A US tribal nation may want to conduct its commercial activity through a federally-chartered corporation under Section 17 of the Indian Reorganization Act. This guide sets out key elements of Section 17 Corporations, and will walk you through the primary steps to properly form a Section 17 Corporation. The elements of a Section 17 Corporation have been broken down into three steps.

1. Gear Up - Understand what a Section 17 Corporation is and why you may want to develop one.

2. Guide - : A step-by-step manual for developing a Section 17 Corporation, authored by two leading experts: Karen J. Atkinson, President, Tribal Strategies, and Kathleen M. Nilles, a tribal business and tax consultant, formerly a partner of Holland & Knight.

3. Real World Examples - Deepen your understanding of a Section 17 Corporation by learning from real world examples from across Indian Country.

This excerpt has been extracted -- with the gracious cooperation of the authors -- from the Tribal Business Structure Handbook (2008) by Karen J. Atkinson and Kathleen M. Nilles. The Handbook was produced in 2008 under a Tribal Self-Governance Project of the Tulalip Tribes, and was sponsored and originally published by The US Department of the Interior, Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs

Karen J. Atkinson is the President of Tribal Strategies a consulting firm that works with clients to develop strategies and solutions to further economic development in tribal communities. Karen was Deputy Director of the Office of Minority Business and Economic Development at the Department of Energy where she developed engagement strategies to increase knowledge and access to entrepreneurial opportunities at the DOE and in the energy sector and also developed energy workforce partnerships. Karen was also the Director of the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development at the Department of Interior where she managed technical and financial assistance programs for tribes. Throughout her career Ms. Atkinson has been a strong advocate for tribal economic development and small business issues. Karen is graduate of Stanford University and the University of New Mexico Law School.

Kathleen M. Nilles is a widely recognized tribal business and tax adviser. Prior to her retirement in March 2018, Kathleen was a partner with Holland & Knight LLP and a member of the law firm’s Native American Law Group. Kathleen has over thirty years of experience advising tribal governments on tax and corporate issues. In her practice as a tax attorney, she assisted tribes in structuring numerous types of business entities and secured IRS rulings and determinations to confirm their tax treatment. Kathleen also provided legal advice on joint ventures, tax-exempt financing, energy tax incentives, and employment tax issues. She served as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Intertribal Tax Alliance from 2008 to 2018. Kathleen gratefully acknowledges the assistance, advice and contributions of her former Holland & Knight colleagues, particularly Ken Parsons, Telly Meier, Jerry Levine, Brian Guth and Sam Kastner, to the compilation of legal authorities underlying the Tribal Business Structure Handbook.

This toolbox is not meant to constitute legal advice or to substitute for the advice of a qualified attorney. But it will help you to form questions to ask your attorney if you are developing your business structure.