"IBM is pumping something like $6 billion (or nearly 20 percent of its net worth) into its operations in India. This bold move is a big step that could, if the services business follows the trajectory of the PC business, first make India the primary source of IBM's services personnel and later allow an Indian company to acquire the whole division. But in its rush to capitalize on the Indians of South Asia, IBM and the many other computer companies facing east are overlooking the possibilities offered by some other Indians: Native Americans.

It's easy to understand how this could happen. American Indians are little. Asian Indians are big. The Census Bureau says that in the year 2000 there were about 2.5 million Native Americans and another 1.8 million who report partial Native American ancestry. That makes their population miniscule in comparison to that of India, which the CIA says is more than 1 billion. There might be more PhDs in India than there are Native Americans. But that's not the whole story.

Native Americans, or, more accurately, their tribes, uniquely provide a chance for computer industry firms to get into some superb tax dodges. This is because Indian tribes, or a least the ones that are legally registered, are, in the law, not clubs or associations or societies; they are subsidiary nations. The United States government can reach through the wrapper of nationality provided by the laws governing Native American tribes and make individual Indians pay tax, but when it comes to the tribe itself, its land, plus a number of other tribal assets, rights, and investments, the federal tax collectors' hands are tied."

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Hesh Wiener: Big Indians, Little Indians (The IT Jungle 7/24)