NATIVEBUSINESSMAG.COM | NOVEMBER 2018
TRIBAL & SELF-DETERMINATION IN THE HAMPTONS MARTIN SENSMEIER TALKS THE BUSINESS OF MOVIES
MHA Chairman Mark Fox’s Vision for Economic Sovereignty
GARY & CARMEN DAVIS ON ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT: CAHOKIA TO TODAY NATIVE WOMEN LEAD: A GROWING FORCE INSIDE STRONGBOW STRATEGIES THE KEYS TO A YOUNG ATHABASCAN WOMAN'S SUCCESS SAP TO SYRUP: A PEQUOT TRADITION AND BUSINESS
TOCABE GEARS UP FOR EXPANSION
CAHOKIA TO TODAY
PHOTOS BY WHITNEY PATTERSON PHOTOGRAPHY
GARY & CARMEN DAVIS REFLECT ON INDIGENOUS ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT AND THE VALUE OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY
Aerial perspective of Cahokia at its peak by William R. Iseminger
I
ndigenous people need only look back in time to realize their capacity for success. Cahokia, an ancient indigenous epicenter of commerce and trade, thrived between 7001300 CE, just 8 miles east of modern-day St. Louis, Missouri, in southern Illinois. Larger than the city of London, the agricultural community teemed with self-determined, contributing members of society. At its peak, the population of Cahokia is estimated between 20,000 to 50,000 people. Residents built hundreds of mounds across Cahokia, but the most substantial, 30 meters tall and 316 by 240 meters at its base, is the largest earthwork in the Western Hemisphere and still stands today. Known as Monks Mound, it covers more than 14 acres at its base. By comparison, the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt covers 13 acres. Today referred to as the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, the city was protected by a wooden wall that doubled as a sun calendar to determine solstices, equinoxes and other important dates. Beyond Cahokia, the Aztecs flourished south of the border in Tenochtitlán, current-day Mexico City,
between A.D. 1325 and 1521. The Aztec economy prospered through agriculture, tribute and trade. Goods were exchanged via a system of canals and causeways, supplying an estimated 400,000 people who lived there. The Incan city of Machu Picchu, built atop the Andes mountains in Peru, likewise reflects indigenous innovation and ambition. “Our Native ancestors demonstrated entrepreneurship, sustainability and self-sufficiency,” said Gary Davis, publisher of Native Business Magazine. “They stand as an example of how we can empower ourselves and be sovereign in our own lives.” Carmen Davis, executive editor and publisher of Native Business Magazine, underlined why the media business chose to focus on entrepreneurship for its debut print issue. Entrepreneurship is one of the most traditional activities that Native people can engage in, she said. “We wanted to kick off our first issue with a topic that is vital to our communities—entrepreneurship,” Carmen said. “Traditionally, we’ve always traded and had thriving communities, and we weren’t dependent on anybody but ourselves.”
By Native Business Staff N OVE MB E R 2 0 1 8
N AT I V E B U SI N E SS M AG.CO M
9
MARTIN SE
“
Somewhere along the line [Angelina Jolie] decided to believe in me and in the project and help give it wings,” Sensmeier said.
PHOTO BY: DAVE STARBUCK/GEISLER-FOTOPRESS/PICTURE-ALLIANCE/DPA/AP IMAGES
BEHIND
THE
SCENES
WITH
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
ENSMEIER EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF THE JIM THORPE BIOPIC
F
or several years, Hollywood production teams have been working on putting together a biopic about Jim Thorpe, the legendary athlete, Olympic gold medalist, and member of the Sac and Fox Nation. While it’s still in its early stages, the film has already amassed a roster of top names who have signed on to be involved with the project, including Angelina Jolie, Todd Black, and Steve Tisch as producers. One innovative aspect of this film in particular is the tribal involvement in its financing. Currently, several tribes have joined together to support it, including the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians, the Mohegan Tribe, the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, the Tonto Apache Tribe, and the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria. According to Abraham Taylor, another of the film’s producers, “To tell an authentic Jim Thorpe story, we have to maintain control of the project. The only way to do this is with the help of Indian Country.” A preliminary synopsis of the film on www.brightpathmovie.com describes the story as “a young Native American struggles to hold onto his identity in the face of a nation that attempts to strip him of his culture. Spurred on by the last words his father ever spoke to him, ‘Son, you’re an Indian. I want you to show other races what an Indian can do,’ Jim Thorpe tran-
By Andrew Ricci
scends every obstacle to become a beacon of hope for his people and ‘The World’s Greatest Athlete.’” While the full cast has yet to be announced, Martin Sensmeier, who is also executive producing the project, will star as Thorpe. Sensmeier, an Alaska Native of Tlingit and Koyukon-Athabascan descent, is perhaps best known most recently for his roles in The Magnificent Seven and a recurring part on HBO’s Westworld. Native Business Magazine™ recently spoke with Sensmeier about the status of the project, his role as a producer, what it means to play Jim Thorpe, what it means to be a Native entrepreneur, and a variety of other topics. NBM: What is the status of the project and can you tell us how it’s coming along? MS: Right now, it’s not even in pre-production yet. It’s been announced. They still need to lock down a director and a few other things. But it is mostly financed. A lot of that financing is happening through the Tribes and also UTA Independent. Obviously, they have a production team and my production team is working on it as well. I’m executive producer so I’ve been instrumental in getting a lot of these people to the table to sit down and have a conversation about getting this film pushed forward. The script had been brought to me
two years ago by a member of one of the tribes who is funding it and one of the producers named Abraham Taylor. He’s been going around and raising money for the film, and he approached me, and I signed on. I was able to make a connection with Angelina Jolie and Todd Black, who produced The Magnificent Seven, so I’ve worked with Todd before. He also produces all of Antoine Fuqua’s films and all of Denzel Washington’s films. Todd brings along Escape Artists, and his producing partners are Steve Tisch, owner of the New York Giants, as well as Jason Blumenthal I think. They’re a powerhouse production team and they produce a lot of A-list movies that are in theatres every month. Obviously, Angelina is a very accomplished filmmaker. She did Unbroken, which got nominated for three Oscars, and that’s a film about an Olympian named Louie Zamperini, who was a prisoner of war. That was based on a true story and it got nominated for three Oscars, so she knows how to make these types of movies. Angelina actually has some Native ancestry through the Iroquois and Huron Tribes, I believe. She’s always wanted to do a movie about something that’s related to Native people. She saw this as an opportunity to do that, so I’m just super grateful and incredibly thankful that she’s chosen to be a part of it. It’s what’s
N OVE MB E R 2 0 1 8
N AT I V E B U SI N E SS M AG.CO M
15
3 QUESTIONS WITH
Lakota Butcher & Entrepreneur
LEE MEISEL By Native Business Staff
Three years ago, Lee Meisel opened Leeway Franks, a beloved sausage shop and restaurant in Lawrence, Kansas. Meisel and his “tight-knit crew” of employees make the all-natural, locally sourced frankfurters, bratwursts and sausages in-house—a skill Meisel garnered as a teen, working at a butcher shop in rural North Dakota. Now the Lakota businessman is gearing up to debut Leeway Butcher, one door down from his current storefront. In October 2018, for the second year in a row, Leeway Franks won a Minority Business Award from the Kansas Department of Commerce, which has helped Mesiel secure funding for his expansion project. Meisel shared his indirect path to entrepreneurship with Native Business Magazine, and the knowledge he’s gained along the way. What inspired you to launch a restaurant business? My first year in college was a stereotypical disaster, unfortunately. After that, I was constantly trying to make a living through the food business, getting jobs in restaurants. My path to Haskell Indian Nations University was one of trial and error. I moved to Kansas to attend Haskell, which made more sense to me; the teaching process is much more holistic. 20
NATIVEBUSINESSMAG.CO M
NOV E M B E R 2 0 1 8
“AS AN ENTREPRENEUR, YOU REALIZE, IT DOESN’T STOP. YOU’RE ALWAYS THINKING ABOUT HOW THINGS CAN BE OPTIMIZED OR IMPROVED.”
At Haskell, I realized that more work you put in, the more you get back. You get that two-fold in return. I decided to change the direction I was going in academia. After working tough kitchen and butchering jobs, I realized that I love this line of work— but that I didn’t want to do this work forever and not have something to show for it. I could create better recipes. I could use better meat than these guys. I could build my own business. I was really inspired by business courses at Haskell, including two semesters of accounting coursework. I graduated with a business degree in 2008—a rough time for the economy. So, I got a job in food service at Kansas University, feeding hundreds of student athletes three meals a day and leading retail operations. From there, I transitioned to run a restaurant in Kansas City, and then moved on to work as a butcher for a restaurant. The owners and I worked on a plan for two years to open a butcher shop together. Right when we were at the cusp of making a move, ready to sign the lease, the ownership group split up. I felt very defeated when that happened. I’d had a few setbacks already, throughout the course of my career, despite how hard I had tried. I realized I had to take on the responsibility and do it myself. I found this tiny little place in a strip mall, wrote a business plan and had a meeting at City Hall to go over my building plans. I got a Small Business Administration loan. I didn’t have all the funds that I needed at that point. A small business facilitator for the city happened to be at that City Hall meeting, and she said, ‘You’re a minority, you qualify for The Kansas Capital Multiplier Fund. Through that connection, I was able to secure funding to open Leeway Franks. If I didn’t have that, it never would have happened. I felt super grateful that there was a program like that.
PHOTO COURTESY LEE MEISEL
You recently hit the three-year mark at Leeway Franks, and you’re about to open Leeway Butcher one door away. What do you know now about opening a business that you didn’t know before? We’re located in a small college town. When you open the doors, when something’s new, everyone comes flooding through. There are people you’ll see that first week or two that you’re never going to see again. People who don’t like it, people who leave nasty Yelp reviews. I had to keep reminding myself: This isn’t the first time I’ve faced adversity. I had to remember that the vision that I had for this place is achievable. We can make it work. Leeway Franks is a small operation. With
Leeway Butcher, I’ll be able to double production almost overnight, and the capacity to store meat and different products will open opportunity for us. I’m already trying to find ways to sell deli sandwiches and meat bundles, you name it. As an entrepreneur, you realize, it doesn’t stop. You’re always thinking about how things can be optimized or improved. I take responsible steps. I’m a sole proprietor. My whole life is tied up in the restaurant, and my intellectual property in the brand. When you think of it in those terms, decision-making becomes more real. You know you can’t take big gambles. I think having some restriction on funds, it makes you more responsible. I have the most incredible staff; they do everything better than me. I give them credit for the success. It would be impossible to do without them. I’m so grateful for them. We’re tight; we’re like a small family. I have three full-time employees, and I’m currently looking to hire a couple part-timers to open the butcher shop, and hopefully move them to full-time. When I open up the butcher shop, I’d like to take on an apprentice, if someone’s interested in that line of work. I’ve always wanted to teach, and butchering is a skill, a kind of dying skill. There’s been a resurgence in the higher-end foodie cities and boutique butcher shops. They’ve become trendy. I’m hoping to recreate the kind of butcher shop where I grew up working in as a teenager, and make it a little more community, neighborhood, family-oriented. How does your Lakota cultural heritage influence your trade and business? There’s a parallel between indigenous values and resourcefulness—not wasting anything, and making sure that you are doing the best job that you can. Because a life has been taken, and you need to honor that. By honoring that, you honor your family, you honor your tribe. Having a connection to something like that is really important. I grew up pretty poor. Not being wasteful, it applies to more than not throwing away food. It applies to treating things with respect, and keeping things clean. It’s part of our philosophy to be responsible for our actions. I do business with people who care about how they raise their animals and humane treatment. A big part of Leeway Franks is strengthening relationships for people— helping them to understand where their food comes from, having that connection to the Earth, and to those who harvest their food.
N OVE MB E R 2 0 1 8
N AT I V E B U SI N E SS M AG.CO M
21
FEATURE
A VISION
SOVERE M
ark Fox, Chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (MHA) Nation, has a dream for his Tribe’s future. “I will wake up one day, I hope, many years from now – or at least my son will – and we will look around and we are generating our own power, we’re raising and consuming our own food, we’re exporting our own goods, and we’re creating products that will be sold out so dollars come back in,” Fox told Native Business Magazine™. “We going to do all these things and we’ll look around and say ‘We don’t depend on the federal government for anything, and in fact, we export goods, and we’re a major part of the economy of the United States.’ That’s the goal.” Getting to the point where that is visible on the horizon wasn’t easy, though, and it has taken hard work, vision, and strategic planning to lay the foundation for a future marked by prosperity. Historically, the MHA Nation arose from an alliance between the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara peoples who were looked at as three separate sovereign nations. In the latter part of the 19th century, Fox says that the federal government began to view the three Tribes collectively as the Three Affiliated Tribes – something that persisted until approximately 20 years ago, when the MHA Nation
22
NATIVEBUSINESSMAG.CO M
NOV E M B E R 2 0 1 8
opted to reemphasize their prior identity as three Tribal nations coming together to form one nation. “It was important to show that we are a governmental system that has uniqueness, that has three different historical identities, but yet has come together to utilize our services together to maximize and protect what we have remaining as a result of failed U.S. policy,” Fox said. “We are very proud, but we also have three distinct languages and three distinct histories, but yet we remain unified. That’s why we continue to think it’s very important that people understand and know that we’re three Tribal nations coming together to form one nation.” The MHA Nation has always been an entrepreneurial Tribe. Thousands of years ago, Fox says, the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara were part of an aboriginal trade system and operated one of only two major and significant aboriginal trade centers in North America prior to European interaction. “We had a very important role in the indigenous economy that’s often described by anthropologists and historians,” Fox said. “They found, when they would dig up our sites, trading products from the East coast, West coast, Tribes from the Southwest, and even some things that had to originate out of Mexico and Canada all coming together.”
PHOTO VIA GOODFREEPHOTOS.COM
FOR ECONOMIC
EIGNTY By Andrew Ricci
“We're going to do all these things and we’ll look around and say ‘We don’t depend on the federal government for anything, and in fact, we export goods, and we’re a major part of the economy of the United States.’ That’s the goal.”
How to turn two gas pumps
and a rack of cigarettes into a multi-business enterprise By Theresa Braine
28
NATIVEBUSINESSMAG.CO M
NOV E M B E R 2 0 1 8
I
t started with a welfare check and a dream. In the late 1980s Willie Parry was pumping gas when he had a revela-
tion. “I was on welfare,” said Parry, founder of Wolf’s Run, a restaurant, smoke shop, gas station and grocery on the Seneca reservation in western New York State. “I worked for this one business down the road and I figured out while working there that I could do it myself and make a living.” He convinced a company by the name of Shorts Oil to front him a load of gas, scraped together enough money to buy two 5,000-gallon tanks and a dispenser tank, and started pumping. “I used to have to take my records to welfare every month to show them that I wasn’t making any money,” Parry, now 57, told Native Business. “All the profits I
PHOTOS COURTESY SALLY SNOW
when willie met sally
PHOTO COURTESY JOEY MONTOYA
dumped back into the business.” Seven months later, he was making enough to get off welfare, and “I haven’t had to be on it since,” he said. That was in 1988, when Parry was 27. Three years later, Sally Snow entered his life—and the business. Since then, it has grown to a 50-seat restaurant, a grocery store, a fuel station, store selling Native crafts, and a trucking operation. They put on events and an annual customer appreciation day, awarding prizes as lavish as trips to Hawaii and featuring motorcycle stunt shows. The couple has also expanded to other locations, and is building a new, replacement restaurant on the current property. A Day in the Life A typical day will see workers from the Seneca Nation administrative offices next
door, which employs 400 people; frequenters of the nearby community center, where people work out, swim, play lacrosse and skate; and elders from the old-age facility down the street. People buying gas pop in for home-cooked sandwiches, pizza or the daily special. Native dishes such as traditional corn soup—made with corn grown by Willy himself, as part of a Seneca Nation program—and fry bread are also on the menu. The restaurant is open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., though it can go as late as 11 on summer weekends. One of the 25 employees will open up, then Parry heads over at around 7. Breakfast is relatively slow, especially now that there’s a Tim Horton’s coffee shop, a McDonald’s and a Burger King each 10 minutes away. “Lunch hours are our best time of the day,” said Snow, adding that customers
have become friends. “We go and we’ll sit and have lunch or breakfast or supper with a customer when they come in,” she said. “We’ve got our own little crew that comes in and eats every day. We used to get a lot of the elders in; they would ride their wheelchairs to the restaurant.” As the business evolved, each phase revealed what the next one could be. “We patched the thing together,” said Snow, 58. “When I first got with him in 1991, he just had a little rack of cigarettes and two gas pumps.” Both were divorced. Parry was raising two children, and Snow, a heavy-equipment operator, had three. They glued the families together, a la the Brady Bunch, and moved in together. She continued to work at her construction job at first, but eventually the constantly dirty fingernails and
N OVE MB E R 2 0 1 8
N AT I V E B U SI N E SS M AG.CO M
29
INNOVATION
. J T R E B O R
: R E L L I M
Th g n i k a T o t D Ou E E R G Greed may be good for Gordon Gekko, but it is not an Indian value. So, for Robert J. Miller, the dilemma becomes how to extract and leverage the strengths of capitalism without selling our souls.
M
iller, a citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe is perhaps best known as Professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, where he also serves as the Faculty Director for the Rosette LLP American Indian Economic Development Program. He is concurrently a member of the Navajo Nation Council of Economic Advisors, the Interim Chief Justice for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe Court of Appeals, as well as a Justice for the Grand Ronde Tribe Court of Appeals and Northwest Inter-Tribal Court System. Miller’s curriculum vitae is as deep as it is wide, too, starting unabashedly with his 19 years working for his father’s used car business through clerkships at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Dis-
34
NATIVEBUSINESSMAG.CO M
NOV E M B E R 2 0 1 8
“NATIVES LIVED FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS AND WERE FAIRLY WEALTHY.”
trict of Oregon and the U.S. Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit. This launched him into a three-year stint at Stoel Rives Boley Jones and Grey followed by five years at Hobbs, Straus, Dean and Walker, then into academia in 1999, first at Lewis and Clark Law School where he taught concurrently at Portland State University Institute for Tribal Government and Tribal Leaders Forum, finally landing at Arizona State University in 2013. That makes him one busy man—but not too busy for an interview with Native Business Magazine on his 2012 book Reservation “Capitalism”: Economic Development in Indian Country (Reservation Capitalism), and his recently published article, “Sovereign Resilience: Reviving Private Sector Economic Insti-
tutions in Indian Country,” (“Sovereign Resilience”). Miller describes his thesis in both as, essentially, what he has been advocating for years: that Indians need to find their way home economically by returning to their economic cultural roots – which were largely capitalistic – to dig their way out of the endemic poverty they are entrenched across Indian Country. Where to being? First, two questions. One: what is capitalism? BusinessDictionary.com to the rescue. Capitalism is an “[e]conomic system based (to a varying degree) on private ownership of the factors of production (capital, land, and labor) employed in generation of profits. To make things even more complicated, there are different kinds of cap-
m e s i l Th a t i p a C f o r Ditme e a n By Re
PHOTO COURTESY ROBERT MILLER N OVE MB E R 2 0 1 8
N AT I V E B U SI N E SS M AG.CO M
35
White Plume partners with Evo Hemp on CBD tinctures and capsules
HEMP
WARRIOR
For Industrial Hemp Grower Alex White Plume, Sovereign Resolve Is Finally Paying Off 40
NATIVEBUSINESSMAG.CO M
NOV E M B E R 2 0 1 8
“A
ll living things deserve respect,” says Alex White Plume, Oglala Lakota, who performs a ritual before each hemp harvest. “We tell the plant, ‘Thank you. We’re going to use you.’” After 1998, when White Plume planted his first acres of hemp, thoughts kept him up at night: “Are we doing the harvest ceremonies right? Are we singing the right songs?” White Plume told Native Business Magazine. His concern about cultivating hemp while honoring Lakota tradition turned into a living nightmare between 2000-2002, when dozens of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents raided his hemp fields on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Descending with “weed wackers,” they chopped the towering plants to the base of their stalks, and ripped others up from the roots. “It gave us PTSD; it shocked us,” White Plume said. “They call it ‘eradicating.’ To us, it was theft of our property.” Little did the agents know, the violent assault shook loose new seeds. “The DEA successfully replanted our field for us. We called it a DEA/FBI hemp field, and used it as a tourist attraction for a while. People had a good laugh about it,” White Plume said. DEA agents didn’t arrest White Plume or his family. Despite misperceptions, hemp is not classified as a drug. While its mirrors the marijuana plant in appearance, hemp does not contain high levels of the psychoactive chemical THC. Industrial hemp lends itself to three categories of products: fiber, seed and cannabidoil (CBD). Hemp offers vital nutrients in food or supplement form. While White Plume wasn’t thrown in jail, his battle to grow and process hemp was hardly over. In 2004, the U.S. Department of Justice obtained a permanent injuction against White Plume, banning him from planting hemp. A federal judge lifted the one-of-a-kind ban in 2016. In spite of numerous legal setbacks and discrimination, White Plume remained steadfast in his mission—to raise industrial hemp to generate vital income for his family and tribal members on the most impoverished reser-
PHOTO COURTESY EVO HEMP
By Native Business Staff
“Ten acres will produce well over a million dollars’ worth of industrial hemp,” said Ari Sherman, president of Evo Hemp.
PHOTO COURTESY JOEY MONTOYA
vation in the United States. “I live in the poorest community and the poorest county in America today. I was desperate to bring some type of economic development in, where we could use the land without destroying the land,” White Plume told Native Business Magazine. For the White Plume family, that time has finally arrived. The White Plume family has partnered with Evo Hemp to produce full-spectrum CBD extracts. The Boulder, Colorado-based Evo Hemp is known for its line of Hemp Bars sold in more than 3,000 retailers, including Whole Foods Markets and Kroger. Today, anyone can purchase organic HempX Extract and HempX Capsules, made from White Plume’s organic, cannabinoid-rich hemp flower. His products are sold on EvoHemp.com, Walmart. com, and on the shelves of dozens of retailers across the country. “We’re hoping that it will be Wal-Mart brick and mortar stores soon,” Evo Hemp President Ari Sherman told Native Business Magazine. “We decided to partner on 10 acres [of hemp] with Alex White Plume, because with CBD [as opposed to fiber or seed], you need a lot less acres. Ten acres will produce well over a million dollars’ worth of industrial hemp,” Sherman said. Evo Hemp brings a wealth of advantages to the table including a sales network of more than 100 people deployed across the country. The company’s products can be purchased in more than 3,000 retail stores including Kroger, Costco, Whole Foods Markets, and a number of small natural food chains. “We’re really hitting the mainstream consumer with our hemp products,” Sherman said. Evo Hemp anticipates that the White Plume hemp line of ex-
tracts will account for 25 percent of Evo Hemp’s revenue in 2018. The parties are in the process of moving toward an equal partnership. “For this first round [of CBD products], we paid the White Plume family a significantly higher price—over the market price—and put a premium on the [hemp] flower to ensure that they had a solid income from their work,” Sherman said. “We’re moving to a profit-sharing model, where it’s about a 50-50 partnership.” For White Plume, seeing his name on CBD bottles and finally earning income off his labor is fulfilling. But his greatest joy comes from driving economic opportunity for his family and future generations of White Plumes. “Whatever I make, I’m going to reinvest for my daughter and grandchildren to continue this effort to support our family,” said White Plume, who has appointed his daughter Rosebud White Plume as CEO. “We’re matriarchal in our clan,” White Plume said. His grandson, who at age 3 watched with tears in his eyes as DEA agents removed their hemp plants, now serves as manager of the land. Alex White Plume is also proud that his farming operation is providing jobs on a reservation plagued with a 90 percent unemployment rate. This fall, he hired 16 people for harvest. “I’m having an impact on my community. Unemployment has been here so long; people here don’t know how to work. Physically, they work for three hours, and they’re tired,” White Plume laughs. “I tell them: You’ve got to exercise, so you can work.” White Plume also aspires to expand beyond the CBD supplement market to produce hemp byproducts with Evo Hemp. “I want to do everything they [Evo Hemp] do—make hemp candies, hemp
N OVE MB E R 2 0 1 8
N AT I V E B U SI N E SS M AG.CO M
41
THE FUTURE IS
NATIVE WOMEN LEAD is a tour de force, uniting, supporting and elevating the voices of Native women entrepreneurs By Native Business Staff
44
NATIVEBUSINESSMAG.CO M
NOV E M B E R 2 0 1 8
W
hat began as a grassroots movement is growing the personal and collective power of female entrepreneurs across Indian Country. A cohort of eight women banded together to create the inaugural Native Women’s Business Summit in April 2018, a two-day event that initially lacked traction, and in mere days leading up to the summit, sold-out and additionally attracted high-profile attendees including Deb Haaland, who stands to become the first Native American Congresswoman, if she’s elected this month.
“On the night of the reception, people were still trying to buy tickets, and we were completely at capacity. Over 200 people showed up,” Stephine Poston (Pueblo of Sandia), co-founder of Native Women Lead and the Native Women’s Business Summit, and founder of the full-service communications firm Poston & Associates, LLC, told Native Business Magazine. Women even snuck in to the venue, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to claim their space at the table and participate in the conversation. It quickly became clear that Native
PHOTO COURTESY JONATHAN SIMS
INDIGENOU
US WOMEN Last year, Native Americans and Alaska Natives owned 1.4 percent of all women-owned businesses (an estimated 161,500 businesses), employing 61,300 workers and generating $11 billion in revenues. Since 1997, womenowned businesses grew by 114 percent, while Native women-owned businesses grew by 201 percent. —2018 NATIVE WOMEN LEAD REPORT
PHOTO COURTESY HENRY JAKE FOREMAN
Women Lead was more than an organization, and that the Native Women’s Business Summit was more than a convening of 200-plus Native businesswomen. The movement has ignited the fires within the hearts of women across Indian Country and harnessed the power of a united force. It has built the framework for a vibrant economic ecosystem of Native women who partner, collaborate, co-create and uplift one another. Native Women Lead has awakened the spirit of community and sovereignty of Native women— who today are the primary breadwinners
of Native households. “Native American women are opening businesses twice as fast as our Native men; we’re two-thirds of the breadwinners; and we only make 57 cents to the dollar of a white, non-Hispanic male,” Vanessa Roanhorse (Diné), co-founder of Native Women Lead and founder and CEO of Roanhorse Consulting, LLC, told Native Business Magazine. “Knowing those statistics, how are Native women going to get ahead? Business development is a great way for Native women to have self-autonomy and self-determination of how they take care
of their family.” The idea for the Native Women’s Business Summit took seed and root organically in a fitting hub— Albuquerque, which boasts one of the largest urban Native American populations, and in New Mexico, home to 23 federally recognized tribes. In Albuquerque, the Native Entrepreneur in Residence (NEIR) Program, offered by New Mexico Community Capital (NMCC), serves as a business incubator and accelerator. Through the program, relationships among Native women entrepreneurs flourished, becoming a breeding
N OVE MB E R 2 0 1 8
N AT I V E B U SI N E SS M AG.CO M
45
MEMOR IA M
The Man, Not The Legend
By Renae Ditmer
Fisherman’s Prayer I pray that I may live to fish Until my dying day. And when it comes to my last cast, I then most humbly pray: When in the Lord's great landing net And peacefully asleep That in His mercy I be judged Big enough to keep. -Unknown
PHOTOS BY WHITNEY PATTERSON PHOTOGRAPHY
I N
LARRY KINLEY
B
ig enough to keep will not be Larry Kinley’s problem. Capturing his stunning “fish story” in Indian Country in a few brief words might be, though. Kinley, who succumbed at the much too young age of 71 to lung cancer this past February, left behind a palpable void in Indian Country that now must be filled by those he mentored so well. But what a task when the words used to describe him are these: Soldier. Chairman. Vice Chairman. General Manager. Senior Tribal Advisor. Member. Advocate. Negotiator. Relationship manager. Fisherman. Risk taker. Visionary. Coach. Instrumental. Dedicated. Humble. Passionate. Integral. Key. Golfer. Friend. Father. Soulmate.
PHOTO COURTESY ELLIE KINLEY
For most people a couple of words would suffice to describe their lifetime achievements. But not here, not for this man. And a list of Kinley’s accomplishments here simply won’t do him justice, because ultimately, it was Larry the philosopher fisherman that people who talked to Native Business Magazine remember best. Now the fish story. A soldier-scholar, Kinley graduated from Chaminade University in 1970, the same year he mustered out of the Army and started back into commercial fishing. Within four years, he ascended to the Lummi Council Chairmanship, serving in that position for 12 total years in the 1970s and 1980s, while concurrently serving on the Lummi Indian Business Council from 1974-2001—much of that as its Chairman, and while continuing to fish. Many consider Kinley instrumental in ensuring Native fishing rights in the 1974 Boldt Decision. Yet family and close friends point to his enticing leadership style and bold entrepreneurial spirit as his enduring legacies. Kinley was fundamental in the development and expansion of the Lummi fishing fleet into the largest tribal fishing fleet in the world. He saw fishing as a way to generate working capital for other Lummi commercial efforts that he captained. A born leader endowed with competitive spirit and the self-discipline required to take it to the bank, Kinley, who was always a fisherman first, looked beyond fishing as the Lummi grew from 1,000 in the 1970s to 7,000 today. But every upside has a downside, too, as his brother Steve Kinley put it, “The unintended consequences of Lummi success were both good and bad—good in the sense that fishing for herring was very lucrative at the time and provided significant capital to reinvest in vertical industries for fishing—public infrastructure, bigger boats, better harbors, cold storage and transportation; bad in that the sheer number of people drawn back to the reservation due to its success then competed for that capital to cover basic needs—housing, education, health and social services.” It wasn’t always pretty, politically speaking, Steve Kinley recalled. But Larry Kinley’s unique approach to governance, management and problem solving in general proved effective in setting the Lummi and other tribes he worked with on a true course over his nearly 50-year career. As luck would have it, just as the fishing rights were getting sorted out, “people problems” as Steve Kinley calls them, had an unexpected negative impact on the tribe’s fishing income. “Warming water from El Niño degraded the habitat the fish ate and spawned in, and Japanese fisherman intercepted fish on their way to spawn,” Steve recounted, seriously cutting into the number of fish available in traditional Lummi fishing areas. The politics the problems spawned weren’t pretty either, often pitting tribal members’ needs against the capital required for the economic development they needed to sustain their lives. Larry, however, was fearless, and applied his trademark problem solving style to encourage the Lummi to generate their own solutions that they then put into play. They ended up establishing Fisherman’s Cove, a convenience store serving the Lummi fishing community, along with several other mini-marts, a bingo hall and a black jack parlor that, over a number of years, ultimately morphed into the Silver Reef Casino and Spa, and a processing plant. The take from the casino is now three times the take from fishing—to put a point on how shrewd this move was. But the Lummi never stopped fishing, and neither did Larry. Fishing was their identity, as Larry astutely recognized. It was also the key to getting buy-in from tribal members as they tacked toward more lucrative economic development projects.
“Larry always injected Lummi philosophy into his reasoning. Larry would tell people to look into their culture when looking for an answer. His philosophy was that our Lummi philosophy always gives us the answer.”
N OVE MB E R 2 0 1 8
N AT I V E B U SI N E SS M AG.CO M
49
54
NATIVEBUSINESSMAG.CO M
GROUNDS FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING & TRANSITION
K
By Native Business Staff
awi Café gives new meaning to a caffeine “pick me up.” Kawi, which means “coffee” in Cherokee, is more than a neighborhood café in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. It’s a place for aspiring entrepreneurs to receive hands-on experience in management and the restaurant industry, while crafting business plans of their own. The Cherokee Nation conceived of the concept when tribal casinos identified a need to foster more food service professionals for Cherokee businesses. At Kawi Café, employees create menus, manage staff and purchase orders, handle cash and transactions, and interact with customers on a daily basis. Participants additionally receive financial education and guidance on creating business and marketing plans. “Some graduates have successfully opened up their own businesses. Others realized that they didn’t want to open a business, and we view that as a success as well,” Stephen Highers, who oversees the business incubator program at Kawi Café, told Native Business Magazine. Two years ago, the Kawi Café entrepreneurship program—which does not have an official name—shifted its focus, electing to expand opportunity for Cherokee Nation citizens who were recently released from incarceration or rehabilitation. Coordinating with the Cherokee Nation Reintegration (Re-Entry) Program and the tribe’s Small Business Assistance Center, Kawi Café acts as a catalyst for ambition and self-sovereignty. The program continues to promote entrepreneurship—“but now we’re working with people who are reintegrating into society after prison,” Highers said. Kawi Café makes the transition back into the workforce smoother through structure and support. “They need that six months of steady employment and job training, and someone to help them incorporate back into the ‘real’ world,” Highers said. To qualify for the Kawi Café entrepreneurship program, individuals must participate in the reintegration program, also known as the Coming Home Program, and be at least three months out of prison. “They’re still self-identified as entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurship lends itself well to the
NOV E M B E R 2 0 1 8
PHOTOS COURTESY CHEROKEE NATION COMMUNICATIONS
KAWI CAFÉ:
INNOVATION
Caption: Kawi Café brews organic, fair-trade coffee beans grown and harvested by indigenous peoples and craft-roasted by Tribal Grounds, a business founded and operated by Eastern Band of Cherokee citizen Natalie Smith on the Qualla Boundary in North Carolina.
formerly incarcerated and felons, because there is not a lot of opportunities for them in the corporate world,” Highers explained. “A company may have a policy not to hire felons, or perhaps the individual doesn’t possess a necessary skillset. Entrepreneurship is a good way for them to make a living.” Former Kawi Café employee Dusty Rollice, who now manages a restaurant on the outskirts of Tahlequah called The Wheelhouse, credits the program for her professional growth and stability. “It definitely gave me the opportunity to re-integrate into the community and get around people. It taught me customer service, responsibility and public relations. I learned inventory, open and close paperwork, ordering, logging of day to day funds,” Dusty said. “My managerial background at Kawi lead to my manager’s position now at The Wheelhouse.” Beyond preparing Rollice for the next phase of her professional career, Kawi supported Rollice through earning her GED, and the program planted seeds of intention for a future business she hopes to launch—a sober living house in Tahlequah. “At Kawi Café, they not only provide the opportunity to work while getting a GED, they help you create a business plan. It helped me to think about the future, what I might want to do later on, and how I would go about doing that,” Rollice said. Within the past two years of the program, Kawi has graduated 32 or more participants. “They’ve gone through the program, and then we’ve been able to place them in a career,” Highers said. Current Kawi Café employee Mallory Creel was promoted from assistant manager to manager when Rollice moved on to manage The Wheelhouse. Creel appreciates how Kawi grooms employees for the job search process after graduation, helping
N OVE MB E R 2 0 1 8
N AT I V E B U SI N E SS M AG.CO M
55
“
PROFILE
We’re designed and have always been a place to serve food and community.
A Decade After Launching Tocabe, Osage Entrepreneur
Ben Jacobs Is Just Getting Started ack when Tocabe, An American Indian Eatery was a one-shop operation in Denver, Colorado, Ben Jacobs would begin his mornings sipping coffee, donning an apron and prepping the Tocabe kitchen for service. “Now, 10 years in, we have the two brickand-mortar locations, plus a food truck. I am a man of many hats,” said the Osage co-founder of Tocabe, which means “blue” in Osage. These days, Jacobs, 35, often starts his days meeting with Tocabe area or store managers, food suppliers, or event partners—and he’s generally the one operating the food truck.
62
NATIVEBUSINESSMAG.CO M
NOV E M B E R 2 0 1 8
Meanwhile, he’s knee-deep in plans to expand Tocabe beyond Colorado’s borders, bringing exquisite ingredients sourced from Native vendors and the unique flavors of regional American Indian cuisine to urban Natives and the masses across the nation. He’s got his eye on a few new locations in unnamed states—Tocabe insider information. Jacobs is holding his cards close until it’s time to unveil the brand’s next moves, one by one. But he did shed light on his grand vision for strategic expansion during an interview with Native Business Magazine. “We’re hoping to have two new loca-
Tocabe co-owners Matt Chandra (left) and Ben Jacobs, Osage
PHOTO BY RACHEL GREIMAN, GREEN CHAIR STORIES
B
By Native Business Staff
N OVE MB E R 2 0 1 8
N AT I V E B U SI N E SS M AG.CO M
63