While the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has buoyed high-profile sectors such as transportation and energy, in Indian Country—the sovereign lands of 562 American Indian tribes across the United States—$3 billion in stimulus funding quietly has moved into development backlogged road improvements, hospitals, correctional facilities and schools. Many of the projects were planned but remained unfunded for years, in some cases for more than a decade.
The ARRA windfall gave cash-strapped tribes more capital than ever before but added constraints to an already idiosyncratic sector.