Native American Construction on the Rise
One cool dawn about 20 years ago, architect Douglas Stroh sat horseback at the top of an 8-mi trail descending into the western Grand Canyon.
He’d left home in Prescott, Ariz., hours before, driving in darkness north to the trailhead near tiny Peach Springs. Though he hadn’t been on a horse since age 12, he mounted up and joined colleagues for the three-hour descent to Supai village, located 2,000 ft below the rim and home to about 500 Havasupai Indians.
Stroh wasn’t sightseeing. He was on the job, headed to a Havasupai Tribal Council meeting to discuss design of a multipurpose center. It was the first of six projects he would create for the Havasupai, and one of more than 85 for other Southwestern tribes over the next two decades.
More, it was an introduction to the somewhat alien world of construction on Indian lands.
Not all tribal projects necessitate hopping into the saddle and riding into the wild. But design and construction professionals experienced in this niche say tribal projects differ from private and government work in striking ways. They range from legal differences stemming from tribal sovereignty to intangible cultural values paramount in most projects.
One general rule: no two tribes are exactly alike.
“To generalize Indian tribes is like generalizing state governments,” says Stroh, whose tribal project experience started in the 1970s in the Dakotas, where he wrote grants and designed housing for the Great Sioux Nation. “They all have different values, different priorities, different levels of education. Generally, they’re all culturally oriented. That’s a big priority.”
Understanding that culture, government and goals are unique to each tribe is a prerequisite, but that doesn’t mean these things are easy for nontribal members to understand, says Urban Giff, former Gila River Indian Community manager in Arizona and part of the leadership for several regional and national American Indian business organizations.
“When you deal with business outside the reservation, you’re dealing with people who have no or little familiarity with what the tribe is about, who they are, their values and the principle areas they’re concerned about protecting and preserving,” says Giff, a member of the Pima Tribe who traveled extensively over 20 years as a Marine Corps officer before returning home in 1980. “Sometimes that is a disappointing experience for outsiders. They want to learn, but sometimes they don’t know what to ask, where to go, how to ask, how to go about it.”
To tackle this task, some national contractors have formed sectors dedicated to doing business with tribes. One is Tulsa, Okla.-based Flintco Cos., the largest Native American-owned construction company in the country. Its tribal projects make up about 30% of its business and include more than 65 tribes.
In addition to serving as a clearinghouse of cultural information and educating staff, Flintco’s Native American...
...Division stays abreast of governmental, legal and employment policies and practices. Special tasks include native-owned procurement preferences for tribal and other projects and a dedicated liaison to manage tribal employment idiosyncrasies.
“One size doesn’t fit all,” says Rex Woods, Flintco’s division senior vice president. “You cannot take one process for one tribe and use it with another tribe. You’ve got to do your research.”
Tribal sovereignty impacts bonding, taxes, codes, contracts and personnel, particularly hiring and wages. “You have to understand what those rules and regulations are going into a project,” Woods says.
Review varies greatly from tribe to tribe, sometimes due to simple available manpower. Some, such as the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation in Arizona, have sophisticated planning departments with their own inspectors. Others, such as the Colorado River Indian Tribes, use consultants. Others work with county planning departments or simply run review through the tribal council.
Hiring and wages are significant issues. Most tribes have established preference laws and Tribal Employment Rights Offices, regulating bodies created and run by each tribe to oversee compliance and enforcement, including fines. If federal funding is involved, employment law mandates Indian preference.
Federal government involvement differs. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Health Services or other federal agencies may assist with funding and operations, but construction is often under control of the tribe, Woods says.
“More and more, tribes are taking the lead role in not only the selection of whom they want to work with as professionals but also in managing the project itself,” he adds. “You’re looking at satisfying the expectations of the tribes more than the federal government.”
The change is impacting how projects are managed.
“The federal agencies for several decades have used the traditional bid concept, but I am seeing a gradual change in delivery systems now,” says Elsa Johnson, a consultant with Arviso/Okland Construction JV, a 51% Native American-owned construction firm with offices in each of the Four Corners states. “Slowly, owners are beginning a shift to construction manager at risk and design-build.”
The approach is often a good choice for tribal projects that demand a high degree of planning and organization, Johnson says.
Many of the projects are in rural areas, and that means issues such as utilities, access, workforce, travel and more. Weather can be volatile. In the Southwest, water can be scarce.
“This requires a lot of early planning and coordination,” Johnson says. “Many rural projects will need to be built using generator power or water that is simply trucked onto the site.”
Arviso/Okland crews have had to dig wells and set up onsite batch plants when trucking in concrete was impossible, she says.
Other practical considerations include cost management, especially for small, rural tribes, and scheduling.
“Members of a Native American school board or enterprise committee may not be full-time staff members; they...
...have other jobs and responsibilities,” says Brad Gabel, vice president of Kitchell’s Native American division. “They need flexibility from their business partners. That might mean meeting them on a weekend, in an area far from an urban area.”
More schedule difficulty can arise due to customs or holidays particular to the tribe.
“We’ve worked in communities where, if there’s a funeral, we don’t work that day,” Flintco’s Woods says. “We’ve worked in areas where it’s ceremonial time and it’s not a time for work to happen.”
Tribal contacts are often groups, not individuals, and decisions are made by consensus. The process can involve several members with other demands on their time, multiple committees, the tribal council and in many cases tribal elders. Designers and contractors are often excluded from discussions, something that can be misunderstood by those used to the open public meeting process.
On the other hand, industry jargon and practices second nature to construction pros can be baffling to clients, Giff says.
“Sometimes that causes misunderstanding,” he says. “They have the same priorities, the same intentions, the same goals; it’s just a matter of better communication.”
Sitting down together early and often is a good way to avoid communication pitfalls and integrate all-important cultural ideals, says Richard Begay, an architect-in-training with Phoenix-based DLR group who has worked on several K-12 and other tribal projects in the region.
“What is that layer that makes a Native American project so special and unique?” asks Begay, a member of the Navajo Nation. “It goes back to values, cultural context, the relationship to land, the elements, cultural landmarks, rivers and mountains.”
The payoff for research and attention to cultural nuance goes beyond the typical. Project success is measured as much in tribal self-sufficiency, community pride and other far-reaching benefits as immediate ones, Giff said.
“These projects can present their own unique challenges, but there is an added sense of accomplishment when you are able to see how it improves the lives of the local community members,” Arviso/Okland’s Johnson says. “It is a great experience attending school ribbon-cutting ceremonies and being a part of not only the cultural ceremonies, but also seeing the look on the children’s faces as they see their beautiful new schools.”
Architect Stroh agrees. “I just really enjoy it,” he says. “It’s fun getting to do more architecture than red tape.”
Useful Sources:
Construction in Indian Country, part of the Del E. Webb School of Construction at Arizona State University, will hold its 7th annual conference in May. See our Calendar of Events for more info or visit construction.asu.edu/ciic.
