019d like to hire a lot more in the years to come. But starting any business out here can be hard, he said, because on some parts of the Navajo Nation they\u2019re missing\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.realclearpolicy.com\/articles\/2017\/06\/27\/navajo_nation_infrastructure_should_be_a_priority_110282.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the basics<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 Internet access, water, sewer, electricity. &#8220;Well, you know, as you can tell, we often do with little or no resources out here,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But we do a lot.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>No one\u2019s really sure how many small businesses there are here, because people across the region do business without registering. It could take years for Navajo entrepreneurs to get access to property on the reservation. Leasing and building involved jumping over many U.S. government hurdles. And the process is expensive.<\/p>\n<p>Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye said all of that started changing as of April 1 this year when the Nation took control of leasing and zoning their lands. &#8220;We\u2019re moving towards: How do you help some of the entrepreneurs?&#8221; he said. &#8220;A lot of the people here, they don\u2019t have equity, they don\u2019t have assets, they don\u2019t have moneys that they can put into business.&#8221;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The Navajo Nation government created a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.redlakenationnews.com\/story\/2017\/04\/06\/news\/begaye-approves-20-million-for-economic-development-on-nation\/59238.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$20 million fund<\/a>\u00a0to help small businesses get started, Begaye said. The tribe also just got control of telecommunication right-of-ways. For President Begaye though, it\u2019s not about moving away from extractive industry. The government has its eye on owning and running oil and gas, and mining operations, instead of just leasing the land to corporations. He said that would mean way more tribal revenue.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You have to provide incentives for people to come home,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They all want to come home. This is their land. This is the land of their ancestors, and they feel a part of this whole Navajo Nation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Jobs today though are still hard to come by. Unemployment numbers are difficult to pin down: Reports say the rate is <a href=\"https:\/\/factfinder.census.gov\/faces\/tableservices\/jsf\/pages\/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_15_5YR_DP03&amp;prodType=table\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">around 21 percent<\/a>, but other tribal officials say it\u2019s double that or more.<\/p>\n<p>Jessica\u00a0Stago\u00a0is the lead business counselor at the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.grandcanyontrust.org\/native-american-business-incubator-network\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Native American Business Incubator Network<\/a>. &#8220;There\u2019s threats to the jobs held by coal miners and employees that work for the power plants in this area,&#8221; she said. &#8220;While the extractive industries did provide jobs for our people, it didn\u2019t leave us with an economy that we could rely on.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The wave of jobs that flooded in three or four decades ago is receding, Stago added, &#8220;so we\u2019re trying to figure out a way where we can build a local economy that is self-sustaining, versus being dependent on these extractive industries, because those industries are dependent on the larger population and trends.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Stago\u2019s incubator helped the North Leupp Family Farm get a grant from the USDA to work on selling their traditional blue corn in other areas. It\u2019s all about keeping local dollars flowing between local people, she says, and supporting the resourcefulness and ingenuity of folks who live on the Navajo Nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Navajo Nation government has created a $20 million fund to help small businesses get started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":452123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[118,709],"class_list":["post-452079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-economy","tag-native-americans","series-state-of-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}