Indigenous Housing Advocates Describe the Unique Challenges to Homeownership on Tribal Land

Indigenous efforts in Montana seek to expand homeownership

Article June 17, 2024 Read time:

Projects: Housing Policy

Where we call home matters. It shapes educational opportunities, career paths, and communities. Today, with rising costs and fewer starter houses on the market, it is harder than ever for many people to achieve the American Dream of buying a home.

Concerns about rising home costs are growing throughout the nation. In 2018, 39% of Americans said the availability of affordable housing in their community was a major problem—and today nearly half of the public believes that, according to Pew Research Center.

For Indigenous peoples, homeownership may seem even further out of reach. Federal policies that seized and failed to compensate Tribes for their land created barriers to housing that still exist today.

Dan LeDuc, host of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ “After the Fact” podcast, spoke with advocates in Montana who are dedicated to dismantling those roadblocks: Tonya Plummer, director of Native American housing programs at Enterprise Community Partners, and Jody Cahoon Perez, executive director of the Salish and Kootenai Housing Authority, serve as steering committee members of the Montana Native Homeownership Coalition. Patrick Yawakie is co-CEO and co-founder of Red Medicine LLC, which advocates for Tribal Nations on a variety of issues, including housing.

This interview from the podcast’s latest season, “Housing in America,” has been edited for length and clarity.

Tell us about life in Montana and on the Flathead Reservation.

Perez: Our reservation is unique because it doesn’t look like a reservation everywhere. There are tribally owned units and private homeownership units that look alike, because they’re all built with U.S. Housing and Urban Development dollars. And when you go into these communities, like the homesite where I was raised, you see kids playing basketball and dogs wandering around. There’s so much laughter here too. We joke, we tease, we fill each other up. We’re there for each other.

It’s often said that homeownership is a pillar of the American Dream. Does that idea hold true for Indigenous communities?

Yawakie: In Tribal culture, there was never an idea of land ownership. But as Western culture has dictated our lives, we’ve had to learn about that concept. Our biggest interaction with the land is a sense of stewardship—ensuring that you’re working with the land and not against it. So when we see something like a blacktop pavement not being utilized, we know there’s a better use for that land, like multifamily housing. It’s something that we are advocating and pushing for.

Plummer: Our Tribal value system is not the same as that of the dominant society. To us, it’s less about owning the land and more that we are part of the land. We feel like our blood is in that dirt because of what it took to retain the land, and so to separate us from that idea is very painful. But we’re starting to foster the concept that homeownership can create generational stability for families and allow us to stay connected to the land.

There’s this narrative that reservations are poverty-stricken communities and that you’ve got to leave for your life to count. And that is so damaging for children—who want to be a doctor, a lawyer, or a teacher and give back to their community—to hear. The economic conversation is important, but it’s more about restoring our connectedness and ability to thrive within the lands that we are given and to pass that on to the next generation.

Federal policies in the past seized Tribal land, divided it, and didn’t fairly compensate Indigenous peoples. Do those barriers remain?

Plummer: The lands given to Tribal Nations are held in trust with the federal government through treaties. And those treaties come with promises for education, health care, and to hold those lands in trust, which is good, but it also complicates things. I think what many people don’t realize is that Tribal Nations are sovereign, so they have the autonomy to manage their resources within the boundaries of their nation. But the increase in funds to housing for the general public has been higher compared to funds for Indian housing in the last 10 to 20 years.

Tribal Nations recognized that housing was not covered in the treaty arrangements, so in 1996, they worked to get the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act passed. It gives Tribes an annual grant, based on a formula, as a way of saying, “We trust you to know what’s best for your nation.”

Still, when it comes to getting a mortgage, it’s harder on the reservation. But I want to emphasize that it’s very much possible. We have a problem with the lending ecosystem that serves trust land, because Native Americans often don’t have a traditional credit history. But this can be fixed.

Perez: And there are other problems, too. Let’s say you are in a good financial position and want to be a homeowner. You could buy land that is available on the open market in a fee simple status. This land is no longer owned by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, primarily because of allotment and homesteading in the 1900s.

However, the market skyrocketed during COVID-19 due to the surge of out-of-area buyers paying above the asking price. What was barely affordable then is not attainable now.

Another option would be to apply for a Tribal homesite lease on trust land. However, on our reservation, these are not readily available because they are already under lease. You could also try to buy individually allotted trust property from another Tribal member, but the inventory is extremely limited.

So what else can be done?

Yawakie: In Tribal communities, we can have multiple families living in one home, so you can have a family of four living in with a family of five. So one thing that can be done statewide is pushing for legislation that would allow multifamily housing.

More multifamily housing in Montana would benefit people who move off the reservation too. When we live off the reservation, we’re leaving a lot of family structures and resources that we have, and we’re stuck with having to find resources for our families that don’t necessarily fit.

Plummer: We’re blessed to have some federal legislators who are connected to Indian country and listen to us, but there needs to be a broader understanding to shift the narrative away from “troubled reservations.”

I would also hate for the takeaway to be that Tribal Nations just need more funding from the government. Yes, public funding is important, but there’s a role for philanthropy here too. Native land has been devalued. We’re coming to the negotiating table with a deficit, so there’s a role for philanthropy to support us.

What are some success stories that inspire you to continue advocating for accessible and affordable housing?

Perez: I feel like we’re in an era of lightning-speed progress. We’ve been able to take COVID-19 funds and use those to address housing challenges that we could not before.

And we’re getting more support. For example, the National Low Income Housing Coalition has expanded its membership to include Tribal members, and I’m able to learn from them. I also created the Flathead Housing Coalition so that the counties, cities, towns, and Tribal organizations could join resources.

We have overcome painful eras of federal Indian policy that were marked by a desire to terminate or to fully assimilate Indians. This is the 100th anniversary of the Indian Citizenship Act, granting Native Americans the right to vote, and the Native vote matters.