Small Business

Thumbnail

Honoring Nations: Tom Hampson: Native Asset Building

ONABEN Executive Director Tom Hampson discusses the resilient entrepreneurial spirit that exists in Indian Country, and how it can be a key to transformative change in Native communities. 

Thumbnail

Honoring Nations: Tom Hampson: Native Asset Building (Q&A)

ONABEN Executive Director Tom Hampson fields audience questions about ONABEN's work and strategies for cultivating entrepreneurship in Indian Country.

Thumbnail

Honoring Nations: Kristi Coker-Bias and Allen Pemberton: The Citizen Potawatomi Community Development Corporation and the Red Lake Walleye Recovery Program (Q&A)

Honoring Nations symposium presenters Kristi Coker-Bias and Allen Pemberton field questions from the audience about the Citizen Potawatomi Community Development Corporation and the Red Lake Walleye Recovery Program.

Thumbnail

Native Nation Building TV: "Bonus Segment on Native Nation Building"

Joan Timeche, Stephen Cornell and Ian Record with the Native Nations Institute at The University of Arizona discuss the "Native Nation Building" television and radio series and the research findings at heart of the series in a televised interview in January 2007. This video resource is featured on…

Thumbnail

Native Nation Building TV: "Promoting Tribal Citizen Entrepreneurs"

Guests Joan Timeche and Elsie Meeks examine the pivotal role that citizen entrepreneurs can play in a Native nation's overarching effort to achieve sustainable community and economic development. It looks at the many different ways that Native nation governments actively and passively hinder…

Thumbnail

NNI Forum: Asset Building for Indian Country

The Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy (NNI) at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona convened a panel of leading experts to discuss the fundamental obstacles standing in the way of asset building in Native communities, and the innovative strategies that Native…

Thumbnail

Honoring Nations: Kristi Coker-Bias: The Citizen Potawatomi Community Development Corporation

Former Executive Director Kristi Coker-Bias provides on overview of the Citizen Potowatomi Community Development Corporation and discusses how it is working to cultivate private sector development in her community, which she says is essential to Native nations' efforts to develop sustainable…

Image
Indian Country Today Article

One Native's Enterprising Plan to Keep Tribal Resources Within the Community

There are nearly a quarter-million Native-owned businesses in the U.S. today, said Brian Cladoosby, president of the National Congress of American Indians, in his 2014 State of Indian Nations address. And if Thomas Carlson has his way, all those businesses would be listed on a new website he…

Image
Navajo Hotel Owners Open a Retreat in Monument Valley

Navajo Hotel Owners Open a Retreat in Monument Valley

It’s all about the mystical view. That is, the view of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, on the northern outskirts of the Navajo Nation. For the past several years, visitors have had an opportunity to wake up to the soothing rays of the sun overlooking towering chestnut-colored rock formations at…

Image
Social Enterprise Café Builds Life Skills of Reservation Youth

Social Enterprise Café Builds Life Skills of Reservation Youth

To the residents of the Cheyenne River Reservation, the newly-opened Keya Café & Coffee Shop in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, is a great place to pick up a cup of coffee and a pastry in the morning. But behind the scenes, this small business is working on a much broader scope by addressing such…

Image
Citizen Potawatomi Nation reverses decline through strong leaders, entrepreneurship

Citizen Potawatomi Nation reverses decline through strong leaders, entrepreneurship

The big idea: In recent years, some tribes have reaped huge profits from their gambling operations. Most American Indians, however, are still mired in poverty, unemployment, addictions, ill health and hopelessness. Is there a way to create a better future in Indian Country? The Citizen Potawatomi…

Image
New economic hope on Pine Ridge Reservation

New economic hope on Pine Ridge Reservation

When I read the Lakota Country Times I am heartened by the economic progress that oftentimes is hidden in the more alarming media reports of rampant alcoholism and the resulting horrors that the disease brings to the communities there on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. There is hope to be had in…

Image
Spirit of Enterprise: Apache Warrior Stokes his Entrepreneurial Fires With a Firefighting Business

Spirit of Enterprise: Apache Warrior Stokes his Entrepreneurial Fires With a Firefighting Business

At 18, Clyde Campbell worked on the engine crew for the U.S. Forest Service and later, the Hot Shot crew in Payson, Ariz., fighting fires. Though the work was dangerous, difficult and demanding at times, Campbell said he loved every minute of it. “It was fun building trails and working out in the…

Image
Rosebud Sioux Tribe boosts local economy

Rosebud Sioux Tribe boosts local economy

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe, located in the second poorest country in South Dakota, is making moves to create a way to not only save money for the tribal membership, but also create jobs. "We live in an economically depressed area, so we have to find every small way we can to help people locally," said…

Image
Hoka! Coffee gets off the ground in Pine Ridge

Hoka! Coffee gets off the ground in Pine Ridge

Some people are lucky enough to find a job that stimulates their passions, Sharice Davids just happens to be one of those people. Sharice’s recently created a coffee company on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Taking inspiration from the Lakota language she decided to name her company Hoka!…

Image
Hatching Economic Development: A New Business Incubator for Crow Creek

Hatching Economic Development: A New Business Incubator for Crow Creek

“I want to develop my breakfast-burrito business into a restaurant,” said Lisa Lengkeek, a member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe and 2013 winner of the South Dakota Indian Business Alliance contest for best business plan of the year. “I make the burritos at home and sell them at a stand. I have a…

Image
Harbor Springs restaurant becomes first to embrace Odawa tribal language

Harbor Springs restaurant becomes first to embrace Odawa tribal language

Aanii Biindigen. Miigwech baamaapii. Hello, come in. Thank you, until later. Those traditional greetings in Anishinaabemowin, the language of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, were lettered on the front door Tuesday at Out to Lunch, a breakfast and lunch restaurant on State Street in…

Image
Tribal Solutions: Small Native-Owned Business Expands, Seeks Indian Country Partners

Tribal Solutions: Small Native-Owned Business Expands, Seeks Indian Country Partners

Francella Giatrakis knew from the very beginning of her work life not only that she wanted to own her own business one day, but also that she wanted it to enable her to help Indian communities develop sustainable economies. Recently, her dream came true. Last year Giatrakis, a citizen of the Pueblo…

Image
Credit union opens new doors at Pine Ridge

Credit union opens new doors at Pine Ridge

In only nine weeks since it opened, the Lakota Federal Credit Union has attracted 317 members, and $1.2 million in deposits. “We have already approved $100,000 in loans, and that has been by word of mouth. It’s been huge,” Tawney Brunsch, executive director for the Lakota Funds, announced. Brunsch…

Image
Henry Red Cloud Leads the Renewable-Energy Charge at Pine Ridge

Henry Red Cloud Leads the Renewable-Energy Charge at Pine Ridge

There is a revolution under way to bring renewable resources to Native American people. Led by modern-day warrior Henry Red Cloud, a direct fifth generation descendent of Red Cloud, the famous Lakota war chief, and Trees, Water & People (TWP), inroads are being made one home and one business at…