American Indian Culture and Research Journal

INTRODUCTION In 1983, prompted by allegations that there were some economic successes among tribes rich in energy resources, I initiated research among two tribes that were most frequently cited as successful: the Northern Ute (Uintah and Ouray Ute Indian Reservation) of eastern Utah, and the Crow of south-central Montana. Inasmuch as my colleagues and I had been monitoring energy resource-rich tribes for about twelve years and not one of us had observed the development of a profitable, self-sustaining economic base among the reservation societies that we had studied, I was skeptical of the claims for economic successes. The skepticism was not borne solely of observations. I was also skeptical because of my knowledge of the political-economic niche that American Indians have occupied since subjugation, but puzzled as to whether Federal Indian legislation of the 1970s had made such a difference as to facilitate development. The Reagan Administration's "New Federalism" had been rolling on line for two years, the Indian Self-Determination Act for eight years, the Indian Financing Act for nine years, and the rapid extraction of Indian-owned energy resources for ten years (following the Arab oil embargo) when my students, Stephanie Reynolds Romeo, LaVerna Price, and JoAnna Endter, and I began our inquiry among the Northern Utes and Crows. If these tribes had been successful in implementing the provisions of the