American Indian Nations and Indians are pursuing business opportunities of every kind, including online E-commerce. One enormous advantage of online businesses is that they help solve some of the physical realities that mostly-remote and mostly-rural Indian Country still faces today. E-Commerce opportunities have created thriving economies on a few reservations, but they have also led to a complicated web of legal issues where state, tribal, and federal laws, policies, and interests can collide. Current tribal efforts to successfully operate ongoing endeavors, and to launch new ones, raise complicated economic and legal issues. The goal of this conference is to explore the issues surrounding the development of Tribal Digital Sovereignty and E-Commerce in Indian Country including: jurisdictional complexities and the necessity of fostering open dialogue with federal and state counterparts, the changing political landscape, the possible implications to tribal sovereignty, and the ongoing need for tribes to finance and build infrastructures that facilitate economic growth on their reservations while complying with appropriate federal guidelines. Attorneys, scholars, financiers, i-gaming experts and tribal leaders will share strategies and practical implementations of diverse business models of current and for future e-commerce and infrastructure enterprises to bridge the digital divide.
WilmerHale Partner Michael Connor will participate in the panel discussion "The Shifting Political Landscape in Indian Country."