A bill before the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee today would provide Maine Indian tribes with crucial seed money to bid on federal contracts and develop niche businesses that would expand economic opportunity across the state. Lawmakers should see this legislation as both a development boost and a way for state government and the tribes to realize their fates are inextricably connected.

LD 1911, worth a total of $1 million a year for two years, makes it possible for the tribes to hire the legal and technical help to get started on new businesses, especially those uniquely open to them through federal legislation. The Small Business Administration’s program for disadvantaged businesses, for instance, includes tribes among several other groups for special consideration.

Tim Love of the Penobscot Nation points to his nation’s new PIN Rx, a mail-order pharmacy, as an example both of requiring substantial seed money – he says they put up as collateral a subdivision in Steuben – and a local business that could benefit residents statewide. Other ideas for business include precision machining, wind-power generation, highway construction, composite housing material and niches within homeland security.

The tribes, he said, might begin as contractors working in partnership with others who would supply the initial expertise. But the goal would be to identify promising businesses that could be started in Maine and to develop those over the next several years. An incremental, long-term approach makes sense and should be supported by lawmakers.

Maine would not be unusual in doing so. The Department of Defense has long had its Indian Incentive Program, which encourages contractors to use Indian-owned businesses. The DoD says it awards contracts to Native Americans in such fields as engineering, construction and information technology, among other areas.

The benefits of these programs are also felt by non-Indians as new businesses are started, the tribes buy more goods locally and local unemployment rates fall. Maine especially is much too small a place to doubt that anything that helps or hurts one population here affects all.

Taking advantage of the federal opportunities, however, requires resources. If Maine’s tribes are going to be successful, they will need some startup money. Appropriations Committee members can help, while helping the state overall.