Despite growth, income still below average for American Indians

Wednesday, May 4th 2005, 10:41 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Per-capita income for American Indians in Oklahoma grew at a faster rate than the state and the nation in the 1990s, but remains well below the national average, according to an economist's study.

Personal income for single-race Indians in Oklahoma grew by 33 percent to $2.7 billion in 1999 from $2 billion in 1989, economist Jonathan Taylor told the American Indian Chamber of Commerce of Oklahoma. The growth rate surpassed both the state's 21 percent and the nation's 26 percent.

Taylor, a research fellow at Harvard University, said sovereignty, tribal institutions and culture have led a resurgence for tribal reservations but battles over sovereignty between tribes and other units of government create uncertainty and scare off potential economic development and investors.

Still, Taylor said, per-capita income for single-race American Indians remains about half the national average of about $21,000 and health care spending for American Indians remains below that of federal prison inmates. Despite that, poverty declined in the 1990s on U.S. reservations.

Taylor, speaking at the chamber's first economic summit, said it's hard to get an accurate picture of the effect of tribal businesses in the state because most federal data doesn't include information from tribal-owned businesses. His presentation included examples from the "best available evidence," he said.

Margo Gray, president of the chamber's board of directors and owner of Horizon Engineering Services Co. in Tulsa, said tribal businesses contribute an estimated $11 billion a year to the state's economy.

"Indian business means Indian opportunity," Gray said. "We are able to share in the success and create more opportunity."