The Work of The Winnebago Tribe
Monday, April 20, 2009SUSIE GHARIB: Tonight, the PBS prime-time program "American Experience" continues "We Shall Remain," a series looking at U.S. history, from the Native American perspective. As part of that project, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT is profiling Native Americans making a difference in the business world. One tribe forging its own entrepreneurial path is the Winnebagos of Nebraska. The 4,000 member tribe runs many successful business ventures. But as Jeff Yastine reports, that success came after two decades of work.
JEFF YASTINE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: The rolling hills of Nebraska's northeastern plains, since the 1860s, the home of the Winnebago tribe of Nebraska. The main community here, the village of Winnebago is small, but tribal elders have big ambitions. Big because over the past 15 years, the Winnebagos have built a conglomerate of more than a dozen businesses. First came gaming. The WinnaVegas casino opened near the Missouri River in 1993. But its isolated location and nearby competition meant gaming here would never be the huge moneymaker it is for other Native American tribes. So, two years later, tribal elders took $8 million from the casino and created a new venture, HCI. From that came a string of businesses, a construction division, a chain of convenience stores and motels, a modular home maker, a Native American products retailer and companies distributing everything from cigarettes to telecommunications gear. HCI's Chief Operating Officer Annette Hamilton says those businesses play practical and spiritual, roles for the tribe.
ANNETTE HAMILTON, COO, HO-CHUNK: I think it's important to create entrepreneurship, to continue the spirit of self sufficiency and taking care of yourself and taking care of your own future and creating your own destiny. And I think every tribe really feels that need.
YASTINE: To date, the businesses have generated more than 600 jobs, many filled by tribe members.
JOHN BLACKHAWK, CHAIRMAN, WINNEBAGO TRIBE OF NEBRASKA: We're part of something that's different, that's something that's going to change our community. I think that's kind of the feel that our community has in terms of this, of our area here.
YASTINE: Tribal chairman John Blackhawk says the Winnebegos began developing their entrepreneurial vision in the 1970s.
BLACKHAWK: Things don't always happen that the way you want them to happen and sometimes they don't even happen the way you think that they should happen, but they happen. But we move forward, that's the nice thing. We move forward and you also have to invite more people into that process to say here's what's happening and so that people have the opportunity to buy into that.
YASTINE: Of course, the road to creating a tribe full of entrepreneurs hasn't been a smooth one. The tribe distributes each year a type of dividend. It's called a per cap and its led to occasional disagreements within the tribe over the use of that money, much in the same way that companies on Wall Street have to deal with, how much money do you pay out to your shareholders and how much cash does the company keep and try to re- invest back into its business? Two years ago those disagreements led some tribe members to ask for an independent review of HCI. The report, by Deloitte financial advisory services, said HCI's debt was high and its general financial condition weak. HCI officers deny that. They say like any other business, there are good years, and not-so-good years.
HAMILTON: They live and breath just like real businesses. We operate as a for profit. We hold people to the standards of profitability and performance. And we have a government contracting entity and we have to really perform on government contracting.
YASTINE: HCI's combined businesses generated a record $121 million in revenues in 2007 and after two years of declines, net profits jumped to nearly $1.1 million. Still, like many entrepreneurs, tribe Chairman Blackhawk says building a business is a slow process. Take, for example, "Ho-Chunk village" a pedestrian-oriented business and residential district, which started in 2003.
BLACKHAWK: I remember when we broke ground and the governor came and we were up on that little hill. There was nothing here. And they just cleaned out all the corn or the soybeans or whatever it was that they had. And we said we're going to make this different. And when you looked at it, it was like, I don't know. It's just another field. But when you look at it now, it's like wow. We did. We made a significant change.
YASTINE: And those changes keep coming. A new generation of Nebraska Winnebagos is learning early, learning from the tribe's leaders about succeeding in business in this corner of the Nebraska plains. Jeff Yastine, NIGHTLY BUSINES REPORT, Winnebago, Nebraska.
