Leaders of Indian-owned-and-operated manufacturing firms will have the opportunity to meet and talk business with representatives of some of America's corporate giants in Chicago, October 15-16.
Host firms for the two-day session, designed to assist the Indian manufacturers develop new markets, will include the Quaker Oats Company, Zenith Corporation, Illinois Tool Company, the Brunswick Corporation and Standard Oil of Indiana. Representatives from the Santa Fe Railroad, Sears, Montgomery Wards and other companies will participate in the program.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs' Division of Indian Business Enterprise is coordinating the session.
In the past five years about 250 on-going manufacturing industries have been developed on Indian reservations. Most of these are branch operations of larger organizations, but about 50 are smaller, Indian-owned-and-operated companies.
Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson said that he appreciated the willingness of the larger corporations to work with the Indian communities. "Unemployment," he said, "is still a major problem on reservations and the development of productive jobs, not make-work, is the only long range solution to this situation. I am confident that, given the opportunity, Indian industries can work in competitive, mutually beneficial ways with other American enterprises."
