到2009年，经济危机的影响从美国蔓延到全球。然而，随着美国各地的公司纷纷倒闭，切诺基印第安人东部地带（EBCI）夸拉边界上的小企业继续蓬勃发展。在这项丰富的人种学研究中，考特尼·刘易斯揭示了这些小企业在土著民族中扮演的关键角色。EBCI在其土地上拥有注册成立的公民所有企业的历史尤其悠久。当许多人想到本土拥有的企业时，他们会选择著名的赌场博彩业务或自然资源密集型企业。但在如今的夸拉边界，本土创业和经济独立延伸到了艺术画廊、餐厅、书店、殡仪馆等。
刘易斯的实地调查是在经济大衰退期间，以及EBCI拥有的赌场迅速扩张的背景下进行的。刘易斯敏锐的观察揭示了东方乐队的小企业主是如何为经济主权做出贡献的，这种主权在文化和政治上赋予并维持了他们的国家。
阅读更多
Sovereign Entrepreneurs: Cherokee Small-Business Owners and the Making of Economic Sovereignty
By 2009, reverberations of economic crisis spread from the United States around the globe. As corporations across the United States folded, however, small businesses on the Qualla Boundary of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) continued to thrive. In this rich ethnographic study, Courtney Lewis reveals the critical roles small businesses such as these play for Indigenous nations. The EBCI has an especially long history of incorporated, citizen-owned businesses located on their lands. When many people think of Indigenous-owned businesses, they stop with prominent casino gaming operations or natural-resource intensive enterprises. But on the Qualla Boundary today, Indigenous entrepreneurship and economic independence extends to art galleries, restaurants, a bookstore, a funeral parlor, and more.
Lewis’s fieldwork followed these businesses through the Great Recession and against the backdrop of a rapidly expanding EBCI-owned casino. Lewis’s keen observations reveal how Eastern Band small business owners have contributed to an economic sovereignty that empowers and sustains their nation both culturally and politically.
Read more
OR
