As Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon posted on Twitter: “No better place to build a business than Wyoming — Today speaking at the University of Wyoming’s College of Business Entrepreneurship Summit.” (Photo Courtesy Gov. Mark Gordon/Twitter)
Look for entrepreneurship to accelerate on the Wind River Indian Reservation, bolstered by the University of Wyoming’s (UW) commitment to provide $450,000 in grant funding over the next five years.
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, UW President Laurie Nichols and Tribal leaders announced the grants to spur entrepreneurship and fuel economic development on the reservation during the inaugural WY-Wind River: Economic Development and Entrepreneurship Symposium, hosted on campus April 17, 2019.
At least $400,000 of those funds — to be delivered as micro-grants — will come from Wyoming’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). The department received a $20 million injection from the National Science Foundation in 2017, The Laramie Boomerang reported.
Tribes will have liberty to determine use of the micro-grants — which could perhaps entail vital research and access to UW research students.
As Edmund J. Synakowski, Vice President for Research and Economic Development, and Professor of Physics and Astronomy, at The University of Wyoming, states:
“Research and economic development can empower and lift individuals and communities by enlarging one’s own sense of capability and by promoting teamwork. An important part of the University of Wyoming’s mission is use the experience of research to educate students and to develop means of stimulating the economy through innovation. The Wind River Reservation, through the resources of the land and its people, have been important partners with UW in research. The potential for deepening the impacts in Wind River communities and on the UW campus through strengthened partnership in both research and economic development efforts is high.”
In a recent interview with Native Business Magazine, James Trosper, director of the University of Wyoming’s High Plains American Indian Research Institute, emphasized that Tribal-led research is vital — otherwise universities come to the reservation to tell Tribal people what is good for them.
“We need to let the universities know what areas we want the research done and really guide that process,” said Trosper, whose mother is enrolled Eastern Shoshone and whose father is enrolled Northern Arapaho. (The State of Wyoming is home to two Tribes — the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho — and the Wind River Reservation is the only reservation in the state.)
“So we’re trying to turn the tables around, and that’s going to put the Tribes and business councils in the driver’s seat in regards to research,” Trosper added.
Anticipate a request for proposals for these micro-grants this summer.
Trosper, along with Tarissa Spoonhunter of Central Wyoming College, and the Wind River Native Advocacy Center’s leadership, will select the recipients of the grants.
The University of Wyoming is additionally supporting two entrepreneurship competitions on the Wind River reservation — giving $25,000 to the Wind River Native Advocacy center this year, and another $25,000 next year. Those competitions are intended to stimulate technology-based businesses.
Trosper offered a sense of background to emphasize the impetus and significance of these forthcoming entrepreneurship competitions: Entrepreneurial Tribal economies were disrupted by colonialism and American expansion — culminating in the creation of the reservation system that perpetuated a cycle of poverty and dependence.
“With this entrepreneurship competition, we really want to change that mindset and culture,” Trosper said.
Stay tuned for more information about the two entrepreneurship competitions on the Wind River reservation.
