Rolette County Champion Community
Board Profiles | Strategic Plan

The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians (the Tribe) has long suffered from severe poverty and accompanying social distress, as measured by all indices of income, unemployment, housing conditions, family composition, and education. These factors are aggravated by a pervasive lack of legal, financial and organizational infrastructures: the Tribe has not had the capacity or the regulatory environment with which to plan, implement and support sustainable economic development. In recent months, the local economy has been weakened further by the closure and reduction of jobs at several major employers.

The Turtle Mountain Renewal Community -- During the past three years, intensive strategic planning efforts by the Tribe and its principal partner, the Turtle Mountain Community College (the College), have succeeded in winning "Champion Community" and "Renewal Community" designations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), respectively. The Tribe and College seek to strengthen the capacity of tribal members and institutions to benefit from these emerging opportunities - in particular, the tax incentives attached to the Tribe's Renewal Community designation.

In late October, 2001, the Tribe and College organized the Turtle Mountain Renewal Community Committee (the Committee) to serve as a "Coordinating Responsible Authority" to guide and manage the process of planning and developing the Renewal Community's action agenda - including the Tax Incentives Utilization Plan. In December, 2002, the Tribe's newly elected Chairman and Tribal Council formally approved and authorized the Turtle Mountain Renewal Community's Coordinating Responsible Authority (CoRA). The Tribal Council also authorized an Advisory Committee to work closely with the CoRA, to ensure the broadest possible stakeholder participation in the Renewal Community's work.

The CoRA and associated Advisory Committee are representative of all sectors of the Turtle Mountain Tribal community, including:

• the Tribe's Offices of Planning and Economic Development, Housing, Natural Resources, Job Development, Community Health, Community Development Foundation, Tribal Courts, the Tribal Council, and the Tribal Chairman;
• the College's Center for New Growth, Data Coordination Office, Job Opportunities Program, Vocational Rehabilitation Program, Entrepreneurship Center, and President;
• the Belcourt School District #7;
• the Indian Health Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs, including the BIA schools; and
• local businesses including the Turtle Mountain Manufacturing Corporation, Uniband, the Dacotah Bank (Rolla), and several major on-reservation retail and service entrepreneurs.

This Tax Incentives Utilization Plan describes the commitments and strategies of the Turtle Mountain community with respect to general improvement of the local business and economic development climate, and optimal utilization of the newly available Renewal Community Tax Incentives.

The designated Turtle Mountain Renewal Community is contiguous with the boundaries of the Turtle Mountain Tribe's reservation - and is the only Renewal Community wholly on Tribal land and under Tribal jurisdiction. Consequently, there are some aspects of this Renewal Community and its TIUP that are altogether unique among the nation's forty Renewal Communities.