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Responsible Stewardship of American Indian Assets by Susan White From the Summer 2010 issue of ValuesThis column highlights selected groups and organizations working to promote social and economic justice, environmental leadership, or corporate accountability. Walden often supports the work of featured groups and partners in research and advocacy initiatives.
Sekoli (SA GO LEE means greetings) friends, I am honored to let you know about an important document recently launched, Creating a Sustainable World: A Guide to Responsible Stewardship of American Indian Assets. Available at www.socialinvest.org/projects/documents/IPWG_Resource_Guide_2010FINAL.pdf, this guidebook was written with the goal of encouraging more tribal participation in socially responsible investing (SRI). The guidebook reflects the collaborative work of numerous individuals, SRI firms and foundations, and the Indigenous Peoples Working Group of the Social Investment Forum. The Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin contributed to the funding of this project.
Tribal entities may use the tools within the book, with or without their own financial resources. The guide describes how one can become active, even with few financial or technical resources, in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission process to affect positive corporate behavior. It is accomplished through collaboration with the valuable network. When we completed work on the guidebook, we saw instantly how it speaks to all fiduciaries, not just Native Americans. It has a much greater purpose by speaking to leaders in all capacities.
The guidebook notes the connections between Native and SRI communities; reviews the SRI approaches for American Indian investors; explains integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in portfolio screening and benchmarking; and describes community investing, before outlining the roles of investment fiduciaries, with an acknowledgement of the complexity for fiduciaries of the assets of American Indian tribes.
Anecdotally, the guidebook summarizes several shareholder advocacy campaigns, including the successful efforts to encourage ConocoPhillips to adopt a global policy on indigenous peoples’ rights and encouraging Liz Claiborne to drop its offensive use of the Crazy Horse name. The section on community investing highlights the 54 Native Community Development Financial Institutions (Native CDFIs) certified by the U.S. Department of Treasury. These credit unions, banks, and loan funds support entrepreneurs, homeowners, and tribal businesses.
As the guidebook’s introduction by Sherry Salway Black notes:
The SRI work Oneida has done could not have been done without the SRI friends it has made over the years. I see us as a team, helping each other by working for the highest good of all concerned. I ask you to examine this brief guidebook and let us know how the information may help you be the best fiduciary or leader you need to be.
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