Blackfeet: Stocking the Aisles

Author
Year

...Although Glacier Family Foods adds 56 new employees to the Blackfeet Reservation’s year-round workforce, the people behind the store’s creation hope it will do much more than create immediate jobs. For the last 20 years, members of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council and the community bounced around the idea of opening a tribally owned grocery store to attract other businesses. It only came to fruition after the Siyeh Corporation, the business arm of the Blackfeet tribe, took on the project. In 2010, the Siyeh Corporation conducted a market analysis that confirmed the Browning community and the Blackfeet Reservation could support a second grocery store (Browning’s long-standing Teeple’s IGA is the first) as well as the competition it would bring to the market. Josh Embody was out of work for a year before he landed a job at Glacier Family Foods. Embody said he looks forward to being able to help pay bills at home. Competitively driven prices at the local grocery stores could entice more people to shop on the reservation, stemming the flow of traffic – and the flow of money – to outside towns like Cut Bank, Kalispell and Great Falls. For many people on the Blackfeet Reservation in northwestern Montana, Glacier Family Foods is a sign that things might be looking up...

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Downing, Emily. "BLACKFEET: Stocking the Aisles." Native News Project 2012. University of Montana School of Journalism. Missoula, Montana. 2012. (http://nativenews.jour.umt.edu/2012/stories/blackfeet/, accessed March 8, 2023)

Related Resources

Thumbnail or cover image
Blackfeet's Siyeh Corporation

For years the Blackfeet Nation struggled to create sustainable tribal enterprises that could produce revenue for the nation and meet the needs of its citizens for jobs and services. Many of these efforts did not succeed because of conflicts within the tribal government. In 1999, the Nation tried a…

Image
South Dakota maker of bison snack bar expects big growth with Whole Foods partnership

A South Dakota company created to provide a healthy snack for American Indians expects its sales to grow by a third this year after seeing its product picked up by national grocery chain Whole Foods Markets. The development also could lead to more hiring at Native American Natural Foods in Kyle,…