Support from International Experts

The First Nation Property Ownership Initiative (FNPOI) is well supported by experts. Since 1990, the World Bank has approved 103 projects in developing countries where the primary goal was classified as the improvement of personal property rights. This is the same goal as FNPOI. It is no coincidence that two of the most recognized property right experts in the world have pledged their personal support to FNPOI.

Terry Anderson is the co-author of`The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier and the Executive Director of the Political Economy Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. He is widely recognized as the leading expert on Native American property rights. Mr. Anderson wrote the following in the Wall Street Journal: “The effect of insecure property rights is evident on a drive through any western reservation.  When you see 160 acres overgrazed and a house unfit for occupancy, you can be sure the title to the land is held by the federal government bureaucracy.  In contrast, when you see irrigated land in cultivation with farm implements, a barn, and well-kept house, you can be sure the land is held in fee simple, whether by an Indian or non-Indian.”  Mr. Anderson pledged his support to FNPOI in February 2009.

Hernando de Soto is the author of The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else and the President of The Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) in Lima, Peru. The ILD was named the second most influential think tank in the world by the Economist magazine and Bill Clinton called Hernando de Soto the world’s greatest living economist. On June 1, 2009, Mr. de Soto compared dead capital in developing countries to the situation on First Nations reserves in Canada. “You don’t have to travel to Zambia or Peru to see dead capital. Go see your own Indian reserves. That’s dead capital.  You’ve got people there who own a whole bunch of things, but they can’t convert these assets to capital. These assets are frozen into an Indian Act of the 1870s.”  In July 2009, the ILD signed an memorandum of understanding with the FNTC to support the development of FNPOI.

Munk Debate- Foreign Aid: http://www.munkdebates.com/debates/foreign_aid/
The Mystery of Capital Video: http://www.ild.org.pe/indigenous-peoples-amazon/video