ABSTRACT
Energy-related developments have exercised profound effects on many rural regions of the western US, from the Fort Union coal field in Montana to the Grants Mineral Belt in New Mexico. The social science research literature is almost exclusively focused on Anglo, i.e., non-Indian communities. One particularly powerful aspect of western culture is the commodity principle, in which people’s productive capacities and nature’s resources are among the “things” which can be bought and sold in the market place. Many apparently “rational” or “scientific” approaches, such as “cost-benefit” analysis in economics, are actually reflections of this specific cultural principle. Except for analytical purposes there is no good reason to separate the business arrangements among tribes, the Department of Interior, and corporations from the consequences to American Indian communities from those business arrangements. Whether in leases, profit-sharing schemes, or joint-ventures with transnational corporations, Indian tribes lack capital, power and expertise, and usually have been misinformed and ill-advised.
