Ann Marie Bledsoe Downes, the vice president for community impact and engagement at Ho-Chunk Inc., addresses state lawmakers in Lincoln, Nebraska, on January 15, 2019. Photo by Kevin Abourezk
LINCOLN, Nebraska --
When Ann Marie Bledsoe Downes earned her bachelor’s degree in education in 1991, she became one of just eight college graduates among the Winnebago people.
Since then, more than 90 Winnebago tribal members have earned college degrees, and Bledsoe Downes now also has a law degree.
And like more and more Winnebago college graduates are doing each year, Bledsoe Downes recently returned home to put her education to work for her people, taking the position of vice president for community impact and engagement for her tribe’s economic development corporation.
On Tuesday, she talked about the role Ho-Chunk Inc. has played in improving conditions on the Winnebago Reservation in northeast Nebraska.
“The community I was born into was one where unemployment was very high,” she said, speaking to Nebraska state senators gathered for a luncheon near the State Capitol. “Poverty rates were very high. You couldn’t get anyone to come in and lend in these communities.”
“It was a very, very difficult time.”
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Decades of failed federal policies, including removal from their homelands and the forced allotment of their reservation, left the Winnebago people with few resources for rebuilding their community, Bledsoe Downes said. Because most of the tribe’s lands are in federal trust, the Winnebago people have struggled to raise funds for economic development because they are unable to leverage their lands like off-reservation communities are able to do.
As a result, the Winnebago people have had to become creative. A legal settlement in 1994 allowed the tribe to invest funds into an economic development corporation, Ho-Chunk Inc., which it has used to create new businesses, purchase existing businesses and win government contracts.
Started with just one employee, longtime CEO Lance Morgan, Ho-Chunk Inc. today boasts more than 1,000 employees across the globe and business interests in at least 20 states. Its subsidiaries include a homebuilding enterprise, construction company, used car dealership, and a real estate and investment company.
But unlike other corporations, Ho-Chunk Inc. doesn’t use its profits to make itself or investors wealthy, Bledsoe Downes said.
“Most corporations are set up to drive profit,” she said. “That’s not Ho-Chunk Inc. Our goal is to create self-sufficiency by getting jobs and opportunity to our local tribal members.”
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Ho-Chunk Inc. uses much of its profits to help fund economic development and build community institutions in Winnebago, including housing, home-buying programs, agricultural initiatives and renewable energy projects.
More than two years ago, the tribe made a commitment to build 100 homes in five years. Less than three years later, the tribe already has constructed 62 homes.
Those homes provide much-needed housing for a growing wave of young Winnebagos who have begun returning home after earning their college educations, Bledsoe Downes said. The return of tribal members has created a housing crisis in the community, she said.
“We can’t keep up with the growth,” she said. “It’s a great problem to have.”
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Ho-Chunk Inc. has spent significant funds and resources developing 40 acres of land on the northern border of Winnebago, land that has provided space for businesses, including a coffee shop, restaurant and retail store, as well as new homes and apartments for tribal members.
But with few empty lots left on that land, the tribe has begun looking toward undeveloped areas where it can expand in the future. An 80-acre area in the northeast corner of Winnebago should provide enough space for nearly 200 additional homes and businesses, Bledsoe Downes said.
The challenge will be reacquiring parcels from tribal members who own portions of the fractionated area, she said.
Speaking to state senators on Tuesday, Bledsoe Downes said the Winnebago Tribe is on a path toward economic self-sufficiency, and she urged the policymakers to avoid well-intentioned legislation that might further impede the tribe’s progress.
“Trying to help oftentimes makes thing muddier,” she said.
However, she said, the tribe and state of Nebraska might find ways to support each other through partnerships, Bledsoe Downes said.
“We may have common areas of interest where we can be advocates together and that’s a much healthier approach for all of us,” she said.
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