DJ Hoffman Section 17 Federal Corporate Charter When adopted by the United States Congress in 1934, the Indian Reorganization Act had two major objectives: (1) to stop allotment and further loss of Indian lands; and (2) to provide Indian tribes with a means for reorganizing their governmental and economic structures. Section 16 of the IRA allows Indian tribes to establish constitutional governments to exercise their inherent sovereign and governmental powers, and Section 17 of the IRA authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to issue a Federal Corporate Charter to Indian tribes to conduct business and economic activity. In a nutshell, a Section 17 Federal Corporate Charter: must be wholly owned by an Indian tribe, but the Section 17 Federal Corporate Charter conducts and manages any lawful business activity separate from the tribe itself; is empowered to hold property; is treated the same as the Indian tribe for tax purposes, which means that it does not have to pay any federal or state taxes regardless of whether its income is derived on or off the reservation; and it enjoys the tribes sovereign immunity, which means that the property and assets of the corporation may be placed at risk, but only to the extent necessary to satisfy the needs of lenders and developers, however, tribal assets held by the tribal government organized under Section 16 would remain fully protected by sovereign immunity. The Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians did not have an approved Federal Corporate Charter until 7/01/2010. The Federal Corporate Charter can be one of the first steps for the Tribe to realize its true economic potential in todays global economy. Today it is a document that sits upon a shelf due to lack of understanding, awareness, and control issues. It can be so much more…. It can be a corporation, wholly owned by the Tribe with all of its legal and economic advantages, functioning under a defined set of checks and balances that limits a politician’s ability to impact business decisions. The Charter can be found here: https://dropbox/s/zdb9vxtpsmzs8hm/ST.CORP.CHARTER.pdf Example of a Tribe with a successful Corporate Charter (Ho Chunk, Inc.) https://youtube/watch?v=b0QzidCA8Ys
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 07:38:11 +0000
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