Manufacturing self-determination native nations and industrial development in the united states Sam W Schirvar

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Schirvar, Sam W., author.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania. History and Sociology of Science., degree granting institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History.

Industrial engineering.

Political science.

0578.

0546.

0615.

Local Subjects:

History.

Industrial engineering.

Political science.

0578.

0546.

0615.

Genre:

Academic theses

Physical Description:

1 online resource (380 pages)

Contained In:

Dissertations Abstracts International 87-12B

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 2026

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This dissertation argues that American Indian tribal governments' expanded roles as investors, employers, and planners were foundational to the resurgence of Indigenous political power in the United States after 1970. Drawing primarily from the records of tribal governments and intertribal organizations, as well as the records of government agencies, private corporations, periodicals, and the personal papers of community leaders, it analyzes the history of industrial development on Indian reservations since 1945. Between 1946 and 1980, over 360 manufacturing facilities were built on or near Indian reservations to employ Indigenous workers. These factories were initially subsidized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which sought to replace treaty-obligated payments to Native people with wage income. The new assembly plants also allowed private employers to take advantage of low-wage Native labor. But in time, they created unexpected opportunities for tribal governments to pursue their own nation-building projects of capital accumulation, infrastructure development, and cultural revitalization. During the 1970s, when private US employers sought even cheaper assembly labor overseas, tribes acquired or launched their own government-owned enterprises that transformed rural Indigenous communities. These firms provided stable employment for poor Native people and funded the expansion of tribal social services. This dissertation also makes a comparison between tribal enterprise and community development corporations to demonstrate that sovereignty was key to the success of these investments. Existing scholarship explores self-determination as a transformation in policy, law, and culture and depicts it as the product of grassroots activism and enlightened policymakers. I argue that self-determination was just as much a project of Native professionals and managers building out tribes' governing capacity. Intertribal organizations became conduits of technical knowledge as tribes began to run their own government programs. And finally, the experience of Native America challenges declensionist narratives of public investment in the late twentieth-century United States. While non-Native state and local governments depicted cuts to public services as essential to their survival, tribal governments expanded public-sector employment and services through state-owned enterprises

Notes:

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 87-12, Section: B.

Advisors: Offner, Amy C. Committee members: Lindee, M. Susan; Needham, Andrew; Reed, Julie L.; Dick, Stephanie

Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2026

Vendor supplied data

Local Notes:

School code: 0175

ISBN:

9798247973867

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license