Expanded Survey of Native Nations pilot advances understanding of tribal public finances

Public finance data are important to any government. For policymakers, understanding how their governments’ revenues and expenditures compare to those of other governments helps identify areas of financial opportunity. For researchers whose work informs government performance and program design, public finance data are essential for providing insights into where there are economic opportunities, how governments weather economic uncertainty, who pays which taxes, and a host of other questions.

Data on government treasuries also matter to the community members who benefit from public services. The extent to which governments can efficiently and effectively fund public goods and contribute to local economies affects everyone.

Through tools such as the U.S. Census Bureau’s Census of Governments and Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, benchmark revenue and expenditure data have long been available to state and local governments to inform their decision-making. As part of the Center for Indian Country Development’s (CICD’s) work to address economic data gaps in Indian Country, we heard from tribal leaders across the country that they, too, need quality information that sheds light on the distinctive opportunities and challenges of public finance in their communities.

In response to this need, CICD is facilitating a first-of-its-kind data collaboration with tribal governments to provide comprehensive public finance data in a way that upholds tribal data sovereignty. The Survey of Native Nations invites tribes to report revenue and expenditure data in a secure survey portal. Participating tribes receive a confidential report presenting their information in comparison to benchmark data for a broader group of tribal governments, whose responses are anonymized and in aggregate. Participant reports also present a tribe’s information in relation to benchmark data for state and local governments in their region. In addition to providing tribal governments with information for their decision-making, the survey enables CICD to provide research-based insights on the economic contributions of tribal governments and complexities associated with public finance in Indian Country.

“Tribal leaders—myself included—need better data about our people and our lands in order to make informed decisions about how to allocate limited resources, serve our communities, and develop our economies,” said Chairman Gerald Gray (Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians) of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians. “The Survey of Native Nations gives tribes useful public finance data not only about state and local governments, but for the first time on tribal governments in aggregate.”

Following an initial pilot with tribal governments in Montana in the summer of 2023, CICD worked with the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI) and the United South and Eastern Tribes (USET) to expand the survey to their member tribes in 2024. This article shares research insights in aggregate from tribes participating in this second phase of the survey pilot. As of fall 2025, the survey is now available to all tribes across the country.

Survey designed to honor tribal data sovereignty

The Survey of Native Nations was designed to honor tribal nations’ inherent rights to the collection, ownership, and application of their data. Under CICD’s Principles for Research and Data Use, CICD is the steward—or caretaker—of the data that tribes have chosen to share with us. Tribes remain the owners of their data.

“Survey of Native Nations leadership has clearly communicated that CICD is a steward of the data—underscoring that they do not own the data. The data belong to the tribes,” said Amber Schulz-Oliver (Yakama/Wasco), ATNI executive director.

The survey instrument enables participating tribes to choose the specific revenue and expenditure data they want to provide. Data entered into the survey are then safeguarded in secure Federal Reserve System data storage. Tribal governments designate who they want to have access to the survey, and the survey portal requires those designated individuals to authenticate their identity before they log in. CICD also offers to work with individual participating tribes to detail data access and use procedures, including how the collected data will be returned to the tribal government and applied in CICD research.

Participating tribes help advance understanding of tribal public finance

From September 2024 through April 2025, 11 tribes from the Pacific Northwest to the East Coast participated in the second phase of the Survey of Native Nations pilot. These participating tribes provided information on their revenues and expenditures for their fiscal years ending between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, hereafter referred to as survey year 2022.

Participating tribes varied in size, geography, and local economic conditions and attributes. Median enrollment among participating tribes was approximately 2,500 tribal citizens, and median land size was approximately 50 square miles.¹ Based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey from 2018 through 2022, American Indian and Alaska Native households located in participating tribes’ geographies had a median household income of about $44,000 and a median unemployment rate of about 12 percent. In comparison, the United States as a whole had a median household income of $75,149 and an unemployment rate of 5.3 percent during the same period.²

While richly varied, the group of tribes participating in this second phase of the pilot is not necessarily a representative sample of all tribal governments across the United States. During this phase, CICD worked with ATNI and USET to offer the survey to their member tribes in addition to briefing a small number of tribes in the Midwest on the survey opportunity. In total, the 11 participating tribes came from nine states, primarily in the Pacific Northwest and on the East Coast.

In some ways, survey year 2022 may have been unusual. The COVID-19 pandemic had a substantial impact on tribal economies and continued to affect tribal treasuries during that period. As shown in Figure 1, participating tribes reported that, on average, 26.5 percent of their revenue that year came from non-recurring sources such as pandemic-relief funding or one-time grants.

To see how tribal treasuries differ from those of other governments, we compared data from the Survey of Native Nations in aggregate with similar data on state and local governments³ from the Census of Governments. Comparison data from the Census of Governments reflected state and local governments’ fiscal years ending from July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022.

Taken together, results from the tribes participating in the second phase of the pilot illustrate the distinctiveness of tribal treasuries relative to state and local governments. Key themes, summarized below, reinforce early findings from our initial pilot with five tribal governments in Montana. As a growing number of tribes across the United States participate in the Survey of Native Nations, CICD will increasingly be able to offer research-based insights that advance understanding of public finance in Indian Country.

Tribal government revenue mix reflects federal trust responsibility

Results from the Survey of Native Nations shed light on variations in revenue sources among tribal, state, and local governments. Differences observed across these governments likely reflect the federal government’s trust responsibility to tribes, which consists of long-standing legal obligations established in treaties, laws, and executive orders; differences in the application of taxation authority; and the unique relationship and authority that state governments have with local governments within their boundaries.

“Tribal governments fund many of the same types of services as state and local governments, but we’ve had to be creative and proactive in generating revenue through commercial operations to meet the needs of the community,” said Chairman Michael Dolson (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes) of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. “Tribal treasuries aren’t always well understood outside of Indian Country, and the survey can increase understanding of the ways we are unique.”

Figure 2 shows how the breakdown of revenue sources for tribes participating in the Survey of Native Nations compares to that of state and local governments.

Federal government transfers are a key revenue source for tribal and state governments

One difference the survey results illuminate is the way in which funding flows between governments. Intergovernmental transfers include grants and programmatic funds distributed from one governmental entity to another, such as federal support transferred to a tribe for housing or transportation, or state support to a tribe for broadband infrastructure. Transfers of funds from other governments account for a sizable portion of revenues for tribal, state, and local governments alike, but the extent to which these governments receive intergovernmental transfers and the sources of those transfers varies by government type.

On average, Survey of Native Nations participants reported that transfers of funds from other governments accounted for 71.3 percent of their revenue. In comparison, intergovernmental transfers accounted for an average of 38.6 percent of total revenue for all state governments and 26.2 percent of revenue for all local governments across the country.

Looking at the sources of those transfers, tribes participating in the Survey of Native Nations leaned heavily on transfers from the federal government. As shown in Figure 3, federal government transfers accounted for 97.3 percent of all intergovernmental transfer revenue for participating tribes on average, as may be expected given the federal government’s trust responsibility to tribes. At the same time, on average, direct federal government transfers also accounted for nearly all intergovernmental transfer revenue (98.3 percent) reported by state governments across the country. Local governments relied more heavily on transfers from state governments, which might also include federal dollars distributed by state governments.

“Federal investments rooted in the trust responsibility enable tribes to provide critical services like health, education, and law enforcement in economically challenged environments, and we can see that in the survey results,” Chairman Dolson said.

Taken together, the proportion of overall revenue that tribal and state governments receive from intergovernmental transfers, and the predominance of federal sources among that transfer revenue, indicates that federal government transfers are a key revenue source for tribal and state governments alike.

Taxation revenue accounts for a higher share of total revenue for state and local governments

Taxation is a primary tool for funding government operations and essential public goods, but tribal, state, and local governments differ in their application of taxation authority. In tribal areas, the risk of dual taxation—a scenario that occurs when more than one government has the authority to levy taxes on the same transaction—can stifle economic activity, which may discourage tribes from levying taxes. Restrictions on taxing certain kinds of businesses and sales transactions within a reservation can also limit tribal governments’ tax authority. And tribes may also lack the administrative capacity or desire to implement some taxes.

In our analysis of Survey of Native Nations data, taxes represented a smaller share of revenue for tribal governments than for state and local governments. On average, tax revenue represented 1.7 percent of total revenue for participating tribes. In comparison, tax revenue accounted for 44.8 percent of revenue for all local governments across the country and 42.2 percent of revenue for all state governments. Figure 4 shows tax revenue as a share of total revenue for tribal governments participating in the Survey of Native Nations compared to all state and local governments.

Among participating tribes, the sources of taxation varied. A majority reported tax revenue from sales and gross receipts, including general sales taxes and selective sales taxes on goods such as motor fuels, tobacco, and alcoholic beverages. Only one tribe reported levying property taxes. None of the participating tribes reported revenue from income or severance taxes in survey year 2022.

In Indian Country, intergovernmental tax agreements—also referred to as tax compacts—can establish clear tax processes in areas where tribal and state tax authority overlap. For example, a compact might designate one jurisdiction to collect tax on certain transactions and then split the revenue on a predetermined basis. Among the tribes reporting in the Survey of Native Nations that they had tax revenue, a majority indicated that they had tax compacts in place.

Enterprise revenue plays an important role for tribal governments

While state, local, and tribal governments can use enterprises as vehicles for economic development and revenue generation, our analysis of Survey of Native Nations data as well as past research from CICD suggests that enterprise revenue plays a unique role for tribal governments.

Tribal enterprises have a distinctive mission to give back to their communities. For tribes and their communities, tribal enterprises can foster economic development, provide employment and career opportunities, and help fund community services. In cases where taxation is constrained, tribal enterprises may also provide an alternative source of flexible revenue. Other research from CICD has found that business ownership is nearly universal among tribal governments in the lower 48 states, and tribal business holdings span all major sectors.

On average, Survey of Native Nations participants reported that 15.8 percent of their survey year 2022 revenue was from transfers from tribal enterprises. While we were not able to make a direct comparison to state and local governments’ enterprise revenue due to differences among survey instruments, the Survey of Native Nations results point to the importance of this revenue source to tribal treasuries.

“Tribal governments don’t necessarily have access to the same finance tools as local and state governments do,” Chairman Gray said. “For that reason, it’s been important for tribes to explore access to new markets and opportunities to develop tribally owned businesses whose profits reinforce tribal governance.”

Like other governments, tribal governments provide an array of public goods

Like other forms of government, tribal governments fund public expenditures such as education, health care, roads, and bridges. Tribal governments also fund tribally specific activities such as language preservation, cultural programs, and elder assistance.

Figure 5 depicts tribes’ array of short- and long-term investments in their communities as reported in the Survey of Native Nations. All participating tribes reported expenditures on housing and community development. Nearly all (90 percent for each category) reported expenditures on central and financial administration, education, and health and hospitals. Tribes also reported expenditure categories that are distinctive from those of other governments, such as cultural programming and preservation (89 percent). Future articles from CICD will dive more deeply into tribal expenditures reported on the Survey of Native Nations and how they compare to expenditures reported by state and local governments.

Tribal governments contribute to local and regional economies

Public goods and services provided by tribal governments benefit tribal citizens as well as other individuals living within and outside of tribes’ home geographies. The Survey of Native Nations asks tribes whether they provide services for the benefit of people other than enrolled tribal citizens. Examples might include emergency services such as police and fire protection, physical infrastructure such as water systems and roads, and fish and wildlife management. More than a third of participating tribes reported providing services benefiting non-tribal citizens. Among those tribes, the most commonly estimated range of expenditures going toward services benefiting individuals other than tribal citizens was 10–19 percent. One tribe estimated that 30–39 percent of its expenditures benefited non-tribal citizens.

Tribal governments also contribute to local and regional economies in other ways, including through their enterprises. CICD research has documented the regional economic impacts of tribal gaming and federal contracting—two of the largest and fastest-growing revenue sources in Indian Country in recent decades.

Survey of Native Nations now open to all tribes

By participating in the Survey of Native Nations, tribes are advancing understanding of public finances in Indian Country. Future articles will dive deeper into research insights from the survey pilot, including exploring results in specific areas such as expenditures and taxation in greater depth. As more tribal governments across the country participate in the survey, CICD will be able to offer additional research insights based on a broader set of tribes.

Participating tribal governments can also use their individualized Survey of Native Nations reports to benchmark their revenues and expenditures against those of peer governments and to communicate data-based insights to community members and decision-makers.

The Survey of Native Nations is now open to all tribes across the country that are interested in participating.

Appendix: About the data

Unless otherwise specified, aggregate data for Survey of Native Nations participants reflect the average (mean) for all tribes participating in the second phase of the survey pilot, conducted from September 2024 through April 2025.

Because tribal governments participating in the Survey of Native Nations had discretion to choose which survey questions they did and did not respond to, the number of tribal governments included in the tribal average varies by survey question.

If a tribe reported an amount of $0 or more for a given category, they were included in the calculation of the average. In cases where a tribe did not report a value, that tribe was excluded from the calculation.

Endnotes

1 Participating tribes’ geographies are based on information available from the U.S. Census Bureau’s TIGER/Line shapefiles. For more information, see the About the Data definitions for CICD’s Native Community Data Profiles tool.

2 Here, we report approximated enrollment and other summary characteristics to avoid the risk of providing demographic data identifiable to any participating tribe. Unemployment and median income estimates are based on taking the unweighted averages of the values for every included geography.

3 For purposes of Survey of Native Nations benchmark comparisons, local government data reflect counties and municipalities—a subset of the types of local governments included in the Census of Governments.