Mr. Blackwell is the executive manager of AMERIND’s legal, finance, IT, HR, communications, and broadband teams. He is also responsible for strategic innovation and diversification. AMERIND is a federally chartered Tribal risk management corporation that provides insurance coverage to over 400 Tribal Nations and entities. In 2016, AMERIND founded a groundbreaking Critical Infrastructure division that helps Tribes build and finance modern broadband networks. Mr. Blackwell is a recognized expert in tribal corporate development and communications infrastructure deployment. He has testified before Congress on seven occasions, both as a tribal representative and as a senior federal policymaker.
Mr. Blackwell is very active in Federal-Tribal policy advocacy and Indigenous Community development. He serves as Co-Chair of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Economic, Finance & Community Development Committee, and also NCAI’s Technology and Telecom Subcommittee. He is Vice-Chair of the American Indian Policy Institute of Arizona State University. He has formerly served on the Boards of Directors of the National Small Business Association, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, Native Public Media, and Acoma Pueblo Business Enterprises.
Mr. Blackwell is the former founding Chief of the Office of Native Affairs and Policy at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC-ONAP). In 2000, he was the first enrolled member of a federally recognized Tribe to work at the FCC. During two separate tours of duty at the FCC he worked on seminal FCC tribal programs and policies, including Universal Service Fund programs and carrier designations, spectrum licensing, tower siting, and radio and TV broadcast licensing, among other matters. When the FCC established ONAP, Mr. Blackwell also led efforts to engage with Native Hawai’ian entities and to involve Hawai’ian Home Lands in the FCC’s Tribal Lands subsidy and licensing rules.
In between his periods of federal service at the FCC, Mr. Blackwell was a Corporate Director at Chickasaw Nation Industries, Inc., helping guide over a dozen diverse companies. Prior to his federal service, he began his legal career in the Litigation Department of Hale and Dorr, LLP, in Boston. Raised in Oklahoma and New Mexico, Mr. Blackwell comes from a family of Tribal leaders and federal officials dedicated to service in Indian Country. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia School of Law. Mr. Blackwell is Muscogee (Creek), Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Omaha.
