Fred Witsell, who owned a small portion of Premier Enterprises and served as vice president of operations says, the company was successful in procuring contracts with California-based utilities for some of their natural gas supply. Those were successful contracts that ran their full-term, and then Premier stepped out and let CERT handle contracts. They had gained level of sophistication in natural gas, they were educated and could run the business themselves. They didn't need our help anymore. CERT now has its own gas marketing program, which was formed in 1996.
Many Reservations have a wealth of natural gas and other energy resources such as coal.
Yet because Tribes haven't known how to market the resources, large oil and gas companies and utilities have been coming in and offering to pay the Tribes for them, and the Tribes accept. The Tribes don't learn anything by taking in paychecks, but they do acquire knowledge when they are taught how to market their resources on their own. There's a saying that if you give a hungry man a fish, that will feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime. Certainly, the man benefits from having the fish even for just one day, but he gets more out of knowing how to fish himself. The same philosophy applies to the Tribes.